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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14317 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14317-h.htm or 14317-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h/14317-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SORCERY CLUB
+
+by
+
+ELLIOTT O'DONNELL
+
+Author of _Byways of Ghostland_, _Werwolves_,
+_Dreams and Their Meanings_, _Some Haunted Houses of England
+and Wales_, _Scottish Ghost Tales_, _Haunted Houses of London_, etc., etc.
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+8 Paternoster Row, E.C.
+
+1912
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!" KELSON SHRIEKED]
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+    II THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+   III LEARNING TO SIN
+
+    IV THE TESTS
+
+     V THE INITIATION
+
+    VI THE FIRST POWER
+
+   VII SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+  VIII TWO DREAMS
+
+    IX LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+     X HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+    XI LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+   XII THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+  XIII THE MODERN SORCERY CO. LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+   XIV SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+    XV HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+   XVI HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+  XVII THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+ XVIII STAGE THREE
+
+   XIX A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+    XX THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+   XXI THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+  XXII THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+ XXIII LOVE
+
+  XXIV THE SUBPOENA
+
+   XXV CURTIS IN A NEW RÔLE
+
+  XXVI IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+ XXVII THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+XXVIII WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+  XXIX THE END AND 'THE BEYOND'
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF," KELSON SHRIEKED (frontispiece)
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+THEY GAZED FASCINATED
+
+THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of
+vegetables--it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller,
+of man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that
+the French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not,
+Confucius alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the
+Chinese by the same factor.
+
+It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a
+second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion to any
+literature saving a financial gazette or the stock and shares column
+of a daily, that nothing would have induced him to get within touching
+distance of a book save the risk of a severe wetting. Now, to his
+unutterable disgust, he found himself surrounded by the things he
+loathed. Books ancient--very ancient, judging by their bindings--and
+modern--histories, biographies, novels and magazines--anything from
+ten dollars to five cents, and all arrayed with most laudable tact
+according to their bulk and condition. But Hamar was neither to be
+tempted nor mollified. He frowned at one and all alike, and the
+colossal edition of Miss Somebody or Other's poems--that by reason of
+its magnificent cover of crimson and gold occupied a most prominent
+position--met with the same vindictive reception as the tattered and
+torn volumes of Whittier stowed away in an obscure corner.
+
+Backing still further into the entrance of the store for a better
+protection from the rain, which, now falling heavier and heavier, was
+blown in by the wind, Hamar collided with a stand of books, with the
+result that one of them fell with a loud bang on the pavement.
+
+A man, evidently the owner of the store, and unmistakably a Jew,
+instantly appeared. Picking up the book, and wiping it with a dirty
+handkerchief, he thrust it at Hamar.
+
+"See!" he said, "you have damaged this property of mine. You must
+either buy it or give me adequate compensation."
+
+"What!" Hamar cried, "compensation for such rubbish as that? Why all
+your books together are not worth five dollars. Indeed I've seen twice
+as many sold at a sale for half that amount. You can't Jew me!"
+
+The two men eyed each other quizzically.
+
+"Perhaps," the owner of the store observed slowly, "perhaps some of
+your ancestors were once Yiddish. In which case there ought to be a
+bond of sympathy between us. You may have that book for a nickel.
+What, no! Your cheeks are hollow, your fingers thin. A nickel is too
+much for you. I will take your chain in exchange."
+
+"And leave me the watch!" Hamar retorted, with a grim smile. "You are
+a philanthropist--not a storekeeper."
+
+"I should leave you nothing!" the Jew laughed.
+
+"There's no watch there! See!" and he pointed to the concave surface
+of the watch-pocket. "I noticed its absence at once. It's been keeping
+you alive for some days past. I'll give you four dollars on the
+chain--and you may have the book!"
+
+"The book's no good to me!" Hamar grunted. "The money is. Here! hand
+me over the four dollars and you can have the chain. It's eighteen
+carat gold and worth at least ten dollars."
+
+"Then why not take it to some one who will give you ten dollars!"
+sneered the Jew. "Because you know better. You're no greenhorn. That
+chain is fifteen carat at the most, and there's not a man in this city
+who would give you more than four dollars for it."
+
+"Very well, then!" Hamar said sulkily. "I agree. No! the money first."
+
+The Jew dived deep down into his trouser pocket, and, after foraging
+about for some seconds, produced a handful of greasy coins, out of
+which he carefully selected the sum named.
+
+Hamar, who had been watching him greedily, grabbed the coins, bit them
+with his teeth, and rang them on the counter. With an air of relief he
+then slipped his watch-chain into the outstretched palm before him,
+remarked upon the fact that the rain had suddenly ceased, and prepared
+to take his departure.
+
+"Here's the book!" the Jew ejaculated, whilst his face became suffused
+with a smirk. "Don't go without it. Now! there's no knowing but what
+we may not have further dealings with one another. I'm a
+money-lender--I've a place down-stairs--I take all sorts of
+things--all sorts of things. On the strict Q.T. mind. Sabez!"
+
+In another moment Hamar found himself standing on the wet pavement,
+nursing the four dollars in his waistcoat pocket with one hand, and
+mechanically clutching the despised volume with the other. Had he ever
+acted upon impulse, he would most certainly have hurled the book into
+the gutter; but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion that it
+would be better to dispose of it less obstrusively.
+
+It was now evening, and having tasted nothing since mid-day, he
+realized, for at least the hundredth time that week, that he was
+hungry. The touch of the dollars, however, only made him smile. He
+could eat his full for twenty-five cents and yet live well for another
+four days. And, besides, he still had a tie-pin and a fur coat. He
+might get a dollar on the one and two, if not two and a half, on the
+other; which would carry him through till the end of the week when
+something else might turn up--something which would not involve too
+hard work and would just keep him clear of jail. He turned sharply
+down Montgomery Street, crossed Kearney Street, and slipped
+noiselessly through the side doorway of a restaurant, in a
+suspicious-looking alley, not a hundred yards distant from the
+gorgeously illuminated Palace Hotel. Here, within five minutes, he was
+served with as good a meal as one could get in San Francisco for the
+money--and if the table linen was not as clean as it might have been,
+the food was not a whit the less excellent for that. At least so Hamar
+thought; and it was not until there was nothing left to eat that he
+left off eating. When he thought no one was looking in his direction,
+he popped the despised book under his chair and rose to go. Before he
+had gone ten yards, however, one of the waiters came running after
+him.
+
+"Hi, sir, stop, sir!" the fellow cried. "You've left something
+behind!" And in spite of Hamar's denials the officious menial
+persisted the book was his. In the end Hamar was obliged to submit.
+He took the book, and rewarded the waiter with curses.
+
+Hamar next tried to dispose of it down the area of a Chinese laundry;
+but a policeman saw him, and he only escaped being taken up on
+suspicion, by parting with a dollar. This was the climax. He did not
+dare make any further attempt to dispose of the book, but, with bitter
+hatred in his heart, tucked it savagely under his arm, and made direct
+for his room in 115th Street.
+
+To his annoyance--for under the circumstances he preferred to be
+alone--he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They
+were Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues
+at Meidler, Meidler & Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had
+been thrown out of work when the firm had "smashed." Since that affair
+Hamar had studiously avoided them. It was true he had once been as
+friendly with them as he deemed it politic to be friendly with any
+one; but now--they were out of employment, and in danger of
+starvation. That made all the difference. He did not believe in
+poverty encouraging poverty, any more than he believed in charity
+among beggars. He had nothing to share with them, not even a thought;
+and resolving to get rid of his quondam friends as soon as possible,
+he confined his welcome to a frown.
+
+"Hulloa! what's the matter?" Kelson exclaimed. "When a man frowns like
+that, it usually means he is crossed in love."
+
+"Or has an empty stomach, which amounts to the same thing," Curtis
+interposed. "Come--let the sun loose, Leon! We've good news for
+you!--haven't we, Matt?"
+
+Kelson nodded.
+
+"What is it, then?" Hamar grunted. "Have you both got cancer?"
+
+"No! We've come to borrow from you!"
+
+"Then you've come to the wrong shop! I'm about done, and unless
+something turns up mighty quick I shall clear out."
+
+"For good?"
+
+"I don't count on being a ghost nor yet an angel," Hamar said; "when
+we've done here, I reckon we've done altogether!"
+
+"I shouldn't have thought suicide was in your line," Curtis remarked.
+"More Matt's. I should have credited you with something more
+original."
+
+"Original!" Hamar snarled. "I defy any man to be original when he
+hasn't a cent, and his stomach contains nothing but air. Give me
+money, give me food--then, perhaps, I'll be original."
+
+"You don't mean to say you're cleared out of grub!" Kelson and Curtis
+cried in chorus. "We've come to you as our last hope. We've neither of
+us tasted anything since yesterday."
+
+"Then you'll taste nothing again to-day--at least as far as I'm
+concerned," Hamar jeered. "I tell you I'm broke--haven't as much as a
+crumb in the room; and I've pawned everything, save the clothes you
+see me in!"
+
+"And yet you can buy books--unless--unless you stole it!" Curtis said,
+eyeing with suspicion the volume Hamar had thrown on the table.
+
+"Buy it! Not much!" Hamar cried quickly. "It's one I've had all my
+life. Belonged to my grandfather. I took it with me to-night to see
+what I could raise on it."
+
+"And no one would have it? I should guess not," Kelson said, drawing
+it towards him. "Why it's got a new label inside--S. Leipman! I know
+him. He's slick even for a Jew. This looks as if it belonged to your
+grandfather, Leon. If I'm not real mistaken you bought the book
+to-night. There's something in it you thought you could make capital
+of. Trust you for that. Now I wonder what it was!"
+
+"You're welcome to see!" Hamar sneered. "Perhaps you'd like some
+water!"
+
+"Water! Why water?"
+
+"Well, instead of tea or whisky to help digest the book. Besides, it's
+the only thing I have to offer you."
+
+"Look here, Leon," Curtis interrupted; "what's the good of behaving
+like this? We are all in the same boat--starving--desperate. So let us
+lay our heads together and see if we can't think of something--some
+way out of it."
+
+"A Burglary Company Limited, for instance!" Hamar sneered. "No! I'm
+not having any. I've neither tools nor experience. The San Francisco
+police handle one roughly, so I'm told, and hard labour isn't to my
+liking."
+
+"There are other things besides burglary!" Curtis said in tones of
+annoyance. "We might work a fake."
+
+"If I work anything of that sort," Hamar said hastily, "I work alone.
+Think of something else."
+
+"I tell you Matt and I are pretty well desperate," Curtis cried, "and
+if we don't think of something soon, we shan't be able to think at
+all. We've tried our level best to get work--we've answered every
+likely and unlikely advertisement in the papers--and all to no
+purpose. So if Providence won't help us we must help ourselves.
+Robbery, burglary, fakes, anything short of murder--it's all the same
+to us now--we're tired of starving--dead sick of it. We would do
+anything, sell our very souls for a meal. My God! I never imagined how
+terrible it is to feel so hungry. You appear to be interested, Matt.
+What is it?"
+
+"Why, look here, you fellows!" Kelson said slowly. "This book is all
+about a place called Atlantis that is said to have existed in the
+Atlantic Ocean between America and Ireland, and to have been deluged
+by an earthquake owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants. They
+practised sorcery."
+
+"Practised foolery," Hamar said. "It's tosh--all tosh! Wickedness is
+only a matter of climate--and there's no such thing as sorcery."
+
+"So I thought," Kelson replied; "but I'm not so sure now. The author
+of this book writes darned sensibly, and is apparently at no loss for
+corroborative testimony. He was a professor too. See! Thomas Henry
+Maitland, at one time Professor of English at the University of Basle
+in Switzerland. There's an asterisk against his name and a footnote in
+very old-fashioned handwriting--the 's's' are all 'f's,' and half the
+letters capitals. Listen--
+
+    "'Thomas Maitland, despite the remonstrances of his friends,
+    visited Spain. By order of the Holy Inquisition he was arrested,
+    May 5, 1693, on a charge of practising sorcery, and burned alive
+    at the Auto da Fé, in the Grand Market Square, Madrid; having in
+    the interim been subjected to such tortures as only the subtle
+    brains of the hellish inquisitors could devise. On receipt of a
+    message from him, delivered in his supernatural body, we attended
+    his execution, and can readily testify that he suffered no pain,
+    although the torments endured by those around him were pitiable to
+    behold.
+
+    "(Signed) GEORGE RICHARD POOL, Physician; and ROBERT JAMES FOX,
+    Merchant.
+
+    "Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts; August 1, 1693.'"
+
+"Rot!" Hamar said savagely; "don't waste time reading such bunkum."
+
+"It may be bunkum, but if it takes away his mind from his stomach let
+him go on," Curtis interposed. "It's very obvious you haven't arrived
+at our pitch of starvation yet, Leon, or you would welcome anything
+that would make you forget it even for a moment. Let's hear some more,
+Matt! Go on, tell us something. How to make coyottes out of paraffin
+paint, or convert a Sunday pair of pants into a glistening harem
+skirt! Anything that won't remind us of food."
+
+Thus encouraged Kelson slowly turned over the pages of the book. "I
+see it was printed and published for--I presume that means by--A.
+Bettesworth and J. Batley in Pater-noster-Row, London, England, in
+1690. Basle, London, Boston, Madrid! The author seems to have had
+wandering on the brain. By the bye, Leon, with your features you could
+easily work off a fake as 'the Wandering Jew.' There's money in
+it--people will swallow anything in that line now."
+
+"I don't see how it would profit you anyhow," Hamar snarled. "Leave my
+features alone and go on with your reading."
+
+Kelson chuckled--here was one way at least in which he could
+occasionally get even with Hamar. Hamar's features were Yiddish, and
+the Yids were none too popular in California.
+
+"Oh, all right!" he said; "if the subject is so painful I'll try and
+avoid it in future; but it's odd how some things--for instance, murder
+and noses--will out. Let me see, what have we here? 'Discovery of
+ancient books, manuscripts, etc., relating to Atlantis.' Apparently,
+Thomas Maitland, when shipwrecked on an island, called Inisturk, off
+Mayo, in Ireland, found a wooden chest of rare workmanship--he had
+seen, he says, similar ones in Egypt and Yucatan--containing some very
+ancient books--curiously bound, and some vellum manuscripts, which,
+after an infinite amount of labour, he managed to translate. The
+books, he says, were standard histories, biographies, and scientific
+works on occultism--all published in Banchicheisi, the capital of
+Atlantis--and the manuscripts, he affirms, had been transcribed by one
+Coulmenes, who believed himself to be the only survivor of a
+tremendous submarine earthquake that had destroyed the whole of
+Atlantis. The manuscripts included a diary of the events leading up to
+the catastrophe--even to the meals! How about this?--'Sunrise on the
+day of Thottirnanoge in the month of Finn-ra. Breakfasted on cornsop,
+fish (Semona, corresponding to salmon), fruit, and much sweet milk.'"
+
+"For God's sake, don't!" Curtis groaned. "Skip over that part. The
+very mention of grub makes the gnawing pain in my stomach ten times
+worse."
+
+"You're different to me then!" Hamar grinned; "I love to think of it.
+My word, what wouldn't I give to be in Sadler's now. Roast beef--done
+to a turn, eh! As only Sadler knows how! Potatoes nice and brown and
+crisp! Horseradish! Greens! Boiled celery! Pudding under the meat!
+Beer!--What, going?"
+
+Curtis had risen from the table with his fingers crammed in his ears.
+"There's a fat splice of the devil in you to-night, Leon!" he panted.
+"I've had enough of it. I'm off. Come on, Matt. If you want us, you
+know where to find us--only if we don't get something to eat
+soon--you'll find us dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+For some time after Kelson and Curtis had left him, Hamar lolled back
+in his seat, lost in thought. Thought, as he told himself repeatedly,
+should be the poor man's chief recreation--it costs nothing: and if
+one wants a little variety, and the walls of one's rooms are tolerably
+thick, one can think aloud. Hamar often did, and derived much
+enjoyment from it.
+
+"I'm convinced of one thing," he suddenly broke out; "I'd rather be
+hungry than cold. One can, in a measure, cheat one's stomach by
+chewing leather or sucking pebbles, but I'll be hanged if one can kid
+one's liver. It's cold that does me! A touch of cold on the liver! I
+could jog along comfortably on few dollars for food--but it's a fire,
+a fire I want! The temperature of this room is infernally low after
+sunset: and half a dozen coats and three pairs of pants don't make
+up for half a grateful of fuel. Hunger only makes me think of
+suicide--but cold--cold and a chilled liver--makes me think of crime.
+Yes, it's cold! Cold that would make me a criminal. I would
+steal--burgle--housebreak--cut the sweetest lady's throat in
+Christendom--for a fire!
+
+"There! that little outbreak has relieved me. Now let me have a look
+at the book."
+
+He dragged the volume towards him, and despite the feeling of
+antagonism with which it had inspired him, and despite the cynical
+attitude he had, up to the present, adopted towards the supernatural,
+he speedily became engrossed. On a few leaves, somewhat clumsily
+inserted between the cover and first page of the book, Hamar read an
+account, presumably in the author's own penmanship, of how he, Thomas
+Maitland, after being shipwrecked, had remained on Inisturk Island for
+a fortnight before being rescued, and had spent the greater portion of
+that time in examining the books, etc., in the chest he had found--his
+only food--shell-fish and a keg of mildewy ship's biscuits.
+
+He was taken, so the account ran, by his rescuers, on the barque
+_Hannah_, to London, where he lived for five years. His lodgings were
+in Cheapside, and it was there that he compiled his work on Atlantis,
+having obtained his subject matter from the Atlantean books he had
+managed to bring with him, and which, after an enormous amount of
+perseverance and labour, he had translated into English. Though these
+books were subsequently destroyed in a big fire that demolished the
+entire street, luckily for him, he had sent his MS. to the publishers,
+Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley, a week or so before the conflagration
+broke out; so that he was, at any rate, spared the loss of his own
+arduous and invaluable work.
+
+The publishers did not accept the MS. at once. At that time there were
+very severe laws in operation against anything savouring of witchcraft
+and magic, and as the manuscript dealt at length with these subjects,
+and in a manner that left no doubt whatever that he, Thomas Maitland,
+had practised sorcery extensively, Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were
+forced to consider whether it would be injurious to them to publish
+it. Mrs. Bettesworth was eventually consulted--as indeed she always
+was, on extraordinary occasions--and her interest in the MS. being
+roused, she decided in its favour. Within a week of its publication,
+however, it was suppressed by law; all the copies saving three
+presentation ones to the author, which he successfully concealed, were
+destroyed; Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were put in the stocks on
+Ludgate Hill and fined heavily, and he, Thomas Maitland, was ordered
+to be arrested, flogged and imprisoned.
+
+"But," wrote Maitland, "I was not to be caught napping. My previous
+adventures and hairbreadth escapes had rendered me unusually wary, and
+perceiving a number of people, among whom were two or three sheriff's
+officers, approaching my house, I at once interpreted their mission,
+and climbing through a trap-door leading on to the roof of the
+building, nimbly made my way to the end of the row, and slipping down
+a waterpipe easily eluded my enemies. London, however, being now too
+hot to hold me, I booked passage on board the _Peterkin_, a Thames
+trading vessel of some eighty tons, and sailed for Boston. My flight
+had been so hasty that I brought very little with me--nothing in fact
+except the clothes I stood in--a stout winter suit of home-spun brown
+cloth, a cloak, and a pair of good, strong leather leggings--a purse
+of fifty sovereigns (all I had), a knife, pistol and two copies of my
+precious book, the third copy, alas! I had left behind in my hurry."
+
+After giving a few unimportant details as to his life on board ship,
+Maitland went on to say:--
+
+"Owing to a succession of storms the _Peterkin_ was driven out of her
+course, and after narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces on the
+Florida reefs, Lat. 24-1/2° N., Long. 82° W., we ran ashore with the
+loss of only two lives--the second mate and cabin boy--on the Isthmus
+of Yucatan, close to the estuary of a river.[1] Here we were forced to
+spend nearly a year, during which time I made several journeys of
+exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one
+of my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found
+myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once
+recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity,
+elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set
+to work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other
+vegetable growth adhering to it, discovered a superscription in
+Atlantean dialect to the effect that the image had been set up there
+by one Hullir--to commemorate the destruction of Atlantis, of which
+catastrophe Hullir believed himself and his family, _i.e._ his wife
+Ozilmeave and daughters, Taramoo and Nikétoth, and the crew of his
+yacht, the _Chaac-molré_ (ten in number), the sole survivors.
+
+"Here, then, to my unutterable joy, was strong corroborative evidence
+of the great disaster narrated in detail in the manuscripts I had
+found in Inisturk Island. The existence of Atlantis was now thoroughly
+substantiated. On all sides of me I stumbled across further evidences
+of these early settlers. Here, standing in bold outline on a slight
+eminence, was a stone edifice adorned with symbolical carvings of
+eggs, harps, mastodons, triangles, and numerous other objects, all of
+which were capable of interpretation, and indicated that the building
+was a temple to some god.
+
+"I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity in many of the
+things I saw--notably in the sphinx, idols and symbols--to many I had
+seen in Egypt, and to some extent in Ireland, and I at once set to
+work to draw up a careful analogy between the languages of those
+countries.
+
+"The word Banchicheisi[2] I found to contain the Celtic ban, a barrow;
+and Coptic isi, plenty; whilst I recognized in the words Coulmenes,[3]
+the Celtic Coul, a man's name, _i.e._ Finn, son of Coul; in
+Thottirnanoge, the Coptic Thoth, _i.e._ name of ancient Egyptian
+deity, and Erse Tirnanoge, the name of the wife of Oisin, the last of
+the Feni; in Chaac-molrée[4] the Coptic deity, ré; in Ozilmeave,[5]
+the Celtic Meave, a girl's name; in Taramoo,[6] the Celtic Tara, a
+girl's name; and in Nikétoth,[7] toth, the Erse technical form of
+feminine gender; and comparing the alphabets I traced a very striking
+likeness between the Atlantean--
+
+"[Atlantean: a] (a) and the Gaelic or Erse [Erse: A]
+[Atlantean: B] (B) and the Coptic [Coptic: B]
+[Atlantean: d] (d) and Erse [Erse: D]
+[Atlantean: g] (g) and Erse [Erse: g]
+[Atlantean: T] (T) and Coptic [Coptic: T]
+
+"and many of the other letters. To the Atlantean
+
+"[Atlantean: C, O, E, Z][8]
+
+"I could, however, find no likeness.
+
+"From all these similarities, _i.e._ in architecture, symbols,
+letters, and words, I could come to no other conclusion than that
+there was some strong connecting link between Atlantis and ancient
+Ireland and Egypt.
+
+"Assuredly this great link could not have been merely due to stray
+survivors of the great catastrophe! Was it not much more probable that
+the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Egypt had originally migrated
+from Atlantis, carrying its language, and ways and customs with them?
+Moreover, since the Atlanteans were so deeply versed in magic and
+everything appertaining to the occult, this migration would account
+for the mysticism that has always been so closely associated with
+Egypt and Ireland, and for the psychic faculty so strongly observable
+in the inhabitants of these two countries.
+
+"I was highly satisfied--I had proved much and my discoveries had
+upset many of the theories advanced by the modern sages. I could now
+positively assert that the wisdom of the world came not from the East
+but from the West. It was to the golden West--to Banchicheisi, capital
+of Atlantis, that humanity owed its knowledge of the sciences and
+arts, and of all things good and evil. Eden, if Eden existed at all,
+was not in Asia, it was in Atlantis; and the Deluge, that is recorded
+in the Hebrew Bible, and is traditional in the histories of nearly
+every tribe and nation, was none other than the mighty inrush of the
+ocean over Atlantis, due to some abnormal submarine earthquake.
+
+"Of what eventually became of the Atlanteans whose relics I had so
+opportunely alighted upon, I could only surmise.
+
+"The last record I found was on a tablet set up by Nikétoth. On this
+she spoke of the death of Hullir and Ozilmeave, of the inter-marriage
+of the crew of the _Chaac-molré_ with native women; of the consequent
+growth of the colony; and of her determination to leave it, and,
+accompanied by a chosen few, to push her way further inland.[9]
+
+"The anxiety of my comrades to leave the continent, perforce put an
+end to my explorations, and in the beginning of the year 1692--exactly
+ten months after our landing--the _Peterkin_ was refloated.
+
+"This time nothing happened to impede our progress, and in April of
+the same year, we sighted Boston. Here I remained for some months,
+making many new friends, and studying magic and sorcery. But the love
+of travel had laid so strong a hold on me that I again took to a
+roving life. I set sail for Spain in November 1692; landed at Corunna,
+and made my way to Madrid, where I arrived on January 1, 1693."
+
+For the rest, Hamar had to turn to Messrs. Fox and Pool's addendum,
+_i.e._ the footnote that Matt Kelson had read aloud.
+
+Hamar was now inclined to regard the book in a very different light.
+What he had read seemed to him to be set down in too simple,
+straightforward, and, at the same time, detailed a manner to be other
+than true. Up to the present he had not believed in ghosts and
+witches, for the very simple reason that--like all sceptics--he had
+never inquired into the testimony respecting them. He had pooh-poohed
+the subject, because every one he knew pooh-poohed it, and also
+because it had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But
+provided he thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in
+anything--in Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or
+any other creed; and granted the book he had in his hands was
+really written by Maitland, and Maitland was _bona fide_ (which Hamar
+saw no reason to doubt), and granted, also, that Maitland was sane and
+logical--which from his writing he certainly appeared to be--then
+there was a certain amount in the volume that in Hamar's opinion
+was "a find." Needless to say, he referred to the magic of the
+Atlanteans--the art through the practice of which they had got in
+touch with the Powers that could endow them with riches. The actual
+history of Atlantis--once he was satisfied there had been such a
+place--did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly, and I
+append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent and
+disinterested readers.
+
+The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world--they
+existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their
+mariners and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom
+their novelists wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore
+Cooper and Mayne Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful
+stories about the Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they
+believed that, in the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that
+some of these Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst
+others--neither benevolent nor malevolent--were merely neutral. To the
+benevolent creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in
+the world (_i.e._ certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals,
+insects, and pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and
+agreeable in the human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the
+arts and sciences--in a word all that in any degree affected the
+welfare of mankind; and to the malevolent creative Powers they
+attributed all that was noxious in creation; all that was harmful to
+man, and detrimental to his moral and physical progress (_i.e._
+diseases, and all savage and filthy passions); all races of low
+intelligence, viz. Paleolithic and Neolithic man--and all those born
+with black or red skins (those colours being particularly significant
+of the malignant Occult Elements); all destructive animals; (_i.e._
+reptiles such as the teleosaurus, steneosaurus, etc.; birds, such as
+the ptereodactyl, vulture, eagle, etc.; mammals, such as the cave
+lion, cave tiger, etc.; fish, such as the shark, octopus, etc.); and
+all ugly and venomous insects.
+
+These earliest records show that at one time the physical and
+superphysical world were in close touch; all kinds of spirits--trolls,
+pixies, nymphs, satyrs, imps, Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.--mixing
+freely with living human beings; but that as the population increased
+and civilization evolved, superphysical manifestations became more and
+more rare, until finally they became restricted to certain conditions
+dependent on time and locality.[10]
+
+Up to this period there had been no state religion--no temples in
+Atlantis. If any one wished for a particular favour from the Occult
+Powers--for example, from the Rabsés, the Occult Powers of music; the
+Brakvos, the Occult Powers of medicine; or the Derinas, the Occult
+Powers of love, they retired to some secluded spot and held direct
+intercourse with these Powers. The idea of praying to an invisible
+being--who might or might not hear them--never entered their minds;
+they were far too matter of fact for that--and it was not until
+superphysical manifestations had become confined to a very select few,
+that the plan of erecting public buildings in spots frequented by the
+spirits, so that all who wished could assemble there and communicate
+with them, was proposed and put into operation. In these buildings,
+however, the spirits did not choose always, to appear to
+order--sometimes they quitted the spot where the edifice had been
+erected; sometimes they would only appear there periodically; and
+sometimes, out of perversity, they would appear when least expected.
+But whether occult manifestations really took place in these buildings
+or not, those assembled to see them were persuaded by those in charge
+of the building, who saw thereby an opportunity of making money, that
+the spirits were actually there; and in due time these buildings
+became known as temples, and their showmen as priests. Every temple
+was dedicated to an individual spirit--one to the Spirit Bara-boo;
+another to the Spirit Karaboro, and so on; whilst in the absence of
+genuine spirit manifestations, prayers, incantations and rituals,
+invented by the priests, always attracted a large concourse of people
+to these temples, and finally proved a greater source of attraction
+than the spirits themselves.
+
+It was to gain favours from the Occult Powers that donations from the
+public were at first invited, then demanded; and the priests in this
+manner accumulated vast fortunes. Later on, too, there sprang up, in
+connection with these temples, colleges for the training of young
+men--invariably selected from the wealthy classes--to the priesthood;
+and from the parents of these youthful aspirants large fees, which in
+course of time became exorbitant, were extracted, thereby furnishing
+another source of revenue to the priests. The most famous colleges for
+the training of priests in Atlantis were those of Bara-boo-rek[11] at
+Keisionwo, Karaboro-rek at Diniangek, and Ballygarap-rek at Tijimin.
+
+It was in the reign of Barrahneil,[12] fifty-first sovereign of the
+Dynasty of Shaotak, that the evocation of spirits (from which modern
+spiritualism takes its origin) commenced. Barrahneil was most eager to
+see a superphysical manifestation. Being of a somewhat poetical turn
+of mind he was particularly enamoured of fairies, and in the hope of
+seeing one, constantly frequented their favourite haunts, _i.e._
+woods, caves, and lonely isolated habitations. But all to no
+purpose--they never would manifest themselves to him. At last, he lost
+patience. Against the advice of his oldest and most trusty
+counsellors, and accompanied by one or two of his favourite courtiers,
+he went to an excessively lonely spot in the heart of a desert, and
+besought spirits--spirits of any sort--he did not care what--to
+manifest themselves. To his surprise--for he had grown extremely
+sceptical--an Occult form, half man and half beast,[13] materialized.
+It informed them that it was Daramara, _i.e._ in Atlantis, the
+Unknown--that it had no beginning and no end, and that it would remain
+an impenetrable mystery to them during their existence in the physical
+sphere, but would be fully revealed to them when they passed over into
+Malanok--one of the superphysical planes. On this, and on several
+subsequent occasions, when it manifested itself to them, it gave them
+instructions with regard to evocation, and described to them the tests
+they must undergo before they could acquire the great powers the
+Unknown was able to bestow on them, namely, (1) second sight; (2)
+divining other people's thoughts and detecting the presence of waters
+and metals; (3) thought transference, _i.e._ being able to transmit
+messages, irrespective of distance, from one brain to another without
+any physical medium; (4) hypnotism; (5) the power to hold converse
+with animals; (6) invisibility, _i.e._ dematerializing at will; (7)
+walking on, and breathing under, water; (8) inflicting all manner of
+diseases and torments; (9) curing all kinds of diseases; (10)
+converting people into beasts and minerals; (11) foretelling the
+future by palmistry, pyromancy, hydromancy, astrology, etc.; (12)
+conjuring up all manner of spirits antagonistic to men's moral
+progress, _i.e._ Vice Elementals--Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.
+
+Taking every care to observe the greatest secrecy, Barrahneil caused a
+full account of these interviews with Daramara, together with all the
+instructions the latter had given him, to be transcribed in a book,
+which he called _Brahnapotek_[14]--or the _Book of Mysteries_; and
+which he kept sealed and guarded in a room in his palace.
+
+During his lifetime no one held communication with Daramara saving
+himself and his friends, but after his death the secret of black magic
+leaked out; countless people sought to acquire it, and ultimately the
+practice of it became universal. But the Atlanteans little knew the
+danger they were incurring. The spirits they conjured up--though at
+first subservient, that is to say, mere instruments--at length
+obtained complete dominion over them--the whole race became steeped in
+crime and vice of every kind--and so horrible were the enormities
+perpetrated that, fearful lest Man should be entirely obliterated the
+benevolent Occult Powers, after a desperate struggle with the
+malevolent Occult Powers, succeeded, by means of a vast earthquake, in
+submerging the Continent and hurling it to the bottom of the Atlantic
+Ocean, where, what remains of it, now lies. This catastrophe took
+place in the reign of Aboonirin, twentieth sovereign of the Dynasty of
+Molonekin--three thousand years after the reign of Barrahneil.
+
+So ran the history of Atlantis, or at least all of it that need be
+quoted for the elucidation of this story. That Black Magic--the Black
+Art of the Atlanteans was by no means dead--Hamar felt convinced, and
+if Maitland could resuscitate it--why could not he? At any rate he
+might try. He could lose nothing by giving it a trial--at least
+nothing to speak of--the outlay on chemicals would be a mere
+song--whereas, on the other hand, what might he not gain! He eagerly
+perused the tests--the test he must impose upon himself before he
+could get in touch with the Unknown, and acquire the magic
+powers--which, according to Thomas Maitland, were copied from the
+original Brahnapotek, and including a preface, ran as follows:
+(_Preface_) "It is essential that the person desirous of being
+initiated into the Black Art--the Art of communicating with the
+Unknown (Daramara) in order to acquire certain great powers, should
+dismiss from his mind all ideas of moral progress, and wholly
+concentrate on the bettering of his material self--on acquiring riches
+and fame in the physical sphere. His aspirations must be entirely
+earthly, and all his affections subordinate to his main desire for
+wealth and carnal pleasures. Having acquired this preliminary
+psychological stage, for one clear week he must give himself up
+entirely to the breaking of all the conventionalities of morality with
+which society is hedged in. He must practice every kind of
+deception--lie, cheat and steal, and go out of his way to seek an
+opportunity to avenge any personal injury; and if his mind is
+earnestly and wholly concentrated on acquiring knowledge of the Black
+Art no bodily mishap will befall him. During this time of probation he
+must will himself to dream, at night, of all the deeds he had it in
+his mind to do, during the day; when he will know, by his visions, to
+what extent he is progressing. At the end of the week he must apply
+the tests to see if he is in a ripe state to proceed.
+
+    "The tests--
+
+    "No. 1. At midnight, when the moon is full, place a mirror, set in
+    a wooden frame, in a tub of water, so that it will float on the
+    surface with its face uppermost. Put in the water fifteen grains
+    of bicarbonate of potash, and sprinkle it with three drops of
+    blood, not necessarily human If the reflection of the moon in the
+    mirror then appear crimson, the test is satisfactorily
+    accomplished.
+
+    "No. 2. At midnight, when the moon is full, take a black cat, place
+    it where the moonbeams are thickest, sprinkle it with three drops
+    of blood, not necessarily human, and rub its coat with the palm of
+    the hand. Sparks will then be given out, and if those sparks
+    appear crimson the test is satisfactorily done.
+
+    "No. 3. Take a human skull--preferably that of some person who has
+    met with an unnatural end, pour on it a single drop of fresh,
+    human blood--place it on a couch, and go to sleep with the back
+    part of the head resting on it. If you are awakened, at the second
+    hour after midnight, by hearing a great commotion close at hand,
+    and the room is then discovered to be full of crimson light, the
+    test is satisfactorily fulfilled.
+
+    "No. 4. Take half a score of the berries of enchanter's
+    nightshade,[15] two ounces of hemlock leaves in powder, and one
+    ounce of red sorrel leaves. Heat them in an oven for two hours,
+    pound them together, in a mortar, and at midnight boil them in
+    water. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, remove them from
+    the fire and stand them in a dark place; and if the experiment is
+    to prove satisfactory, three bubbles of luminous green light will
+    rise simultaneously from the water and burst.
+
+    "No. 5. In the above preparation after the test described, soak a
+    hazel twig, fashioned in the shape of a fork. On meeting a child
+    hold the fork with the V downwards in front of its face, and if
+    the child exhibits violence and signs of terror, and falls down,
+    the experiment is successful.
+
+    "No. 6. Take a couple of handfuls of fine soil from over the spot
+    where some four-footed animal has recently been buried. Put it in
+    a tin vessel, mix with it three ounces of assafoetida and one
+    drachm of quassia chips, to which add a death's-head moth
+    (_Acherontia atropos_). Heat the vessel over a wood fire for three
+    hours. Then remove it and place it on the hearth, rake out the
+    fire and make the room absolutely dark. Keep watch beside the
+    vessel, and if, at the second hour after midnight, any strange
+    phenomena occur, the test will be known to have been
+    satisfactorily executed.
+
+    "(_Addendum_) If any of these tests fail the candidate must wait
+    for six months before giving them a further trial, and he must
+    occupy the interim by training his thoughts in the manner already
+    prescribed. But if, on the other hand, the tests have been
+    successfully performed, he can proceed with the rites appertaining
+    to the Black Art."
+
+Hamar had read so far when, with a gesture of impatience, he closed
+the book. "What a fool I am!" he exclaimed, "to waste my time with
+such stuff!... But Maitland writes in such a devilish convincing way!
+Jerusalem! Any straw is good enough for the drowning man, and if
+witchcraft and sorcery with motors dashing by every second and the
+whole air alive with wireless and telephones, is a bit beyond my
+comprehension, what then? All I care about is money--and I'll leave no
+stone unturned to get it. If it were possible for man to get in touch
+with Daramara--the Unknown--Devil, or whatever else it chooses to call
+itself--I'll call it an angel if it only gives me money--twenty
+thousand years ago--why shouldn't it be possible to get in touch with
+it now? Anyhow as I said before, I'll have a try. As far as the
+preliminary stage is concerned, I fancy I'm pretty well fixed. My mind
+is occupied right enough with things of this world--I don't give a
+cent for anything belonging to another--and if only I had half a dozen
+souls, I'd sell them right away now, for less than twenty thousand
+dollars--a damned sight less. As for these tests--foolish isn't the
+word for them--but it won't cost much just to try them.... Now,
+according to Thomas Maitland, the ceremony of calling up the Unknown
+stands a far greater chance of success if there are three human beings
+present ... but, of course, if there is any truth in this business,
+I'd rather keep the secret of it to myself. However, if I try alone,
+the Unknown may not come to me, and then I shall have had all the
+trouble of going through the tests for nothing!... Ah! now I see! If
+the other two get more of the profits than I think necessary--I can
+make use of my newly acquired Occult Power to--to dissolve
+partnership! Ha! ha! I could--I could trick the Unknown if it comes to
+that. Trust a Jew to outwit the Devil! I'll just look up Kelson
+and--Curtis."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 1: The river referred to by Maitland is the river
+  Lagartos, which was then (1691) unnamed.]
+
+  [Footnote 2: For chiche compare the ancient Maya or Yucatan word
+  Chicken-Itza (_i.e._ name of town in Yucatan where excavations are
+  now taking place--1912).]
+
+  [Footnote 3: For Menes compare Mayan Menes, wise men.]
+
+  [Footnote 4: Compare Mayan Chaac-mol, a leopard.]
+
+  [Footnote 5: Compare Ozil, Mayan for well-beloved.]
+
+  [Footnote 6: Moo, Mayan for Macaw.]
+
+  [Footnote 7: Niké, woman's name in Mayan.]
+
+  [Footnote 8: Recent (1912) discoveries of statues in Easter Island
+  still further corroborate the sinking of Atlantis.
+
+  The Atlantean character [C] resembles the Easter Island [C] (C)
+          "         "     [O]     "        "      "       [O] (O)
+          "         "     [E]     "        "      "       [E] (E)
+          "         "     [Z]     "        "      "       [Z] (Z)
+
+  It will be noticed that all the Atlantean characters are
+  distinguished by additional curling strokes.]
+
+  [Footnote 9: In all probability she was the founder of Chicken-Itza,
+  the capital of Yucatan.]
+
+  [Footnote 10: Types of Elementals still to be met with in certain
+  localities (vide _Byeways of Ghostland_, published by Rider & Son).]
+
+  [Footnote 11: Compare Egyptian ré.]
+
+  [Footnote 12: Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil
+  was the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is
+  every possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to
+  Ireland, carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic--to which
+  might be traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.]
+
+  [Footnote 13: Probably a Vice Elemental.]
+
+  [Footnote 14: All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were
+  founded on it.]
+
+  [Footnote 15: Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in
+  botany as _Circæa_. It is found in damp, shady places and was used
+  to a very large extent in mediæval sorcery.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LEARNING TO SIN
+
+
+Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the
+Popes hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are
+wont to entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there
+were no massive granite steps flanked with equally massive
+pillars--such as herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare
+glass bow-windows looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast
+betiled hall, with rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak
+staircases; no frescoed ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk
+draperies; and no sweet perfumery--only the smell, if one may so
+suddenly sink to a third-class expression--only the smell of rank
+tobacco and equally rank lager beer. No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis
+resided within a stone's throw of the five cent baths in Rutter
+Street--and that was the nearest they ever got to bathing. Their suite
+of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by eight feet, which
+served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir, kitchen,
+bedroom, and--from sheer force of habit, I was about to add bathroom;
+but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs and
+chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
+furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
+reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
+six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes--a pair of
+discarded overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck
+wrap, a yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round
+and rather rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited
+number of culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most
+important. Its handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for
+frying, roasting and boiling, did duty for a teapot and a slop-basin.
+They had no crockery. They had only one thing in abundance--namely,
+air; for the lower frame of the window having long lacked glass in it,
+a couple of pages of the _Examiner_, fixed in it, flapped dismally
+every time the wind came blowing down 216th Street.
+
+They had not lived there always. In the palmy days of work, before the
+firm smashed, they had aspired to what might properly be called
+diggings; and, moreover, had "digged" in respectable surroundings. It
+was the usual thing--the thing that is happening always, every hour of
+the day, in all the great cities of the world--starvation, through
+lack of employment. Civilization still shuts its eyes to everyday
+poverty. Who knows? Who cares? Who is responsible? No one. Is there a
+remedy? Ah! that is a question that requires time. Time--always time!
+Time for the politician, and time for the starving ones! Half the
+world thinks, whilst half the world dies; and the cause of it all is
+time--too much, a damned sight too much--time!
+
+But Kelson and Curtis could not grumble. They had their room--bare,
+dirty and well-ventilated--for next to nothing. Fifty cents a week!
+And they could furnish it as they pleased. Fancy that! What a
+privilege! They were glad of it all the same--glad of it in preference
+to the streets; and probably, when asleep, they thought of it as home.
+But on leaving Hamar's, that evening, they had fully resolved to
+convert their little room into a cemetery. What else could they do?
+What can any one do who has no money and no prospect of getting any,
+and who has reached the pitch of acute hunger? He has passed the stage
+of wanting work, because, if work were offered to him, he would not be
+in a fit state to do it--he would be too weak. Too weak to work! What
+a phenomenon! Yes--to all those who have never missed a day's meals.
+To others--no! They can understand--and understand only too well--the
+really poor who have long ceased to eat, cannot work--they are beyond
+it.
+
+When Curtis and Kelson staggered down the stairs of the house where
+Hamar lodged, they realized that unless something turned up pretty
+soon, it would be too late--they would be past the stage of caring for
+anything--too feeble to do anything but lie on the ground and pray
+that death would come quickly.
+
+"Home?" Kelson inquired, as they emerged on to the pavement.
+
+"Hell!" Curtis answered, and Kelson, taking it for granted that the
+terms were synonymous, at once headed for their garret.
+
+"Don't walk so confoundedly fast," Curtis gasped; "this pain in my
+side is like a hundred stitches rolled in one. It fairly doubles me
+up. Ease down a bit, for heaven's sake!"
+
+Kelson obeyed, and presently came to a dead halt before a
+dingy-looking restaurant. Both men leaned against the window and gazed
+wolfishly at the food. A warm, foetid rush of air from under the
+grating at their feet tickled their nostrils and mocked their hunger
+with a mockery past endurance. Arranged on the window-sill was a
+miscellaneous collection of very smeary plates and dishes, containing
+an even more miscellaneous collection of food. A half-consumed ham,
+with more than a mere suspicion of dirt on its yellowish-white fat;
+some concoction in a bowl that might have been brawn made from some
+peculiarly liverish pig, or--from one of the many homeless mongrels
+that roam the streets at night; a pile of noxious-looking mussels,
+side by side with a glistening mass of particularly yellow whelks; a
+round of what purported to be beef--very fat and very underdone; some
+black shiny sausages, and a score or so of luridly red polonies. A
+similar assortment was to be seen on the counter behind which lolled
+an anæmic girl, in a dirty cotton blouse, and a much soiled sky-blue
+skirt.
+
+A month ago such an exhibition would have been an offence in the
+fastidious eyes of Messrs. Kelson and Curtis; but now it was
+otherwise. Their stomachs would have refused nothing short of garbage.
+
+"Matt!" Curtis's hands had left off clutching at his belt and were now
+hanging by his side; the fingers twitching to and fro in a manner that
+fascinated Kelson. "Matt! Is there any logic in our starving?"
+
+"None, excepting that we haven't a cent between us!" Kelson rejoined.
+
+"I know that," Curtis went on slowly, "but--I mean--why should we
+starve when all this grub is within two inches of us! It's
+unreasonable--it's intolerable."
+
+"Doesn't the smell of it satisfy you?" Kelson replied, attempting to
+force a smile, and failing dismally.
+
+"D--n the smell!" Curtis cried. "It's the ham I want. I'd give my soul
+for a good munch at it. And just look at that tea, too! Don't you see
+it steaming over there? What wouldn't I give for just one cup! Ten
+minutes more and it may be too late. The pain will come on again--and
+it will be very doubtful if I shall ever get home. I'm close on the
+stage when one begins to digest one's own stomach. Curse it! I won't
+starve any longer! Matt! she's in there all by herself!"
+
+"So I've been thinking," Kelson murmured, glancing uneasily up and
+down the street. "Still she's a girl, Ed!"
+
+"That's just it!" Curtis whispered; "it is because she is a girl. If
+she were a man, in our present condition we shouldn't stand a chance.
+Come! It's this or dying in the gutters. It's our one and only chance.
+Let's go in--have a feed--take what we can and make a bolt for it. If
+she tries to stop us we can settle her right enough."
+
+"Without being too rough! There's no need to be too rough with her,
+Ed."
+
+"I shouldn't stick at much!" Curtis answered. "Occasions like these
+don't admit of chivalry. Come along! It's the ham I'm after."
+
+Curtis shuffled forward as he spoke, and the next moment Kelson and he
+were standing in front of the counter.
+
+The girl eyed Curtis very dubiously and it is more than likely would
+have refused to serve him had he been alone. But her expression
+changed on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who
+seldom fail to meet with the approval of women--there was a something
+in him they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined
+that something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now.
+
+"What do you want?" she inquired shortly.
+
+"Ham! Give me some of that ham over there, miss, and a cup of tea!
+Bread too!" Curtis cried eagerly. "Do you know what it is to have a
+twist on, miss? I have one on now--so please give us a full
+twenty-five cents' worth."
+
+Kelson said nothing, but his eyes glistened, and the girl wondered as
+she passed him the polonies.
+
+Both men ate as they had never eaten before, and as they would not have
+eaten now had they paid any attention to the advice of hunger experts.
+However, they survived, and when they could eat no more they leaned
+back in their chairs to enjoy the sensation of returning--albeit,
+slowly returning--strength.
+
+Curtis was the first to make a move. "Matt," he murmured, "we've about
+sat our sit. We'd better be off. You go and say a few nice words to
+the girl and make pretence of paying. I'll secure the ham--there's
+still a good bit left--and anything else I can grab. The moment I do
+this, throw these chairs on the ground so that the girl will fall over
+them when she makes a dash for me, which she is certain to do. We will
+then head straight away for 216th Street. Don't look so scared or she
+will think there is something up. She has never taken her eyes off you
+since we sat down!"
+
+"She's rather a nice girl!" Kelson said. "I wish I didn't look quite
+such a blackguard--and--I wish I hadn't to be quite such a blackguard.
+Who'll pay for all this? Will she?"
+
+"We shan't, anyway," Curtis sneered. "Come, this is no time to be
+sentimental. It was a question of life and death with us, and we've
+only done what any one else would do in our circumstances. The girl
+won't lose much! Are you ready?"
+
+Curtis rose, and Kelson, who was accustomed to obey him, reluctantly
+followed suit. A look almost suggestive of fear came into the girl's
+eyes as they encountered those of Curtis, and she shot a swift glance
+at an inner door. Then Kelson spoke, and as she turned her head
+towards him, her lips parted in a sort of smile.
+
+"Nice night, miss, isn't it?" Kelson said, halting half-way between
+the counter and the chairs. "Aren't you a bit lonely here all by
+yourself?"
+
+"Sometimes," the girl laughed. "But my mother's in the room there,"
+and she nodded in the direction of the closed door. "And one can't be
+dull when she's about. She's that there active as a rule, there's no
+keeping her quiet--only just at present"--here she glanced
+apprehensively at Curtis--"she's recovering from ague. Gets it every
+year about this time. Your friend seems to have kind of taken a fancy
+to our ham!"
+
+Kelson looked at Curtis and his heart thumped. Curtis's right hand was
+getting ready to spring at the ham, whilst his left was creeping
+stealthily along the counter in the direction of a loaf of bread.
+Kelson slowly realized that an acute crisis in both their lives was at
+hand, and that it depended on him how it would end. He had never
+thought it possible to feel as mean as he felt now. Besides, his
+natural sympathy with women tempted him to stand by the girl and
+prevent Curtis from robbing her. He was still deliberating, when he
+saw two long dark objects, with lightning rapidity, swoop down on the
+plates and dishes. There was a loud clatter, and the next moment the
+whole place seemed alive with movement.
+
+A voice which in his confusion he did not recognize at once
+shouted--and seemingly from far away--"Quick, you fool, quick! Fling
+down the chairs and grab those sausages!" Whilst from close beside
+him--almost, he fancied, in his ears--came a wild shriek of "Mother!
+Mother! We are being robbed!"
+
+Had the girl appealed to him to help her it is more than likely that
+Kelson, who was even yet undecided what course to adopt, would have
+offered her his aid; but the instant she acted on the defensive his
+mind was made up; a mad spirit of self-preservation swept over
+him--and dashing the chairs on the ground at her feet, he seized the
+sausages, and flew after Curtis.
+
+Ten minutes later, Curtis and Kelson, their arms full of spoil,
+clambered up the staircase of their lodgings, and reeled into their
+room.
+
+"Look!" Curtis gasped, sinking into the chair. "Look and see if we are
+followed!"
+
+"There's no one about!" Kelson whispered, peering cautiously out of
+the window. "Not a soul! I don't believe after that first rush across
+Rutter Street, any one noticed us. To leave off running was far the
+best thing to do. You are a perfect genius, Ed. I wonder if this sort
+of thing--er--thieving--is dormant in most of us? I say, old fellow, I
+wish I hadn't looked at that book of Hamar's. Do you know, directly I
+took it up, an extraordinary sensation of cunning came over me; and I
+declare, when I put it down, I felt it would take very little to make
+me a criminal!"
+
+"We're both criminals now--in the eyes of the law--anyway!" Curtis
+said. "And now we've got so far there's no alternative but to go on!
+It's easier for a hundred camels to pass through the eye of a needle
+than for a clerk to get work, that's a fact. The markets are
+hopelessly overstocked--no one wants us! No one helps us! No one even
+thinks about us. The labouring man gets pity and cents galore--we get
+nothing!--nothing but rotten pay whilst we work, and when we're out of
+work, dosshouses or kerbstones. D--n clerks, I say. D--n everything!
+There's no justice in creation--there's no justice in anything--and
+the only people who prate of it are those who have never known what it
+is to want. Say, when shall we take the next lot?"
+
+"When we're obliged, not before!" Kelson said. "Or rather, you do as
+you like--and I'll do the same."
+
+"Well, I'm not going to commit suicide anyhow," Curtis sneered. "We
+haven't the money to buy poison--and I've no mind to drown myself or
+cut my throat--they're too painful! If we don't go on doing what we've
+done to-night, what are we going to do?"
+
+"Trust to luck," Kelson sighed.
+
+"All right--you trust to luck--but I won't trust any more in
+Providence, and that's a fact," Curtis retorted. "We've been done
+enough. Now I'm for doing other people. Good-night."
+
+He tumbled into the makeshift bed as he spoke; and in a few minutes,
+worn out after the unwonted exertions of the evening, both men were
+fast asleep.
+
+They were at breakfast next morning--real _déjeuner à la
+carte_--sausages, bread, water--and they were doing ample justice to
+it, when some one rapped at the door. For a few seconds there was
+silence. Their hearts stood still. Had they been followed, after all?
+Was it the police? Some one spoke--and they breathed again. It was
+Hamar.
+
+"This looks like starving, I must say!" Hamar exclaimed, as he sniffed
+his way into the room and sat on the bed. "Why, from what you fellows
+told me last night I thought you were cleared out. And here you are,
+stuffing like roosters! You look a bit surprised to see me, but you'll
+look more surprised, I reckon, when I tell you what brings me here.
+You remember that book?"
+
+Kelson and Curtis nodded.
+
+"Well," Hamar went on. "I read it after you left last night, and I've
+come to the conclusion that there's something in it that may be of use
+to us."
+
+"Us!" Curtis ejaculated.
+
+"Yes! Us!" Hamar mimicked. "It contains full particulars of how we can
+get in touch with certain Occult Powers--that can give us money or
+anything else we want!"
+
+"Rot, of course!" Curtis said.
+
+"You say that now. But, listen to me," Hamar replied. "Since I've read
+that book, I believe there's a lot more in Occultism than people
+imagine. You may recollect the name of the author of the book--Thomas
+Maitland? Well! to begin with, he impresses me as being truthful; and
+he not only believed in Magic but he practised it. If he hadn't gone
+into details I shouldn't think anything of it, but he's so darned
+thorough, and tells you exactly what you've got to do to get in touch
+with the Occult Powers and to practise sorcery. He learned it all from
+that old MS. he found, written by an Atlantean; and the Atlanteans, he
+says, were adepts in every form of Occultism. I tell you, this chap
+himself scoffed at it at first; and it was more out of curiosity, he
+says, than because he was convinced, that he began to experiment. He
+afterwards came to the conclusion that the Atlanteans were no fools.
+What they had written about the Occult was absolutely correct--there
+was another world, and it was possible to get in touch with it. Now,
+if Thomas Maitland was able to practise sorcery, why can't we? There
+was a gap of close on twenty thousand years between his time and that
+of Atlantis, and there's not much more than two hundred years between
+his day and ours. But, of course, if you're going to pooh-pooh the
+whole thing I won't trouble to tell you any more!"
+
+"Well, Leon," Kelson ejaculated, "magic and sorcery do seem a trifle
+out of date, don't they? Could any one look out of the window at what
+is going on in the streets below, and at the same time believe in
+fairies and hobgoblins? Still the book made a bit of an impression on
+me, so that I'm inclined to agree with you. Anyway, go ahead! Ed is
+agreeable, aren't you, Ed?"
+
+Curtis gave a sulky nod. "I'm not averse to anything that may put us
+in the way of a livelihood," he said.
+
+Hamar, somewhat appeased, briefly informed them of the tests and other
+preliminaries necessary for the acquirement of the Black Art, and
+without more ado proposed that they--the three of them--should form a
+Syndicate and call it the Sorcery Company Limited. "To begin with," he
+said, "we might sell tricks and spells, and later on tackle something
+more subtle. Why, we could soon knock all the jugglers and doctors on
+the head--and make a huge fortune."
+
+"That is to say if it isn't all humbug!" Curtis observed.
+
+"Well--do you or don't you think it worth trying?" Hamar cut in. "You
+call me a Jew--but Jews, you know, have a tolerably cool head, and a
+keen faculty for business. They don't touch anything unless it is
+pretty certain to bring them in money. Will you try?"
+
+"Y-e-s!" Curtis said slowly; "I'll try."
+
+"And you, Matt?" Hamar queried. "We must have three."
+
+"I don't mind trying," Kelson replied. "I expect it will be only a
+try."
+
+"That settles it, then!" Hamar cried. "Now, we'll get to business. To
+begin with we're all wholly occupied with things of this world--money
+chiefly!"
+
+"Sometimes music!" Curtis said sententiously.
+
+"And sometimes girls," Kelson joined in. "Music's a pose on Ed's part.
+I don't believe he really cares a bit for it. He's far too material."
+
+"Just what I want him to be!" Hamar laughed. "Girls are material
+enough too--especially when you take them out to supper. Anyhow, money
+is our first consideration, isn't it?"
+
+To this there was general assent.
+
+"The preliminary requirement is fixed then," Hamar said. "Now for the
+week of wild oats! Lying, stealing, cheating--anything to counteract
+the code of Moses! Let's take them in turn. Lying won't trouble us
+much. Every one lies. Lying is the stock-in-trade of doctors, lawyers,
+sky pilots, storekeepers--"
+
+"And dentists!" Curtis chimed in.
+
+"And shop girls!" Kelson added.
+
+"All women--rich as well as poor!" Hamar went on. "Lying is woman's
+birthright. She lies about her age, her looks, her clothes--everything.
+With a lie she sends callers away, and when she is in the mood,
+entertains them with lies. Women are born liars, but they are not the
+only liars. In these days of keen competition every one lies--every
+editor, publisher, undertaker, piano-tuner, dustman--they couldn't live
+if they didn't. Moreover lying is natural to us all. Every child lies
+as soon as it can speak; and education merely teaches him to lie the
+more effectually. Lying comes just as natural as sweating--"
+
+"Or kissing," Kelson interrupted.
+
+"Or any of the other so-called vices," Hamar continued. "So we can
+manage that all right. As to cheating--having nothing to cheat
+with--according to instructions we've got to keep in with each other,
+so present company is excepted--we must pass over that. Now--how about
+thieving!"
+
+"Never done any yet, so can't say," Curtis exclaimed.
+
+"Nor I either," Kelson put in rather hurriedly.
+
+"Well, I didn't suppose you had!" Hamar laughed; "though, after all,
+more than half the world does thieve--all employers steal labour from
+their employés, all tradesmen steal a profit--the wholesale man from
+the middleman--the middleman from the retailer. Every Government
+thieves. Look at England--righteous England! At one time or another
+she has stolen land in every part of the world. But theft is an ugly
+word. When statesmen steal it's called diplomacy, when the rich steal
+it's called kleptomania or business, and it's only when the poor steal
+that stealing is termed theft. We who have every excuse--we who are
+starving--will be content with--that is to say--we will only
+take--just enough to keep us alive--a few lumps of sugar, a handful of
+raisins, or a loaf of bread. How about that?"
+
+"I might manage that," Curtis said. "I might--but I don't want to get
+caught."
+
+"And you, Matt?"
+
+"I don't mind stealing food so much," Kelson said. "In the face of so
+much wealth--and waste too--it seems a bigger sin to starve than to
+steal a loaf of bread."
+
+"The lying and stealing are fixed then," Hamar laughed. "What you have
+to do, too, is to make the most of every opportunity you can find of
+doing people--present company excepted--bad turns."
+
+"I don't see how--in our present condition--we can do any one much
+harm," Curtis remarked. "We haven't even the means to buy a tin sword,
+let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
+instead."
+
+"Possibly--but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!"
+Hamar said. "Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given
+you, and we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TESTS
+
+
+Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door
+and walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.
+
+"I see we are all right so far," he said. "I wondered whether I should
+find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death.
+Have you experimented?"
+
+"We have," Curtis said. "We've done our best. In what way, we prefer
+not to say."
+
+"Perhaps there is no need," Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf
+which bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's
+feet which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A
+handsome overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his
+attention; but that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been
+there on the occasion of his last visit.) "But you had better dry up
+now, Ed," he continued somewhat caustically, "or there'll be no chance
+of forming the Sorcery Society; it will be dissolved before it's
+started. There's no need to ask if you've tried to carry out
+instructions as to thoughts, I see it--in your faces. I could never
+have believed one experimental week in badness would have made such a
+difference to your looks."
+
+"You told us to try hard!" Kelson murmured, "and naturally we did. I
+reckon you've done the same by your expression. I should hardly have
+known you."
+
+"It shows pretty clearly," Curtis said, "what a lot of bad is latent
+in most people; and that the right circumstances only are needed to
+bring it out. Starvation, for instance, is calculated to bring out the
+evil in any one--no matter whom. But what puzzles me, is how we have
+escaped being caught!"
+
+"That's a good sign," Hamar said. "It bears out what is written in the
+book. If you give your whole mind to doing wrong during this trial
+week you'll meet with no mishap. But you must be heart and soul in it.
+Hunger made us--hunger has been our friend."
+
+"What do you mean?" Curtis said.
+
+"Why," Hamar replied, "if we hadn't been well-nigh starving we
+shouldn't have been able to carry out the instructions quite so
+thoroughly."
+
+"Have you, too, stolen?" Curtis queried.
+
+"I have certainly appropriated a few necessaries," Hamar said shortly,
+"but I mean to stop now. We have higher game to fly at. Now, with
+regard to the tests. I have not been idle I can assure you. I have
+secured all the requisites. The mirror and black cat I--well, er--to
+use a conventionalism that comes in rather handy--the mirror and
+cat--I picked up. The skull I borrowed from a medical I know--the
+moth--er--from some one's private collection--and the elderberries,
+hemlock and chemicals I obtained from a drug store man in Battery
+Street with whom I used to deal. The moon will be full to-night so
+that we may as well begin. Will you come round to my room at
+eleven-thirty?"
+
+They promised; and Hamar, as he took his departure, again glanced at
+the handsome fur coat hanging on the door.
+
+He was hardly out of hearing when Curtis looked across at Kelson. "Do
+you think he recognised it!" he whispered. "You may bet he did, and he
+had only just stolen it himself! However, it's his own fault. He told
+us to lie and steal, and we've done his bidding."
+
+"We have indeed!" Kelson sighed; "at least you have. For my part I'd
+rather be content with food!"
+
+"Well, I needed clothes just as much as food!" Curtis snarled. "If I
+went about naked I should only be sent to prison--that's the law. It
+punishes you for taking clothes, and it punishes you for going without
+them. There's logic for you!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson spent the rest of the day indoors; and at night
+sallied forth to Hamar's.
+
+The solitary attic--if one could thus designate a space of about three
+square feet--which comprised Hamar's lodging--had the advantage of
+being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper--at least a
+skyscraper for that part of the city. From its window could be seen,
+high above the serried ranks of chimney-pots on the opposite side of
+the street, those two newly erected buildings: William Carman's chewing
+gum factory in Hearnes Street, and Mark Goddard's eight-storied
+private residence in Van Ness Avenue; and, as if this were not enough
+architectural grace for the eye to dwell on, glimmering away to the
+right was the needle-like spire of Moss Bates's devil-dodging
+establishment in Branman Street; whilst, just behind it, in saucy
+mocking impudence, peeped out the gilded roof of the Knee Brothers'
+recently erected Cinematograph Palace.
+
+All this and more--much more--was to be seen from Hamar's outlook, and
+all for the sum of one dollar and a half per week. When Curtis and
+Kelson entered, the room was aglow with moonlight, and Hamar and the
+black cat were stealthily regarding one another from opposite corners
+of the room. From far away--from somewhere in the very base of the
+building, came the dull echo of a shout, succeeded by the violent
+slamming of a door; whilst from outside, from one of the many deserted
+thoroughfares below, rose the frightened cry of a fugitive woman.
+Otherwise all was comparatively still.
+
+"You're a bit early!" was Hamar's greeting, "but better that than
+late. Everything is ready, and all we've got to do is to wait till
+twelve. Sit down."
+
+They did as they were bid. Presently the cat, forsaking its sanctuary,
+and ignoring Curtis's solicitations, glided across the floor, and
+climbing on to Kelson's knee, refused to budge. The trio sat in
+silence till a few minutes before midnight, when Hamar rose, and,
+selecting a spot where the moonbeams lay thickest, placed thereon the
+tub of water, in which--with its face uppermost--he proceeded to float
+a small mirror, set in a cheap wooden frame. He then calmly produced a
+pocket knife.
+
+"What's that for?" Kelson inquired nervously.
+
+"Blood!" Hamar responded. "One of us must spare three drops. The
+conditions demand it--and after all the ham and sausages you two have
+eaten I think one of you can spare it best. Which of you shall it be?
+Come, there's no time to lose!"
+
+"Matt has more blood than I have!" Curtis growled; "but why not the
+cat?"
+
+"It would spoil our chances with it for the other experiment," Hamar
+said. "It's a sulky, cross-grained brute, and would give us no end of
+trouble. Besides it can bite. Look here, let's draw lots!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson were inclined to demur; but the proposed method was
+so in accordance with custom that there really did not seem any
+feasible objection to raise to it. Accordingly lots were drawn--and
+Hamar himself was the victim. Curtis laughed coarsely, and Kelson hid
+his smiles in the cat's coat. A neighbouring clock now began to strike
+twelve.
+
+"Look alive, Leon!" Curtis cried, nudging Kelson's elbow. "Look alive
+or it will be too late. The Unknown is mighty particular to a few
+seconds. Let me operate on you. I've always fancied I was born to use
+the knife--that I've really missed my vocation. You needn't be
+afraid--there's no artery in the palm of your hand--you won't bleed to
+death."
+
+Thus goaded, Hamar pricked away nervously at his hand, and, after
+sundry efforts, at last succeeded in drawing blood; three drops of
+which he very carefully let fall in the tub.
+
+"I wish it was light so that we could see it," Curtis whispered in
+Kelson's ear. "I believe Jews have different coloured blood to other
+people."
+
+Though Kelson was apprehensive, Hamar did not appear to have heard;
+his whole attention was riveted on the mirror, on the face of which
+was a reflection of the moon.
+
+"I knew nothing would happen," Curtis cried, "you had better wipe your
+knife or you'll be arrested for severing some one's jugular. Hulloa!
+what's up with the cat?"
+
+Hamar was about to tell him to be quiet when Kelson caught his arm.
+"Look, Leon! Look! What's the brute doing? Is it mad?" Kelson gasped.
+
+Hamar turned his head--and there crouching on the floor, in the
+moonlight, was the cat, its hair bristling on end and its green eyes
+ablaze with an expression which held all three men speechless. When
+they were at last able to avert their eyes a fresh surprise awaited
+them; the reflection of the moon in the mirror was red--not an
+ordinary red--not merely a colour--but red with a lurid luminosity
+that vibrated with life--with a life that all three men at once
+recognized as emanating from nothing physical--from nothing good.
+
+It vanished suddenly, quite as suddenly as it had come; and the
+reflection of the moon was once again only a reflection--a white,
+placid sphere.
+
+For some seconds no one spoke. Hamar was the first to break the
+silence. "Well!" he exclaimed, drawing a long breath; "what do you
+think of that!"
+
+"Are you sure you weren't faking?" Curtis said.
+
+"I swear I wasn't," Hamar replied; "besides could any one produce a
+thing like THAT? The cat didn't think it was a fake--it knew what it
+was right enough. Besides, why are your teeth chattering?"
+
+"Why are yours?" Curtis retorted; "why are Matt's?"
+
+"Shall we try the second?" Hamar asked.
+
+"No!" Kelson and Curtis said in chorus. "No! We've had enough for one
+night. We'll be off!"
+
+"I think I'll come with you," Hamar said, "after what has happened I
+don't quite relish sleeping here alone--or rather with that cat.
+Hi--Satan, where are you?"
+
+Satan was not visible. It had probably hidden under the bed, but as no
+one cared to look, its whereabouts remained undiscovered.
+
+With the coming of the sun, the terrors of the night wore off, and the
+trio separated. Hamar would on no account accept his friends'
+invitation to breakfast on the sausages and ham they had run such
+risks in procuring; he made hasty tracks for a snug restaurant in
+Bolter's Street, where he had a sumptuous repast for a dollar; and
+then slunk home.
+
+Shortly before midnight all three met again, and at once commenced
+preparations for the second test. The question arose as to who should
+hold Satan. They all had vivid recollections of the cat's behaviour
+the previous night; consequently no one was anxious to officiate.
+Finally they drew lots, and fate settled on Curtis. An exciting chase
+now began. Satan, demonstrating his resentment of their treatment of
+him, at every turn, knocked over a water bottle, ripped the skin of
+Kelson's knuckles, and made his teeth meet in the fleshy part of
+Curtis's thumb.
+
+"Hulloa! what are you up to?" Curtis savagely demanded, as Hamar
+thrust a cup at him.
+
+"Hold your hand over it!" Hamar said sharply. "Don't suck it! We want
+blood for this test and for the next."
+
+"I wish the brute had bitten you!" Curtis snarled; "then, perhaps, you
+wouldn't be so precious keen on economics. You did right to name it
+Satan! and if it doesn't attract devils nothing will. I'm not going to
+touch it again. See if you can hold the beast by yourself, Matt! It
+seems to be less afraid of you than of either of us."
+
+Kelson called out: "Puss!", and the cat at once came to him.
+
+As it was now striking twelve, Hamar carefully shook three drops of
+Curtis's blood from the cup on to Satan's back, while he instructed
+Kelson to rub the animal's coat with the palm of the hand. Kelson
+cautiously obeyed. There was a loud crackling and a shower of sparks,
+of the same lurid red colour as the reflection in the mirror on the
+previous night, flew out into the enveloping darkness.
+
+"That will do!" Hamar observed quietly. "Test two is satisfactorily
+accomplished. We must be riper for Hell than we imagined. There is no
+need for you fellows to stay any longer. I can manage the third test
+alone."
+
+As soon as his colleagues had gone and he felt assured they were no
+longer within hearing, Hamar took a saucer from the mantelshelf,
+filled it half full of milk, and poured into it some colourless liquid
+out of a tiny phial labelled poison.
+
+"Here pussy," he called out, softly. "Pretty pussy, come and have your
+supper! Pussy!"
+
+And Satan, unable to resist the tempting sight of the milk, crept out
+of his hiding-place and quite unsuspiciously dipped his tongue into
+the saucer and lapped. Hamar, in the meanwhile went to a box at the
+foot of the bed and produced a sack. Then he slipped on his boots and
+coat, and opening the door of a cupboard near the head of the bed
+fetched out a small spade.
+
+He was now ready; and--so was pussy.
+
+"That paves the way for test six," Hamar observed; "no one can say I
+am a waster--I make use of everything--and every one;" and so saying
+he tumbled the cat into the sack and hurried out.
+
+Some half-hour later he had returned to his room, and was busily
+engaged making preparations for test three. Letting a drop of Curtis's
+blood fall on the skull, he put the latter under his pillow, and
+retired to rest. He had slept for little over an hour, when he awoke
+with a start. The muffled sound of hammering--as of nails in a
+coffin--was going on all around him, and occasionally it seemed to him
+that something big and heavy stalked across the floor; but in spite of
+the fact that the room was illuminated with a red glow--the same lurid
+red as had appeared in tests one and two--nothing was to be seen. The
+phenomena lasted five or six minutes and then everything was again
+normal. Hamar was so terrified that he lay with his head under the
+bedclothes till morning, and vowed nothing on earth would persuade him
+to sleep in that room again. But sunlight soon restored his courage,
+and by the evening he was quite eager to go on with the next test. He
+had some difficulty in persuading any one to allow him the use of an
+oven for so pernicious a mixture as nightshade and hemlock; but at
+last he over-ruled the objections of some good-natured woman--the
+mother of one of the office boys at his former employer's--and test
+four proved as successful as the previous three. The preliminary part
+of test five was also successfully accomplished; but in carrying out
+the second part of it, Hamar all but met with disaster. He was walking
+along Kearney Street with the specially prepared hazel twig carefully
+concealed beneath his coat, when just opposite Saddler's jewelry
+store, he came across a child standing by itself. The nearest person
+being some fifty yards away, and no policeman within sight, Hamar
+concluded this was too good an opportunity to be lost. He whipped out
+the twig, and held it, in the manner prescribed, in front of the
+child. The effect was instantaneous. The child turned white as death,
+its eyes bulged with terror, and opening its mouth to its full extent
+it commenced to shriek and yell. Then it fell on the pavement; and
+clutching and clawing the air, and foaming at the mouth rolled over
+and over. People from every quarter flocked to the spot, and judging
+Hamar, from his proximity to the child, to be responsible for its
+condition, shouted for the police. The latter, however, arrived too
+late. Hamar, whose presence of mind had only left him for the moment
+seeing a bicycle leaning against a store door, jumped on it and soon
+put a respectable distance between himself and the crowd.
+
+That night the trio met once more in Hamar's room for test six. There
+was a wood fire in the grate, and on it a tin vessel containing the
+prescribed ingredients. Somewhat unpleasantly conspicuous amongst
+these ingredients were the death's-head moth, and the soil from
+Satan's grave. As soon as the mixture had been heated three hours, the
+vessel was removed, the fire extinguished, and the room made
+absolutely dark. Then the three sat close together and waited.
+
+On the stroke of two every article in the room began to rattle, whilst
+out of the tin vessel flew a blood red moth. After circling three
+times round each of the sitter's heads, the moth flew back again into
+the vessel, and the silence that ensued was followed by a soft tapping
+at the window, and the appearance of something, that resembled a big
+tube filled with a thick, pale blue fluid, made up of a mass of
+distinct veins. This tube floated into the room, and passing close to
+the three sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared
+in the wall, behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had
+broken, terminated the phenomena--the room again becoming pitch dark.
+But the three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
+manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
+huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+
+San Francisco possesses one great advantage--you can easily get out of
+it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
+turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair
+as any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to
+one side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs
+can be traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of
+vines and weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and
+climbing to its heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the
+Coast Range--like a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay,
+sparkling and dancing in the sunlight--steamers flashing their path on
+its bosom; and tiny white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the
+city, its houses, small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas
+boxes; whilst the slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here
+and there are thick clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is
+partly hidden from view by a peak, which rises directly to the west,
+and is separated from that on which one is standing by a deep and
+thickly wooded valley. Descending, by means of a narrow winding path,
+one passes through dense clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash,
+and walnut trees, whose strong lateral branches afford ample
+protection from the sun, and at the same time furnish playgrounds to
+innumerable bright-eyed squirrels. Further down one comes upon gentle
+elms, succeeded by sassafras and locust--these, in their turn,
+succeeded by the softer linden, red bud, catalpa, and maple; and at
+the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom of the valley, wild
+shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and white poplars. Still
+following the path down the vale, in a southerly direction, one, at
+length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by
+trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and there, a
+gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip tree of
+some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and profuse
+blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and splendour;
+there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall and
+slender silver birch. The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most
+part, grass--soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green. The silence
+is such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San
+Francisco can be little over six miles distant. Though one may strain
+one's ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional
+tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of
+birds. It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so
+impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot
+essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.
+
+The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen--and the
+conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be
+a new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in
+opposition to Jupiter,[16] Hamar and his confederates had to wait
+exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests,
+before they could proceed.
+
+Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis
+and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and
+bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in
+hiding, they commenced operations.
+
+On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was
+clearly defined. This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner
+circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next
+drawn. In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the
+first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the
+seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven
+most malignant diseases. Within the second circle, and using the same
+centre, was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each
+part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and
+third circles, were written the names of the seven types of spirits
+most antagonistic to man's moral progress.[17]
+
+Hamar had brought with him a sack--the same he had used to transport
+Satan's corpse--and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby,
+that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was
+tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.
+
+"It's a good thing there is no member of the Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near," Kelson exclaimed,
+eyeing Hamar resentfully. "Wouldn't a mouse or a rat have done as
+well?"
+
+"No!" Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the
+ground; "the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat.
+I got the poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just
+as much as you do."
+
+"How are you going to do it?" Kelson asked.
+
+Hamar pointed to a chopper. "The conditions say with steel," he said;
+"only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
+other way. Now help me with the fire."
+
+Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
+well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
+tin saucepan.
+
+With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle;
+and the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then
+poured into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic
+acid, 1 ounce of verdigris, 1-1/2 ounces of hemlock leaves, 1/2 ounce
+of henbane, 3/4 ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of
+opium, 1 ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of
+poppy-seed, 1/2 ounce of assafoetida, and 1/2 ounce of parsley. As
+soon as the saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar
+threw into it two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.
+
+"Where on earth did you get all those horrors?" Curtis asked,
+shrinking away from the bag which had held them.
+
+"Here," Hamar said laconically. "It's extraordinary what a lot of
+nasty things there are amid so much apparent beauty. I say apparent,
+because Nature is a champion faker. You have only to rake about in
+these bushes and you'll find snakes galore, whilst under pretty nearly
+every stone are centipedes. Like both of you, who never by any chance
+poke your noses outside the city, I fancied snakes and centipedes were
+confined to the prairies. But I know better now. Besides, where do you
+think I found the toads? Why, in the cellars under Meidlers'!"
+
+"What, our late governor's?" Kelson cried.
+
+Hamar nodded. "Yes!" he said; "under the very spot where we used to
+sit. The water's a foot deep in that cellar, and if there are as many
+toads in the cellars of the other houses in the block, then Sacramento
+Street has a corner in them. I'm going to be executioner now, so look
+the other way, Matt!"
+
+Kelson needed no second bidding; and sticking his fingers in his ears,
+walked to some little distance. When Hamar called him back, the deed
+was accomplished--the conditions prescribed in the rites had been
+observed--the tabby was in the saucepan on the fire, and its blood had
+been besprinkled on each of the seven sectors of the circle.
+
+"We must now take our seats on the ground," Hamar said; "I'd better be
+in the centre--you, Matt, on the right, and you, Ed, on the
+left--allowing three clear feet between us."
+
+Hamar showed them how to sit--with legs crossed and arms folded.
+
+For some minutes no one spoke. The wind rustled through the bushes and
+an owl hooted. Kelson, feeling the night air cold, drew his overcoat
+tightly around and the others followed suit. Then Curtis said--
+
+"Do you really think there's anything in it, Leon? Aren't we fools to
+go on wasting our time like this?"
+
+To which Hamar replied: "Shut up! You were frightened enough doing the
+tests!"
+
+From afar off, away on the shimmering bosom of the bay came the faint
+hooting of a steamer.
+
+"That's the _Oleander_!" Kelson murmured.
+
+"Rot!" Curtis snapped. "How do you know? You can't tell from this
+distance. It might be the _Daisy_, or the _San Marie_, or any other
+ship."
+
+Kelson made no reply; Hamar blew his nose, and once again there was
+silence.
+
+The effect of the moonlight had now become weird. From the trees and
+bushes crept legions of tall, gaunt shadows, and whilst some of these
+were explicable, there were others that certainly had no apparent
+counterparts in any of the natural objects around them. Even Curtis,
+in spite of his scoffing, showed no inclination to examine them too
+closely; but kept his face resolutely turned to the more cheery light
+of the fire. The soft, cool, sweet-scented air gradually acted as an
+anæsthetic, and Kelson and Curtis were almost asleep, when Hamar's
+voice recalled them sharply to themselves.
+
+"It's just two!" he said. "Sit tight and listen while I repeat the
+incantation, and for goodness' sake keep cool if anything happens.
+Remember we are here with an object--namely--to get everything we can
+out of the Other World."
+
+"Trust you for that!" Curtis sneered; "but all the same nothing's
+going to happen."
+
+"I am not sure of that," Hamar said, and after a brief pause began to
+repeat these words[18]--
+
+    "Morbas from the mountains,
+    Where flow malignant fountains.
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vampires from the passes,
+    Where grow blood-sucking grasses,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vice Elementals pretty
+    Give ear unto our ditty
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Planetians, forms so fearful,
+    We inform you, eager, tearful,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Clanogrians, things of sorrow.
+    Postpone not till to-morrow,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Barrowvians, shades seclusive,
+    Be not to us exclusive,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Earthbound spirits of the Dead
+    Approach with grim and noiseless tread--
+      We are ready for you--Come!"
+
+He then got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six
+drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux
+vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former
+position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground,
+the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a
+long pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson
+and Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted
+to him.
+
+Hamar then cried: "Creastie havoonen balababoo!"; which Hamar
+explained was Atlantean for "devil of the damned appear!"
+
+"He won't!" Curtis muttered, "because he doesn't exist. There are
+devils--Meidler Brothers were devils--but there is no one devil! It's
+all----" He suddenly stopped and an intense hush fell upon them all.
+
+A cloud obscured the moon, the fire burned dim, and the gloom of the
+amphitheatre thickened till the men lost sight of each other. A cold
+air then rose from the ground and fanned their nostrils. Something
+flew past their heads with an ominous wail; whilst from the direction
+of the fire came a hollow groan.
+
+"The advent of the Unknown," Hamar murmured, "shall be heralded in by
+the shrieking of an owl, the groaning of the mandrake--there is
+mandrake in the saucepan--the croaking of a toad--we haven't had that
+yet!"
+
+"Yes, there it is!" Kelson whispered--and whilst he was speaking there
+came a dismal croak, croak, and the swaying and crying of an
+ash--"Hush!"
+
+They listened--and all three distinctly heard the swishing of a
+slender tree trunk as it hissed backwards and forwards. Then, a cry so
+horrid, harsh and piercing that even the sceptical, sneering Curtis
+gave vent to an expression of fear. Again a hush, and increasing
+darkness and cold. Kelson called out--
+
+"Don't do that, Leon."
+
+"I'm not doing anything," Hamar said testily. "Pull yourself
+together." A moment later he said to Curtis, "It's you, Curtis. Shut
+up. This is no time for monkeying."
+
+"You are both either mad or dreaming," Curtis replied. "I haven't
+stirred from my seat. Hulloa! What's that? What's that, Leon?
+There--over there! Look!"
+
+As Curtis spoke they all three became conscious of living things
+around them--things that moved about, silently and surreptitiously and
+conveyed the impression of mockery. The hills, the valley, the trees
+were full of it--the whole place teemed with it--teemed with silent,
+subtle, stealthy mockery. The senses of the three men were now keenly
+alive, but a dead weight hung upon their limbs and rendered them
+useless. And as they stared into the gloom, in sickly fear, the
+firelight flickered and they saw shadows, such as the moon, when low
+in the heaven, might fashion from the figure of a man; but yet they
+were shadows neither of man, nor God, nor of any familiar thing. They
+were dark, vague, formless and indefinite, and they quivered--quivered
+with a quivering that suggested mockery.
+
+Suddenly the shadows disappeared; the flickering of the flames ceased;
+and in the place of the fire appeared a seething, writhing mass of
+what looked like white luminous snakes. And in the midst of this mass
+sprang up a cylindrical form, which grew and grew until it attained a
+height of ten or twelve feet, when it remained stationary and threw
+out branches. And the three men now saw it was a tree--a tree with a
+sleek, pulpy, semi-transparent, perspiring trunk full of a thick,
+white, vibrating, luminous fluid; and that it was laden with a fruit,
+in shape resembling an apple, but of the same hue and material as the
+trunk. Spread out on the ground around it, were its roots, twitching
+and palpitating with repulsive life, and bare with a bareness that
+shocked the senses. It was so utterly and inconceivably unlike what
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson had imagined the Unknown--and yet, withal, so
+monstrous (not merely in its shape but in its suggestions), and so
+vividly real and livid, that they were not merely terrified--they were
+stricken with a terror that rendered them dumb and helpless. And as
+they looked at it, from out the trunk, shot an enormous thing--white
+and glistening, and fashioned like a human tongue. And after pointing
+derisively at them, it withdrew; whereupon all the fruit shook, as if
+convulsed with unseemly laughter. They then saw between the foremost
+branches of the tree a big eye. The white of it was thick and pasty,
+the iris spongy in texture, and the pupil bulging with a lurid light.
+It stared at them with a steady stare--insolent and quizzical. Hamar
+and his friends stared back at it in fascinated horror, and would have
+continued staring at it indefinitely, had not Hamar's mercenary
+instincts come to their rescue. He recollected that time was pressing,
+and that unless he got into communication with the strange thing at
+once, according to the book, it would vanish--and he might never be
+able to get in touch with it again. Thus egged on, he made a great
+effort to regain his courage, and at length succeeded in forcing
+himself to speak. Though his voice was weak and shaking he managed to
+pronounce the prescribed mode of address, viz.:--"Bara phonen etek
+mo," which being interpreted is, "Spirit from the Unknown, give ear to
+me." He then explained their earnest desire to pay homage to the
+Supernatural, and to be initiated into the mysteries of the Black Art.
+When Hamar had concluded his address, the anticipations of the three
+as to how it would be answered, or whether it would be answered at
+all--were such that they were forced to hold their breath almost to
+the point of suffocation. If the Thing _could_ speak what would its
+voice be like? The seconds passed, and they were beginning to prepare
+themselves for disappointment, when suddenly across the intervening
+space separating them from the Unknown, the reply came--came in soft,
+silky, lisping tones--human and yet not human, novel and yet in some
+way--a way that defied analysis--familiar. Strange to say, they all
+three felt that this familiarity belonged to a far back period of
+their existence, no less than to a more modern one--to a period, in
+fact, to which they could affix no date. And, although a perfect unity
+of expression suggested that the utterance of the Thing was the
+utterance of one being only, a certain variation in its tones, a
+rising and falling from syllable to syllable, led them to infer that
+the voice was not the voice of one but of many.
+
+"You are anxious to acquire knowledge of the Secrets associated with
+the Great Atlantean Magic?" the voice lisped.
+
+"We are!" Hamar stammered, "and we are willing to give our souls in
+exchange for them."
+
+"Souls!" the voice lisped, whilst trunk and branches swayed lightly,
+and the air was full of silent merriment. "Souls! you speak in terms
+you do not understand. To acquire the secrets of Black Magic, all you
+have to do is to agree that during a brief period--a period of a few
+months, you will live together in harmony; that you will make use of
+the powers you acquire to the detriment of all save yourselves; that
+you will never allow your minds to revert to anything spiritual;
+and--that you will abstain from--marrying."
+
+"And if we succeed in carrying out the conditions?" Hamar asked.
+
+[Illustration: THE INITIATION]
+
+"Then," the voice replied, "you will retain free, untrammelled
+possession of your knowledge."
+
+"For how long?" Curtis queried.
+
+"For the natural term of your lives--that is to say, for as long as
+you would have lived had you never been initiated into the secrets of
+magic."
+
+"And if we fail?"
+
+"You will pass into the permanent possession of the Unknown."
+
+"Does that mean we shall die the moment we fail?" Kelson inquired
+timidly.
+
+"Die!" the voice lisped. "Again you speak in terms you do not
+understand. You may be sent for."
+
+"You say--in perfect harmony." Hamar put in. "Does that mean without a
+quarrel, however slight?"
+
+"It means without a quarrel that would lead to separation. The moment
+you disunite the compact is broken."
+
+"What advantages will the secrets bring us?" Hamar inquired. "Can we
+gain unlimited wealth?"
+
+"Yes!" the voice replied. "Unlimited wealth and influence."
+
+"And health?"
+
+"So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
+perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?"
+
+"I am ready if you fellows are," Hamar whispered.
+
+"I am!" Curtis cried. "Anything is better than the life we are living
+at present."
+
+"And I, too," Kelson said. "I agree with Ed."
+
+"Very well then," the voice once more lisped. "Each of you take a
+fruit and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot
+back out of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't
+be afraid, step up here and help yourselves--one apiece--mind, no
+more." And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree
+and everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.
+
+"Come on!" Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. "Don't waste time.
+You've decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps.
+I'll go first," and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and
+began to eat it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.
+
+"I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad," Curtis muttered, with a
+retch.
+
+"And I, too," Kelson whispered. "It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I
+am, will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?"
+
+What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
+them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it
+repelled but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as
+the voice--as enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their
+former positions on the ground, and the voice once again addressed
+them.
+
+"The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use
+of the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
+sorcery--you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
+practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period
+of your compact, _i.e._ twenty-one months, and at the end of every
+three months--when a fresh stage is reached--you will receive fresh
+powers.
+
+"In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
+receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
+presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
+thoughts.
+
+"In the second stage--exactly three months from to-day--you will
+receive the gift of second-sight; the power of separating your
+immaterial from your material body and projecting it, anywhere you
+will, on the physical plane; and, to a large extent, you will be
+enabled to circumvent gravity. Thus you will be able to perform all
+manner of jugglery tricks--tricks that will set the whole world
+gaping. Profit by them.
+
+"In the third stage you will possess the secrets of invisibility; of
+walking on the water; of breathing under the water; of taming wild
+beasts; and of understanding their language.
+
+"In the fourth stage you will understand how to inflict all manner of
+diseases, and work all sorts of spells; such, for instance, as
+bewitching milk, causing people to have fits, bad dreams, etc. You
+will also know how to create plagues--plagues of insects, or of any
+other noxious thing.
+
+"In the fifth stage you will possess absolute knowledge of the art of
+medicine and be able to cure every ailment.
+
+"In the sixth stage you will acquire the power of producing vampires
+and werwolves from the human being, and of transforming people from
+the human to any animal guise.
+
+"In the seventh and final stage you will be given the complete mastery
+of every art and science--including astrology, astronomy, necromancy,
+etc.; and for this stage is reserved the greatest power of
+all--namely, the complete dominion over woman's will and affections.
+The powers of creating life, and of extending life beyond the now
+natural limit, and of avoiding accidents, will never be conferred on
+you. Neither shall you learn, not at least during your physical
+existence--who or what we are, or the secrets of creation.
+
+"Each successive stage will cancel the preceding one--that is to say,
+the powers you have acquired in the first stage will be annulled on
+your arriving at the second stage, and so on. But if you carry out
+your compact faithfully--that is to say, if at the end of the
+twenty-one months you are still united--all the powers you have held
+hitherto, in the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and
+remain in your possession permanently. Have you anything to say?"
+
+"Yes!" Hamar answered; "I fully understand all you have explained to
+us and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
+serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
+much--but I must say, it seems very remote--the prospect of gaining
+such tremendous powers--powers that will give us practically
+everything we want--save youth--"
+
+"Youth you will never regain," lisped the voice. "And elixirs of life,
+surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
+planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn
+the most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people
+youthful in appearance."
+
+"Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?" Kelson nerved himself to
+ask.
+
+"They will be revealed to you in various ways--sometimes when asleep.
+You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
+time to-morrow."
+
+"And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money," Curtis remarked.
+
+"No!" the voice replied, "you will not be in want of money. Have you
+anything more to ask?"
+
+No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
+rustling of the wind. The darkness then lifted; but nothing was to be
+seen--nothing save the trees and bushes, moon and stars.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 16: This is a very sinister sign in astrology, denoting
+  the presence of evil influences of all kinds.--(_Author's note._)]
+
+  [Footnote 17: According to Atlantean ideas these spirits were:--Vice
+  Elementals; Morbas (or Disease Elementals); Clanogrians (or
+  malicious family ghosts, such as Banshees, etc.); Vampires;
+  Barrowvians, _i.e._ a grotesque kind of phantasm that frequents
+  places where prehistoric man or beast has been interred; Planetians,
+  _i.e._ spirits inimical to dwellers on this earth that inhabit
+  various of the other planets; and earthbound spirits of such dead
+  human beings as were mad, imbecile, cruel and vicious, together with
+  the phantasms of vicious and mad beasts, and beasts of
+  prey.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+  [Footnote 18: They are a literal translation of the Atlantean by
+  Thos. Maitland, and are very nearly identified with forms of spirit
+  invocation used in Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and among the Red
+  Indians of North and South America.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FIRST POWER
+
+
+After their rencontre with the Unknown, Hamar and his companions did
+not get back to their respective quarters till the sun was high in the
+heavens, and the streets of the city were beginning to vibrate with
+the rattle and clatter of traffic.
+
+"It's all very well--this wonderful compact of ours," Curtis grumbled,
+"but I'm deuced hungry, and Matt and I haven't a cent between us. As
+we went all that way last night to oblige you, Leon, I think it is
+only fair you should stand us treat. I'll bet you have some nickels
+stowed away, somewhere, in those pockets of yours--it wouldn't be you
+if you hadn't! What do you say, Matt?"
+
+"I think as you do," Kelson replied. "We've stood by Leon, he should
+stand by us. How much have you, Leon?"
+
+"How much have you?" Curtis echoed, "come, out with it--no jew-jewing
+pals for me."
+
+"I might manage a dollar," Hamar said ruefully, as the prospect of a
+good meal all to himself, at his favourite restaurant, faded away.
+"Where shall we go?"
+
+Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of
+prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.
+He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty
+woman, and something--a kind of intuition he had never had
+before--told him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented
+with her present situation; that she was engaged to be married to a
+pen driver at Hastings & Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she
+had a mother, of over seventy, whom she kept. All this came to Kelson
+like a flash of lightning.
+
+Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped
+Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm,
+and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.
+
+The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by
+two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas. It
+still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.
+
+"What's the good of coming to a place like this?" Hamar demanded, as
+soon as he had freed himself from Kelson's clutches. "We can't get
+breakfast here."
+
+"Matt's mad, that's what's the matter with him," Curtis added in
+disgust. "Let's get out."
+
+He turned to go--then, halted--and stood still. He appeared to be
+listening. "What's up with you?" Hamar asked. "Both you fellows are
+behaving like lunatics this morning--there's not a pin to choose
+between you."
+
+"They're playing cards, that's all," Curtis said. "Can't you hear
+them?"
+
+Hamar shook his head. "Not a sound," he said. "Just look at Matt!"
+
+While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the
+bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner
+that was peculiar to him--a manner seldom without effect upon girls of
+his class--"I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?
+Jerusalem! Haven't I met you somewhere before?"
+
+The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled. "As like as
+not," she said. "I go pretty near everywhere! What do you want?"
+
+"Well!" Kelson soliloquized; "breakfast is what we are particularly
+anxious for--but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!"
+
+"Then why did you come here?" the girl queried.
+
+"Because of you! Simply because of you," Kelson replied. "You
+hypnotized me!"
+
+"That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast," the girl
+laughed, "though we don't provide them as a rule before nine. Indeed,
+the management have only just decided--this morning--on providing them
+at all."
+
+"How odd!"
+
+"Why odd?" the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her
+curls before a mirror.
+
+"Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment! Had I
+come here yesterday it would have been useless. As I said, you
+hypnotized me. Evidently fate intended us to meet."
+
+"Do you believe in fate?" the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I
+believe in nothing--least of all in men!"
+
+"You say so!" Kelson observed, before he knew what he was saying. "And
+yet you have just got engaged to one. But you've got a bad attack of
+the pip this morning, you have had enough of it here--you want to get
+another post."
+
+The girl ceased doing her hair and eyed him in amazement. "Well!" she
+said. "Of all the queer men I've ever met you are the queerest. Are
+you a seer?"
+
+"No!" Hamar observed, suddenly joining in. "He's only very hungry,
+miss. Hungry body and soul! hungry all over. And so are we."
+
+"Well, then, go into the room over there," the girl cried, pointing in
+the direction of a half-open door, "and breakfast will be brought you
+in half a jiffy."
+
+"Who's that playing cards?" Curtis asked.
+
+"How do you know any one is playing cards?" the girl queried with an
+incredulous stare. "You can't see through walls, can you?"
+
+"No! and I'm hanged if I can explain," Curtis said, "I seem to hear
+them. There are two--one is called Arnold, and the other Lemon, or
+some such name, and they are rehearsing certain card tricks they mean
+to play to-night."
+
+"That's right," the girl said, "two men named Arnold and Lemon are
+here. They were playing all last night with two of the clerks in
+Willows Bank, in Sacramento Street, and they cleared them out of every
+cent. You knew it!"
+
+"No! I didn't," Curtis growled, "I don't lie for fun, and I'm just as
+much in a fog, as to how I know, as you are. Let's have breakfast now,
+and we'll look up these two gents afterwards, if they haven't gone."
+
+"Your friend's a brute, I don't like him," the girl whispered to
+Kelson. "Let him lose all he's got--you stay out here."
+
+"Nothing I should like better," Kelson said, "it's a bargain!"
+
+The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
+bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
+Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
+directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
+building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
+drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.
+
+"It's a funny thing," one of them exclaimed, "we can't be allowed to
+sit here in peace--when there's so much spare space in the house."
+
+"We beg your pardon for intruding," Curtis said, "but my friend and I
+came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri
+way, and don't often get the chance to run up to town."
+
+"Farmers, are you!" the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
+both closely. "You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were
+also wanting to have a game--would you care to join us?"
+
+"By all means," Curtis at once exclaimed. "What do you play?"
+
+"Poker!" the man said, "Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
+which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen
+before, though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute." He
+then proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick,
+the secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.
+
+"I wouldn't give you a cent for it!" Curtis snapped. "Any one can see
+how it is done."
+
+"You can't!" the man retorted, turning red. "I'll wager twenty dollars
+you can't." Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He
+had seen through it at a glance--there appeared no difficulty in it at
+all; and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the
+day before, he would have utterly failed.
+
+"Now," he said, "give me the money,"--and the man complied with an
+oath.
+
+"Any more tricks?" Curtis asked complacently.
+
+"I know heaps," the man rejoined. "There's one you won't guess--the
+seven card trick."
+
+He did it. And so did Curtis.
+
+"Well I'm----" the man called Lemon ejaculated.
+
+"He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
+Prince and Slipper, Arnold!"
+
+Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.
+
+"Why!" he said, "that's the simplest of all! See!" And it was done.
+"You two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not
+shine to-night. How about a game of Don?"
+
+Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
+out, "It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve.
+You've some up yours, too, Arnold--the deuce of clubs and the deuce of
+hearts. Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears
+on the backs. I'll show you how." He told the cards correctly--there
+was no gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.
+
+"What are you, anyway?" Lemon asked; "tecs?"
+
+"Never mind what we are!" Curtis said savagely. "We know what you
+are--and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay
+us to hold our tongues?"
+
+"Pay you!" Lemon hissed. "Why, damn you--nothing. We're not bankers.
+All we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else."
+
+"That might not be so easy as you imagine," Hamar interposed. "We
+would make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to
+terms? We'll not be over exorbitant--and consider the convenience of
+not having to shift your quarters."
+
+"Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,"
+Lemon said. "Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these.
+Farmers, indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do
+you want?"
+
+After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
+dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
+means dissatisfied with their bargain.
+
+They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
+engaged in a desperate _tête-à-tête_ with the young lady at the bar,
+who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the
+room her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
+o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
+such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
+rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
+allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.
+
+On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first
+of all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
+themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took
+rooms at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's
+boot store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob
+Hill dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde--of the
+bonanza and railroad set--and making eyes at all the pretty wives and
+daughters they met, cogitated fresh devices for making money. As they
+sauntered across Pacific Avenue, in the direction of Californian
+Street, Kelson suddenly gave vent to a whistle.
+
+"What the deuce is wrong with you?" Hamar exclaimed. "Seen your
+grandmother's ghost?"
+
+"No! but I've seen the inner readings of that lady yonder," Kelson
+replied, indicating with a jerk of his finger a fashionably dressed
+woman walking towards them on the other side of the road. "The deuce
+knows how it all comes to me, but I know everything about her, just
+the same as I did with the girl in the dive--though I've never seen
+her before. She is the wife of D.D. Belton, the cotton magnate, who
+lives in a big, white house at the corner of Powell Street--and a
+beauty, I can assure you. Supposed to be most devoted to her husband,
+she is now on her way to keep an appointment with the Rev. J.T.
+Calthorpe of Sancta Maria's Church in Appleyard Street, with whom she
+has been holding clandestine meetings for the past six months."
+
+"Whew!" Hamar ejaculated. "You speak as if it was all being pumped
+into you by some external agency--automatically."
+
+"That's just about what I feel!" Kelson said, "I feel as if it were
+some one else saying all this--some one else speaking through me. Yet
+I know all about that woman, just as much as if I had been acquainted
+with her all my life!"
+
+"It's the first power," Hamar said excitedly, "the power of
+divination. It takes that form with you, and the form of card tricks
+with Ed--with me nothing so far."
+
+"But what shall I do?" Kelson cried. "How can I benefit by it?"
+
+"How can't you?" Curtis growled. "Why, blackmail her! If it is true,
+she will pay you anything to keep your mouth shut. If once you can
+tell a woman's secret, your future's made. All San Francisco will be
+at your mercy--God knows who'll escape! After her at once, you idiot!"
+
+"Now?" Kelson gasped.
+
+"Yes! Now! Follow her to Calthorpe's and waylay her as she comes out.
+You can refer to us as witnesses."
+
+"I feel a bit of a blackguard," Kelson pleaded.
+
+"You look it, anyway," Curtis grinned. "But cheer up--it's the
+clothes. Clothes are responsible for everything!"
+
+After a little persuasion Kelson gave in, but he had to make haste as
+the lady was nearly out of sight. She took a taxi from the stand
+opposite Kitson's hotel, and Kelson took one, too. Two hours later,
+raising his hat, he accosted her as she stood tapping the pavement of
+Battery Street with a daintily shod foot, waiting to cross. "Mrs.
+Belton, I think," he said. The lady eyed him coldly.
+
+"Well!" she said, "what do you want? Who are you?"
+
+"My name can scarcely matter to you," Kelson responded, "though my
+business may. I have been engaged to watch you, and am fully posted as
+to your meetings and correspondence with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe."
+
+"I don't understand you," the lady said, her cheeks flaming. "You have
+made a mistake--a very serious mistake for you."
+
+For a moment Kelson's heart failed. He was still a clerk, with all the
+humility of an office stool and shining trousers' seat thick on him,
+whilst she was a _grande dame_ accustomed to the bows and scrapes of
+employers as well as employed.
+
+Several people passed by and stared at him--as he thought--suspiciously,
+and he felt that this was the most critical time in his life, and
+unless he pulled through, smartly in fact, he would be done once and
+for all. If he didn't make haste, too, the woman would undoubtedly
+call a policeman. It was this thought as well as--though, perhaps,
+hardly as much as--the look of her that stimulated Kelson to action.
+He hated behaving badly to women; but was this thing, dressed in a
+skirt that fitted like a glove and showed up every detail of her
+figure--this thing with the paint on her cheeks, and eyebrows, and
+lips--artistically done, perhaps, but done all the same--this thing
+all loaded with jewellery and buttons--this thing--a woman! No! She
+was not--she was only a millionaire's plaything--brainless,
+heartless--a hobby that cost thousands, whilst countless men such as
+he--starved. He detested--abominated such luxuries! And thus nerved he
+retorted, borrowing some of her imperiousness--
+
+"Do you deny, madam, that for the past two hours you've been sitting
+on the sofa of the end room of the third floor of No. 216, Market
+Street, flirting with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe, whom you call
+'Mickey-moo'; that you gave him a photo you had taken at Bell's Studio
+in Clay Street, specially for him; that you gave him five greenbacks
+to the value of one hundred and fifty dollars, and that you've planned
+a moonlight promenade with him to-morrow, when your husband will be in
+Denver?"
+
+"Don't talk so loud," the lady said in a low voice. "Walk along with
+me a little and then we shan't be noticed. I see you do know a good
+deal--how, I can't imagine, unless you were hidden somewhere in the
+room. Who has employed you to watch me?"
+
+"That, madam, I can't say," Kelson truthfully responded.
+
+"And I can't think," the lady said, "unless it is some woman enemy.
+But, after all, you can't do much since you hold no proofs--your word
+alone will count for nothing."
+
+"Ah, but I have strong corroborative evidence," Kelson retorted. "I
+have the testimony of at least two other people who know quite as much
+as I do."
+
+"Adventurers like yourself," the lady sneered. "My husband would
+neither believe you nor your friends."
+
+"He would believe your letters, any way," said Kelson.
+
+"My letters!" the lady laughed, "You've no letters of mine."
+
+"No, but I know where the correspondence that has passed between you
+and the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is to be found. He has sixty-nine letters
+from you all tied up in pink ribbon, locked up in the bottom drawer of
+the bureau in his study at the Vicarage. Some of the letters begin
+with 'Dearest, duckiest, handsomest Herby'--short for Herbert; and
+others, 'Fondest, blondest, darlingest Micky-moo!' Some end with 'A
+thousand and one kisses from your loving and ever devoted Francesca,'
+and others with 'Love and kisses ad infinitum, ever your loving,
+thirsting, adoring one, Toosie!' Nice letters from the wife of a
+respectable Nob Hill magnate to a married clergyman!"
+
+The lady walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone.
+"I can't understand it," she panted; "somebody has played me false."
+
+"As the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is on his way to Sacramento, where he has
+to remain till to-morrow," Kelson went on pitilessly, "it will be the
+easiest thing in the world to get those letters. I have merely to call
+at the house and tell his wife."
+
+"And what good will that do you?" the lady asked.
+
+"Revenge! I hate the rich," Kelson said. "I would do anything to
+injure them."
+
+"You are a Socialist?"
+
+"An Anarchist! But come, you see I know all about you and that I have
+you completely in my power. If once either your husband or Mrs.
+Calthorpe gets hold of those letters--you and your lover would have a
+very unpleasant time of it."
+
+"You're a devil!"
+
+"Maybe I am--at all events I'm talking to one. But that's neither here
+nor there. I want money. Give me a thousand dollars and you'll never
+hear from me again."
+
+"Blackmail! I could have you arrested!"
+
+"Yes, and I would tell the court the whole history of your intrigues!
+That wouldn't help you,"--and Kelson laughed.
+
+"Could I count on you not molesting me again if I were to pay you?"
+the lady said mockingly.
+
+"You could."
+
+"Do you ever speak the truth?"
+
+"You needn't judge every one by your own standard of morality--the
+standard set up by the millionaire's wife," Kelson said. "I swear that
+if you pay me a thousand dollars I will never trouble you again."
+
+The lady grew thoughtful, and for some minutes neither of them spoke.
+Then she suddenly jerked out: "I think, after all, I'll accept your
+proposal. Wait outside here and you shall have what you want within an
+hour."
+
+"Not good enough," Kelson said, "I prefer to come with you to your
+house and wait there."
+
+The lady protested, and Kelson consented to wait in the street outside
+her house, where, eventually, she delivered the money into his hands.
+
+"I've kept my word," she said, "and if you're half a man you'll keep
+yours."
+
+Kelson reassured her, and more than pleased with himself, made for the
+hotel, where the three of them were now stopping.
+
+This was merely a beginning. Before the day was out he had secured two
+more victims. No woman whose character was not without blemish was
+safe from him--his wonderful newly acquired gift enabling him to
+detect any vice, no matter how snugly hidden. And this wonderful power
+of discernment brought with it an expression of mystery and
+penetration which, by enhancing the effect of the power, made the
+application of it comparatively easy. Kelson had only to glide after
+his victim, and with his eyes fixed searchingly on her, to say,
+"Madam, may I have a word with you?"--and the battle was more than
+half won--the women were too fascinated to think of resistance.
+
+For example, shortly after his initial adventure, he saw a very
+smartly dressed woman in Van Ness Avenue peep about furtively, and
+then stop and speak to a little child, who was walking with its nurse.
+Divination at once told him everything--the lady was the mother of the
+child, but its father was not her legitimate husband, W.S. Hobson, the
+millionaire mine owner.
+
+When Kelson courteously informed her he was in possession of her
+secret--a secret she had felt positively certain only one other person
+knew, she went the colour of her pea-green sunshade and attempted to
+remonstrate. But Kelson's appearance, no less than his marvellous
+knowledge of her life, and character dumbfounded her--she was simply
+paralysed into admission; and before he left her, Kelson had added
+another thousand dollars to his hoard.
+
+That evening, close to the Academy of Science in Market Street, he saw
+a lady get out of a taxi and quickly enter a pawnbroker's. Her whole
+life at once rose up before him. She was Ella Crockford, the wife of
+the Californian Street Sugar King, and, unknown to her husband, she
+spent her afternoons at a gambling saloon in Kearney Street, where she
+ran through thousands.
+
+She was now about to pledge her husband's latest present to her--a
+diamond tiara, one of the most notable pieces of jewellery in the
+country--in the hope that she would soon win back sufficient money at
+cards to redeem it.
+
+Kelson stopped her as she came out, and in a marvellously few words,
+proved to her that he knew everything. Her amazement was beyond
+description.
+
+"You must be a magician," she said, "because I'm certain no one saw me
+take my jewel-case out of the drawer--no one was in the room! And as I
+put it in my muff immediately, no one could have seen it as I left the
+house. Besides, I never told a soul I intended pawning it, so how is
+it possible you could know--and be able to repeat the whole of the
+conversation I had with Walter Le-Grand, to whom I lost so heavily
+last night? Tell me, how do you know all this?"
+
+But Kelson would tell her nothing--nothing beyond her own sins and
+misfortunes.
+
+"I have nothing to give you," she told him. "I dare not ask my husband
+for more money."
+
+"What, nothing!" Kelson replied, "When the pawnbroker has just
+advanced you fifty thousand dollars. You call that nothing? Be pleased
+to give me one thousand, and congratulate yourself that I do not ask
+for all your 'nothing.'" And as neither tears nor prayers had any
+effect, she was obliged to pay him the sum he asked.
+
+Flushed and excited with victory, and thinking, perhaps, that he had
+done enough for one day, Kelson took his spoils to a bank near the
+Palace Hotel, and for the first time in his career opened a banking
+account. As he was leaving the building he ran into Hamar, bent on a
+similar errand. The two gleefully compared notes.
+
+"I thought," Hamar said, "my turn would never come, and that I must
+have done something to get out of favour with the Unknown; but as I
+was sitting in the Pig and Whistle Saloon in Corn Street drinking a
+lager, I suddenly felt a peculiar throbbing sensation run up my left
+leg into my left hand, and the floor seemed to open up, and I saw deep
+below me, in a black pit, a skeleton clutching hold of a linen bag,
+full of coins. I could see the gold quite distinctly--Spanish doubles,
+none newer than the eighteenth century. I knew then that the Unknown
+had not forgotten me. 'Look here, boss,' I said to old man Moss--the
+proprietor, you know--'You're a bit of a juggins to go on working with
+so much money under here,'--and I pointed to the floor.
+
+"'I'm surprised at you, Hamar,' Moss said, cocking an eye at me, 'and
+lager, too!'
+
+"'No, old man!' I said, 'I'm not drunk. I'm sober and serious. You've
+got a cellar below here, haven't you?'
+
+"'Well, and what if I have!' Moss retorted, drawing a step closer and
+running his eyes carefully over me. 'What if I have! There's no harm
+in that, is there?'
+
+"'You keep all your stock down there,' I went on, 'and more beside. I
+can see a hat-pin with a gold nob, that's not your wife's, and a pair
+of shoes with dandy silver buckles, that's not intended for your wife,
+nohow.'
+
+"At that Moss made a queer noise in his throat, and I thought he was
+going to have a fit. 'What--what the devil are you talking about?' he
+gurgled.
+
+"'I wish I had had you with me--then, Matt, for you could have
+doubtless summed up the woman to him--she was a blank to me--I only
+divined one had been there. 'Yes, Mr. Mossy,' I said, 'you're a gay
+deceiver and no mistake! I know all about it!'
+
+"'Do you,' he said, eyeing me excitedly. 'Do you know all about it?
+I'm not so sure, but in order to avoid running any risks, drop your
+voice a bit and have a cocktail with me!'
+
+"He poured me out one, and I went on softly, 'Well, boss Moss,' I
+said, 'we'll leave the female out of the question for the present.
+Underneath this cellar of yours, is a pit.'
+
+"'I'm damned if there is!' Moss snorted; 'leastways, it's the first
+I've ever heard of it.'
+
+"'And in this pit,' I said, 'is the skeleton of a Spanish buccaneer
+called Don Guzman, who landed in this port on August 10, 1699, and
+after robbing and slicing up a family of the name of Hervada, who
+lived on the site of what is now the Copthorne Hotel, was hurrying off
+with all their money and jewels, when he fell into a pit, covered with
+brambles and briars, and broke his neck.'
+
+"'And you expect me to believe this cock and bull story,' Moss
+growled. 'Being out of a job so long has made you balmy.'
+
+"'It hasn't made me too balmy not to see through the way you deceive
+your wife, Moss,' I said. 'I'll bet she would think me sane enough if
+I were to tell her all I know. But I'll spare you if you will take me
+into your cellar and help me to do a bit of excavation there. But
+promise, mind you, that we will go shares in what we find.'
+
+"'Oh, I'll promise right enough,' Moss replied. 'I'll promise
+anything--if only to keep you from talking such moonshine.'
+
+"Well, in the end I prevailed upon him to accompany me, and we went
+into the cellar--just as I had depicted it--armed with a pick-axe and
+crowbar. Moss growling and jeering every step he took, and I, deadly
+in earnest.
+
+"'It's under here,' I said, halting over a flagstone in the corner of
+the vault. 'But before we do anything you had better hide that hat-pin
+and these shoes, or your missis will find them. She'll hear us
+scraping and come to see what's up.'
+
+"Moss, who was in a vile temper all the time, made a grab at the
+things, pricking his finger and swearing horribly. In the meanwhile I
+had set to work, and, with his aid, raised the stone. We dug for
+pretty nearly an hour, Moss calling upon me all the time to 'chuck
+it,' when I suddenly struck something hard--it was the skeleton and
+close beside it, was the bag. You should have seen Moss then. He was
+simply overcome--called me a wizard, a magician, and heaven alone
+knows what, and fairly stood on his head with delight when we opened
+the bag, and hundreds of gold coins and precious stones rolled out on
+the floor. He wanted to go back on his word then, and only give me a
+handful; but I was too smart for him, and swore I would tell his wife
+about the girl unless he gave me half. When we were leaving the
+cellar, of course, he wanted me to go first, so that he could follow
+with the pickaxe, but here again I was too sharp for him--and I got
+safely out of the place with my pockets bulging. I went right away to
+Prescott's in Clay Street, and let the lot go for three thousand
+dollars. I wonder how Curtis has got on!"
+
+They walked together to the hotel, and found Curtis busily engaged
+eating. "I've worked hard," he said, "and now I'm in for enjoying
+myself. I've made them get out a special menu for me, and I'm going to
+eat till I can't hold another morsel. I've starved all my life and now
+I intend making up for it."
+
+"Been successful?" Hamar asked, winking at Kelson.
+
+"Pretty well! Nothing to grumble at," Curtis rejoined, pouring himself
+out a glass of champagne. "First of all I went to Simpson's Dive in
+Sacramento Street, and started doing the tricks we discovered
+yesterday. Not a soul in the place could see through them, and I made
+about two hundred dollars before I left. I then had lunch."
+
+"Why you had lunch with us!" Hamar laughed.
+
+"Well, can't I have as many lunches as I like?" Curtis replied. "I had
+lunch, I say, at a place in Market Street, and there I read in a paper
+that Peters & Pervis, the tin food people, were offering a prize of
+three thousand dollars for a solution to a puzzle contained on the
+inside cover of one of their tins. I immediately determined to enter
+for it. I bought a tin and saw through the puzzle at once. Bribing a
+policeman to go with me to see fair play, off I set to Peters &
+Pervis'.
+
+"'I want to see your boss,' I said to the first clerk I saw.
+
+"'Which of them?' the clerk grunted, his cheeks turning white at the
+sight of the policeman.
+
+"'Either will do,' I replied, 'Peters or Pervis. Trot 'em up, time is
+precious.'
+
+"Away he went, but in a couple of minutes was back again, looking
+scared, 'They're both engaged,' he says.
+
+"'Then they'll have to break it off,' I responded, 'and mighty quick.
+I'm here to talk with them, so get a move on you again and give that
+message.'
+
+"If it hadn't been for the policeman I don't think he would have gone,
+but the policeman backed me up, and the clerk hurried off again; and
+in the end the bosses decided they had better see me. They looked
+precious cross, I can assure you, but before I had done speaking they
+looked crosser still.
+
+"'You say you've done that puzzle,'--they shouted--'the puzzle that
+has stuck all the mathematical guns at Harvard and Yale--you--a
+nonentity like you--begone, sir, don't waste our time with such humbug
+as that.'
+
+"'All right,' I said, 'give me some paper and a pen, and I'll prove
+it.'
+
+"'That's very reasonable,' the policeman chipped in, 'do the thing
+fair and square--I'm here as a witness.'
+
+"Well, with much grunting and grumbling they handed me paper and ink,
+and in a trice the puzzle was done; and it appeared so easy that the
+policeman clapped his hands and broke out into a loud guffaw. My eyes!
+you should have seen how the faces of Pervis and Peters fell, and have
+heard what they said. But it was no use swearing and cursing, the
+thing was done, and there was the policeman to prove it.
+
+"'We'll give you five hundred dollars,' they said, 'to clear out and
+say no more about it.'
+
+"'Five hundred dollars when you've advertised three thousand,' I
+cried. 'What do you take me for? I'll have that three thousand or I'll
+show you both up.'
+
+"'A thousand, then?' they said.
+
+"'No!' I retorted; 'three! Three, and look sharp. And look here,' I
+added, as my glance rested on some of the samples of their pastes they
+had round them, 'I understand the secrets of all these so-called
+patents of yours--there isn't one of them I couldn't imitate. Take
+that "Rabsidab," for instance. What is it? Why, a compound of
+horseflesh, turnips and popcorn, flavoured with Lazenby's sauce--for
+the infringement of which patent you are liable to prosecution--and
+coloured with cochineal. Then there's the stuff you label
+"Ironcastor,"'--but they shut me up. 'There, take your three thousand
+dollars, write us out a receipt for it, and clear.'"
+
+"Nine thousand dollars in one day! We've done well," Kelson
+ejaculated. "What's the programme for to-morrow?"
+
+"Same as to-day and plenty of it," Curtis said, pouring himself out
+another glass of champagne and making a vigorous attack on a chicken.
+"I think I'll let you two fellows do all the work to-morrow, and
+content myself here. Waiter! What time's breakfast?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+
+Curtis was as good as his word. The following day he remained indoors
+eating, and planning what he should eat, whilst Hamar and Kelson went
+out with the express purpose of adding to their banking accounts.
+
+In a garden in Bryant Street, Hamar saw a man resting on his spade and
+mopping the perspiration from his forehead. As he stopped mechanically
+to see what was being done, a cold sensation ran up his right leg into
+his right hand, the first and third fingers of which were drawn
+violently down. With a cry of horror he shrank back. Directly beneath
+where he had been standing, he saw, under a fifteen or sixteen feet
+layer of gravel soil--water; a huge caldron of water, black and
+silent; water, that gave him the impression of tremendous depth and
+coldness.
+
+"Hulloa! matey, what's the matter?" the man with the spade called out.
+"Are you looking for your skin, for I never saw any one so completely
+jump out of it?"
+
+"So would you," Hamar said with a shudder, "if you saw what I do!"
+
+"What's that, then?" the man said leering on the ground. "Snakes!
+That's what I always see when I've got them."
+
+"So long as you don't see yourself, there's some chance for you!"
+Hamar retorted. "What makes you so hot?"
+
+"Why, digging!" the man laughed; "any one would get hot digging at
+such hard ground as this. As for a little whippersnapper like you,
+you'd melt right away and only your nose would remain. Nothing would
+ever melt that--there's too much of it."
+
+Hamar scowled. "You needn't be insulting," he said, "I asked you a
+civil question, and I repeat it. What makes you so hot--when you
+should be cold--or at least cool?"
+
+"Oh, should I!" the man mimicked, "I thought first you was merely
+drunk; I can see quite clearly now that you're mad."
+
+"And yet you have such defective sight."
+
+"What makes you say that?" the man said testily.
+
+"Why," Hamar responded, "because you can't see what lies beneath your
+very nose. Shall I tell you what it is?"
+
+"Yes, tell away," the man replied, "tell me my old mother's got twins,
+and that Boss Croker is coming to lodge with us. I'd know you for a
+liar anywhere by those teeth of yours."
+
+"Look here," said Hamar drawing himself up angrily, "I have had enough
+of your abuse. If I have any more I'll tell your employers. It is
+evident you take me for a bummer, but see,"--and plunging his hand in
+his pocket he pulled it out full of gold. "Kindly understand I'm
+somebody," he went on, "and that I'm staying at one of the biggest
+hotels in the town."
+
+"I'm damned if I know what to make of you," the man muttered, "unless
+you're a hoptical delusion!"
+
+"Underneath where I was standing--just here,"--and Hamar indicated the
+spot--"is water. Any amount of it, you have only to sink a shaft
+fifteen feet and you would come to it."
+
+"Water!" the man laughed, "yes, there is any amount of it--on your
+brain, that's the only water near here."
+
+"Then you don't believe me?" Hamar demanded.
+
+"Not likely!" the man responded, "I only believe what I see! And when
+I see a face like yours holding out a potful of dollars, I know as how
+you've stolen them. Git!"--and Hamar flew.
+
+But Hamar was not so easily nonplussed; not at least when he saw a
+chance of making money. Entering the garden, and keeping well out of
+sight of the gardener, he arrived at the front door by a side path, and
+with much formality requested to see the owner of the establishment.
+The latter happening to be crossing the hall at the time, heard Hamar
+and asked what he wanted.
+
+Hamar at once informed him he was a dowser, and that, chancing to pass
+by the garden on his way to his hotel, he had divined the presence of
+water.
+
+"I only wish there were," the gentleman exclaimed, "but I fear you are
+mistaken. I have attempted several times to sink a well but never with
+the slightest degree of success. I have had all the ground carefully
+prospected by Figgins of Sacramento Street--he has a very big
+reputation--and he assures me there isn't a drop of water anywhere
+near here within two hundred feet of the surface."
+
+"I know better," Hamar said. "Will you get your gardener--who by the
+way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him--to dig where I
+tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination."
+
+The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. assented, and
+several gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were
+soon digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was
+found, and, indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few
+minutes it had risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.
+
+"I shall send an account of it to the local papers," Mr. B. remarked.
+"Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of
+my property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am"--and
+he, then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.
+
+After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque--rather in excess
+of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not
+have refrained from demanding much longer.
+
+In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the
+incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was
+so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel
+deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.
+
+At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but,
+nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed
+them with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to
+tell him to "dry up."
+
+"I began the morning," he commenced, "by accosting a very fashionably
+dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.
+Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater,
+the Biscuit King of Nob Hill, and that she was carrying in her big
+seal-skin muff a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald butterfly, a
+silver-backed hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a
+porcelain jar, all of which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was
+looking.
+
+"I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning,
+Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'
+
+"'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are
+you?'
+
+"'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would
+be otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a
+favour, Mrs. Bater.'
+
+"'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a
+very extraordinary individual.'
+
+"'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your
+muff? I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid
+for--and I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first
+time such a thing has happened.'
+
+"She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever
+do you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to
+me.'
+
+"'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a
+pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them
+each minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a
+silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad--if
+you prefer to call it so--from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a
+tortoiseshell manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the
+same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver buttons, a
+glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cushion--you likewise helped yourself
+to--from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them
+to you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with
+them. You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco
+storekeepers.'
+
+"'Good God, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the
+innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'
+
+"'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and
+almost failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I
+didn't kiss her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping
+mouth and--"
+
+"Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks," Curtis
+interrupted, "I've got a touch of indigestion."
+
+"As I was saying," Kelson went on complacently, "I could have kissed
+her and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.
+
+"'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing?
+Show me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.
+
+"'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will
+agreeto say nothing about either this or any of your other--ahem!--
+thefts--if you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for
+a thousand dollars!'
+
+"'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'
+
+"'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I assure you, Mrs.
+Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman
+and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other
+things about you.'
+
+"'What other things?' she stuttered.
+
+"'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate--er--for
+single men like me to mention, but I do know that--er--a lady--very
+like--remarkably like--you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle
+which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as,
+madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years--let me see--yes, two
+years yesterday--one can--!'
+
+"'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will
+give you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'
+
+"'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a
+taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'"
+
+"You got the money?" Hamar queried.
+
+"Yes," Kelson said with a smile, "I got the money--in fact, everything
+I asked for."
+
+There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, "What next?"
+
+"What next!" Kelson said, "why I thought I had done a very good day's
+work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm
+dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming
+out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a
+lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest
+fashion costumes--a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high
+plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so
+admirably suited to pretty girls--because it attracts attention to
+them--should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to
+continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the
+much-pampered and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate;
+that she was in love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas,
+the manager of the Columbian Bank--a young, good-looking fellow, whom
+she had been trying to set against his fiancée, Dora Roberts. Dora is
+only nineteen, very pretty and a trifle giddy--nothing more. But this
+failing of hers--if you can call it a failing, was just the very
+weapon Ella Barlow wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending
+Delmas a series of anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This
+resulted in a breach between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much
+elated, at once tried to step into her shoes. She has been going out a
+good deal with Delmas, who is in reality still very much in love with
+Dora, and consequently exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella,
+anxious to show off a magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her
+father, telephoned to Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where
+she has engaged a box for this evening--fondly hoping that the
+diamonds will bring him up to the scratch, and that he will propose to
+her. When I saw her she was on her way to a notorious quack doctor and
+beauty specialist in Californian Street. She suffers from some nasty
+skin disease, and is in mortal terror lest Delmas should get to know
+of it, and also of the fact that all her teeth are false, and that two
+of her toes are badly deformed."
+
+"By Jupiter!" Hamar ejaculated, "this divination of yours beats mine
+into fits--nothing escapes you!"
+
+"No!" Kelson laughed, "nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical
+was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her
+with his dissecting knife. I saw everything--and what is more I said
+to myself--here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I
+didn't stop her--I let her go."
+
+"Let her go!" Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.
+"You squirrel!"
+
+"Only for a time," Kelson said, "I went to see Delmas!"
+
+"Delmas!" Hamar interlocuted, "why the deuce Delmas?"
+
+"Impulse!" Kelson explained, "purely impulse."
+
+"Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!" Hamar said, "it is
+essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against
+impulse. What did you get out of Delmas?"
+
+"Nothing!" Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, "But the matter
+hasn't ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to
+eat. I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow."
+
+It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and
+Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the
+_Examiner_, when he joined them.
+
+"Well!" Hamar said, looking up at him, "what luck?"
+
+But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then
+lolled back in his seat and began:--
+
+"Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure
+rose to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not
+Herbert! Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'
+
+"'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is
+engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'
+
+"'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated--and by
+Jove the diamonds did shine--she was simply a mass of them, hair,
+neck, arms and fingers--and she had been so well faked up for the
+occasion that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew
+about her--and shuddered.
+
+"'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this
+afternoon, did he not?'
+
+"She nodded.
+
+"'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in
+time to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself,
+and he would join you as soon as possible.'
+
+"'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'
+
+"'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and
+asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he
+would be here by the end of the first act.'
+
+"'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow ejaculated, 'I don't know
+you--I've never seen you before!'
+
+"'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I
+can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest
+you. Have I your permission?'--and without waiting for her reply I sat
+next to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen
+people, and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not
+full up, as the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her
+attention fixed on my face so that she was unaware what was taking
+place, immediately behind her.
+
+"'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of
+any possible interest to me?'
+
+"'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your
+character!'
+
+"'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read
+hands?'
+
+"'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head,
+and feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in
+one!'
+
+"'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of
+all this?'
+
+"'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those
+anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'
+
+"'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous
+letters to do with me?'
+
+"'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their
+contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I
+recited every word in them and told her the hour, day and
+place--namely, when and where each was written, and I summed up by
+asking what she would pay me not to tell Delmas.
+
+"For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim
+and silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying
+with the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed--she did not know
+what course to pursue!
+
+"'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'
+
+"She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I
+don't deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through
+one of the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'
+
+"'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of
+consequence to you as much as to me--is the payment for hushing it
+up!'
+
+"'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her
+excitement, 'pay _you_--you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You--' but I
+can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go
+on till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow,
+why all this fuss--why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We
+must come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely
+I shall tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'
+
+"'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at
+all!'
+
+"'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two
+deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and
+that you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to
+be faked up. I must be brutal--it's no use being anything else to
+women of your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you
+flatter yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What
+have you got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted.
+When she came to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts
+and water--the effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to
+imagine--I again broached the subject.
+
+"'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.
+
+"'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your
+defects will--as far as I am concerned--always remain a secret.
+Refuse, and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be
+known at once.'
+
+"For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her
+hands--shivering. Then she looked up at me--and Jerusalem! it was like
+looking at an old woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall
+never wear them again, anyhow. Take them--and leave me.'
+
+"Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one
+that was on her into my pocket.
+
+"'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm,
+'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I
+answered--but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had
+been concealed within and had heard everything that passed.
+
+"'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low
+down, perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You
+thoroughly deserve those diamonds--will you accept an offer for them
+from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them
+to her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he
+'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with
+Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they
+are going to be married next month."
+
+"So out of evil good comes," Hamar said, "the maxim for us, remember,
+is--out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day,
+you two?"
+
+"Rest!" said Kelson, "I'm tired."
+
+"Eat!" said Curtis, "I'm hungry!"
+
+"Now look here, this won't do," Hamar remarked, "you've earned your
+rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally."
+
+"Can't I?" Curtis snapped, "I'm not so sure of that, I've years to
+make up for."
+
+"Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!" Hamar
+expostulated, "and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We
+have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank--that is to
+say, the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents
+that amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount--and to go on
+increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the
+world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live
+at the pace Ed is setting us--but there is no reason why we should
+remain here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme
+in my head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether
+impossible."
+
+"What is it?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Yes, out with it," Curtis grunted.
+
+"It is this," Hamar said, "I suggest that we go to London--London in
+England--I guess it's the richest town in the world--and there set up
+as sorcerers--The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination
+and juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of
+course sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt
+but that we should make an enormous pile, with which we would
+gradually buy up, not merely London, but the whole of England."
+
+"That's rather a tall order," Kelson murmured.
+
+"A small one, you mean," Curtis sneered, "you could put the whole of
+England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go
+much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco."
+
+"Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it," Hamar laughed."
+
+"No, perhaps not," Curtis said rather dubiously. "I guess we could buy
+the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always
+used to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high
+enough. They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?"
+
+"At the end of our week," Hamar said, "that is to say on Wednesday--in
+three days' time."
+
+"First class all the way, of course," Curtis said, "I'll see to the
+arrangements for the catering and berths."
+
+"All right!" Hamar laughed, as he filled three glasses with champagne.
+"Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity--to
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TWO DREAMS
+
+
+"Do you believe in dreams?" Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a
+stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the
+breakfast room at Pine Cottage.
+
+"I believe in fairies," Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently
+as she looked at the fair face beside her. "What was the dream,
+dearie?"
+
+Gladys laughed a little mischievously. "I don't quite know whether I
+ought to tell you," she said. "It might shock you."
+
+"Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine," Miss Templeton
+replied. "What was it?"
+
+"Well!" Gladys began, flinging both arms round her aunt's neck and
+playing with the pleats in her blouse, "I dreamed that I was walking
+in the little wood at the end of the garden, and that the trees and
+flowers walked and talked with me. And we danced together--and, first
+of all, I had for my partner, a red rose--and then, an ash. They both
+made love to me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands.
+A poppy piped, a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew
+desperately jealous of me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing
+ceased, and I found myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their
+bells at me with loud trills of laughter. And out from among them,
+came a buttercup, pointing its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it
+cried, 'what Gladys is carrying behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees
+and flowers--everything around me--shook with laughter. Then I grew
+hot and cold all over, and did not know which way to look for my
+confusion, till a willow, having compassion on me said, 'Take no
+notice of them! They don't know any better.'
+
+"I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew
+very embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered--oh! so funnily,
+'Well if you really wish to know--it's a bud, a baby white rose, and
+it's clinging to your dress.'
+
+"'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.
+
+"'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst
+its fellows, 'that your lover is coming--your lover with a
+troll-le-loll-la--and--well, if you want to know more ask the
+gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
+that grows in the bed,'--and at that all the flowers and trees
+shrieked with laughter--'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'--and with my ears full of
+the rude laughter of the wood I awoke. What do you think of it? Isn't
+it rather a quaint mixture of the--of the sacred--at least the
+artistic--and the profane?"
+
+"Quite so," said Miss Templeton with an amused chuckle, "but I
+shouldn't ask for an interpretation of it if I were you."
+
+"Not for an interpretation of the trees and flowers?" Gladys asked
+innocently. "I'm sure trees and flowers have a special significance in
+dreams."
+
+"Very well then, my dear, ask Mrs. Sprat."
+
+"What! ask the Vicar's wife!" Gladys ejaculated, "when I never go to
+church."
+
+"Certainly," Miss Templeton replied, laughing again, "Mrs. Sprat will
+quite understand. And I've always been told she is very interested in
+anything to do with the Occult. But hush! Here's your father. You'd
+better not tell him your dream. He's tired to death, he says, of
+hearing about your lovers, and agrees with me--there's no end to
+them."
+
+"Never mind what he says--his bark's worse then his bite," Gladys
+rejoined, "he doesn't really care how many I have so long as they keep
+within bounds, and I like them! Father!"
+
+John Martin, who entered the room at that moment, went straight to his
+daughter to be kissed.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't always select that bald spot," he said testily,
+"I don't want to be everlastingly reminded I'm losing my hair."
+
+"Where do you want me to kiss you, then?" Gladys argued, "on the tip
+of your nose? That's all very well for you, John Martin, but I prefer
+the top of your head. But the poor dear looks worried, what is it?"
+
+"I didn't have a very good night," her father replied, "I dreamed a
+lot!" Gladys looked at Miss Templeton and laughed.
+
+"Did you?" she said gently. "What a shame! I never dream. What was it
+all about?"
+
+"Flowers!" John Martin snapped, "idiotic flowers! Roses, lilac,
+tulips! Bah! I do wish you would have some other hobby."
+
+Gladys looked at her aunt again, this time with a half serious, half
+questioning expression.
+
+"Shall I be a politician?" she cooed, "and fill the house with
+suffragettes? You bad man, I believe you would revel in it. Don't you
+think so, Auntie?"
+
+"I think, instead of teasing your father so unmercifully, you had
+better pour him out a cup of tea," Miss Templeton replied. "Jack,
+there's a letter for you."
+
+"Where? Under my plate! what a place to put it. That's you," and John
+Martin frowned, or rather, attempted to frown, at Gladys. "Why it's
+about Davenport--Dick Davenport. He's very ill--had a stroke
+yesterday, and the doctor declares his condition critical. His nephew,
+Shiel, so Anne says, has been sent for, and arrived at Sydenham last
+night! If that's not bad news I don't know what is!" John Martin said,
+thrusting his plate away from him and leaning back in his chair. "It's
+true I can manage the business all right myself--and there's the
+possibility, of course, that this young Shiel may shape all right. I
+suppose if anything happens he will step into Dick's shoes. I've never
+heard Dick mention any one else. Poor old Dick!"
+
+"I am so sorry, father!" Gladys said, laying her hand on his. "But
+cheer up! It may not be as bad as you expect. Shall you go and see how
+he is?"
+
+"I think so, my dear! I think so," John Martin replied, "but don't
+worry me about it now. Talk to your aunt and leave me out of it, I'm a
+bit upset. My brain's in a regular whirl!"
+
+Undoubtedly the news was something in the nature of a blow: for Dick
+Davenport, apart from being John Martin's partner--partner in the firm
+of Martin and Davenport, the world-renowned conjurors, whose hall in
+the Kingsway was one of the chief amusement places in London, was John
+Martin's oldest friend. They had been chums at Cheltenham College, had
+entered the Army and gone to India together, had quitted the Service
+together, and, on returning together to England, had started their
+conjuring business, first of all in Sloane Street, and subsequently in
+the Kingsway. From the very start their enterprise had met with
+success, and, had it not been for Davenport's wild extravagance, they
+would have been little short of millionaires. But Davenport, though a
+most lovable character in every respect, could not keep money--he no
+sooner had it than it was gone. His house in Sydenham was little short
+of a palace; whilst, it was said, he almost rivalled royalty, in
+magnificent display, whenever he entertained. The result of all this
+reckless expenditure was no uncommon one--he ran through considerably
+more than he earned and--as there was no one else to help him--he
+invariably came down on John Martin. It was "Jack, old boy, I'm damned
+sorry, but I must have another thousand;" or, "Jack! these infernal
+scamps of creditors are worrying the life out of me, can you, will
+you, lend me a trifle--a couple of thousand will do it"--and so on--so
+on, ad infinitum. John Martin never refused, and at the time of
+Davenport's illness, the latter owed him something like a hundred
+thousand pounds.
+
+Fortunately John Martin, though far from parsimonious, was careful. He
+had an excellent business head, and, thanks to his sagacious share in
+the management, the business remained solvent. He knew Davenport's
+capacity--that nowhere could he have found another such a brilliant
+genius in conjuring--nor, apart from his thriftlessness, any one so
+thoroughly reliable. In Davenport's keeping all the great tricks they
+had invented--and great tricks they undoubtedly were--were absolutely
+safe.
+
+Despite the fact that they had repeatedly offered big sums of money to
+any one who could discover the secret of how they were done, every
+attempt to do so had utterly failed. The Mysteries of Martin and
+Davenport's Home of Wonder, in the Kingsway, baffled the world. Of
+course one thing had helped them enormously--namely, they had no
+rivals. So colossal was their reputation, that no one else had ever
+even thought of setting up in opposition.
+
+And now one of the two great master-minds, that had accomplished all
+these marvels and acquired such universal fame, was stricken down,
+checkmated by the still greater power of nature; and his
+colleague--the only other man in existence who shared his
+knowledge--was obliged to rack his brain as to what was now to be
+done--done for the continuance and prosperity of the firm.
+
+After finishing her breakfast Gladys joined her aunt in the garden.
+
+"To dream of flowers and trees evidently means bad news," she said.
+"But as I feel in a mood for a walk, I shall call at the Vicarage."
+
+"What, now! At this hour!" Miss Templeton cried aghast.
+
+"Why not?" Gladys said imperturbably. "I'm not going to pay a call.
+They haven't called on us. I shall say I've merely come to make an
+inquiry. Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with
+me!"
+
+But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.
+
+The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
+surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
+conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
+ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
+Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
+presence of his wife, who received her very affably.
+
+"Why, how very strange," she observed when Gladys had stated the
+object of her visit. "I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A
+Miss Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream
+about trees and flowers--only it took the form of a poem, which she
+awoke repeating. There were several verses--quite doggerel it is
+true--but nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them
+down, and asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden
+meaning in them. Here they are," and she handed Gladys two pages of
+sermon paper on which was written--
+
+    "In the greenest of green valleys,
+    Aglow with summer sun,
+    Lived a maiden fair and radiant,
+    More radiant there was none.
+
+    "The flowers gave her their friendship;
+    Her couch was on the ground.
+    A happier, gayer maiden,
+    Was nowhere to be found.
+
+    "The air was filled with music
+    Sung by the babbling brook.
+    Sweet lullabies with chorus clear
+    In which the flowers partook.
+
+    "This maiden knew not sorrow,
+    Until an evil day;
+    When riding lone across the moors,
+    A hunter lost his way.
+
+    "And chancing on this valley,
+    He met the maiden sweet.
+    Her beauty overwhelmed him;
+    He fell love-sick at her feet.
+
+    "Despite the fervent warnings
+    Of her friends the flowers and trees,
+    She listened to his courting;
+    And with him roamed the leas.
+
+    "The leas, far from the valley,
+    They rode the livelong night;
+    Till a heavy mist descending
+    Hid the roadway from their sight.
+
+    "Uprose, then, forms of evil.
+    From out the mocking gloom;
+    And seizing horse and hunter scared,
+    Left the maiden to her doom.
+
+    "Travellers now within those regions,
+    Through the nightly grey fog see
+    A woman's shade crawl slow along,
+    To a ghastly melody.
+
+    "And those who linger--follow
+    The phantom pale and wan.
+    O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale
+    It slowly leads them on.
+
+    "On till they reach the valley,
+    A valley grim and drear,
+    Where lurid things with fibrous arms
+    Their course through darkness steer.
+
+    "And on the travellers palsied
+    In frenzied crowd they pour.
+    And those who view their faces,
+    Are heard but seen no more."
+
+"Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?" Gladys exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," the Vicar's wife said. "She told me so and I have no reason to
+doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the
+least bit in the world poetical--on the contrary she is most practical
+and matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers."
+
+"Mine, too!" Gladys interrupted. "Were you able to explain the
+verses?"
+
+"No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I
+am in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie
+Besant last night! She--"
+
+"Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?" Gladys asked.
+
+"Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things--to
+tell dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water,
+and so on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice
+about them in this morning's paper. I will get it for you."
+
+She left the room and in a few moments returned.
+
+"Here it is," she said. And under the heading of "Sorcery Revived"
+Gladys read as follows:--
+
+"There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
+to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
+Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
+Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
+S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!
+
+"They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess
+to interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve
+all manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
+wonders what next!"
+
+"This paper evidently has its doubts," Gladys commented. "They are
+frauds, of course."
+
+"I dare say they are," the Vicar's wife replied, "though I believe in
+thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
+Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
+train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her."
+
+"Well, thanks awfully," Gladys said, "for telling me about these
+people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during the day and
+call at Cockspur Street. I must apologize again for calling at such an
+unearthly hour. Good-bye," and Gladys smilingly took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+
+Shortly after Gladys reached home after her visit to the Vicarage, a
+young man with a serious expression somewhat out of keeping with his
+jaunty walk, entered the gate of Pine Cottage, and came to an abrupt
+halt.
+
+"Well," he ejaculated, "this is a pretty place, and what's more--for
+dozens of houses and gardens are pretty--it's artistic!" In front of
+him stretched a miniature avenue of chestnut trees, which was rendered
+striking, even to the most casual observer, probably, not only on
+account of the irregular mounds of moss-covered stones that occupied
+its intervening spaces, but also, by reason of the masses of wild
+flowers (great clumps of which were springing up in the crevices of
+this impromptu wall) that lent to it an appearance half negligent, but
+wholly and entrancingly picturesque. Here, undoubtedly, was art. That
+did not astonish the young man. All avenues, in the ordinary sense,
+are works of art; and the mere excess of art he saw manifested did not
+surprise him; it was the character of the art that had brought him to
+a standstill and held him spellbound. And the longer he looked the
+more he became convinced, that whoever had superintended the
+arrangement of this scenery was an artist--an artist with a scrupulous
+eye for form.
+
+The greatest care had been taken to keep the balance between neatness
+and gracefulness on the one hand and picturesqueness on the other.
+There were few straight lines, and no long uninterrupted ones; whilst
+at no one point of view did the same effect of curvature or colour
+appear twice. Variety in uniformity was the keynote.
+
+At last tearing himself away from this one spot--where he felt he
+could have spent centuries--he turned to the right and then again to
+the left--for the path had now become serpentine, and at no moment
+could be traced for more than two or three paces in advance. Presently
+the sound of water fell gently on his ear, and in the shadiest of
+diminutive forests, amidst the interlacing branches of elm and beech,
+he caught the glimpse of a fountain. For an instant the wild thought
+of forcing his way through it, of plunging his burning forehead in its
+cooling spray, well-nigh mastered him. But his better sense conquered,
+and he kept to the path. Another turn, and he caught his first glimpse
+of a chimney; another--and the summit of a gable showed above the
+trees. The sun, which had been hitherto obscured, now came out, and
+suddenly--as if by the hand of magic--the whole scene was a brilliant
+blaze of colour. He had arrived at the end of the avenue, where the
+path forked; one branch turning sharply round in the direction of a
+side entrance to the house, whilst the other led with a gentle
+curvature to the front.
+
+Facing the building was a broad expanse of velvety turf, relieved
+occasionally, here and there, by such showy shrubs as the hydrangea,
+rhododendron, or lilac; but more frequently, and at closer intervals,
+by clumps of geraniums, or roses--roses of every variety. There was
+nothing pretentious in the garden, any more than there was in the
+adjoining edifice. Its unusually pleasing effect lay altogether in its
+artistic arrangement; and one could hardly help imagining that the
+whole scene had, in reality, been called into existence by the brush
+of some eminent landscape painter.
+
+The cottage itself was constructed of old-fashioned Dutch
+shingles--broad and with rounded corners--and painted a dull grey; a
+tint which, when contrasted with the vivid green of the tulip trees
+that overshadowed the entrance to the house, and reared themselves
+high above it on either side, afforded an artistic happiness perfectly
+intoxicating to its present visitor. The architecture of the cottage
+was--if not Early Tudor--something equally pleasing. Its roofs were
+divided into many gables; its windows were diamond paned and
+projecting, whilst oaken beams ran latitudinally and vertically over
+its grey shingle front. Encompassing the whole base of the exterior
+were masses of flowers--pinks, carnations, heliotrope, pansies,
+poppies, lilies, wallflowers, roses and jasmines; and besides the
+latter several other creepers had been planted beneath the walls, but
+had not yet attained to any height.
+
+Shiel Davenport, for it was he, could not resist the temptation of
+peeping in at the windows; and he saw that the interior of the cottage
+was artistry and simplicity itself. At the windows, curtains of heavy
+white jaconet muslin, not too full, hung in sharp parallel plaits to
+the floor--just to the floor. The walls were papered with French
+papers of rare delicacy--to match the seasons; (spring, summer, autumn
+and winter were all most effectively depicted), and the furniture
+though light, was at the same time costly. And here again was the same
+effect of arrangement--an arrangement obviously designed by the same
+brain that had planned the building and grounds. Shiel could not
+conceive anything more graceful. Flowers--flowers of every hue and
+odour were the chief decoration of the cottage. On almost every table
+were vases--in themselves beautiful enough--yet filled to overflowing
+with the finest roses. Ox-eye daisies, hollyhocks and forget-me-nots
+clustered about the open windows. And every puff of wind, every breath
+of air transmitted scent--the most delicious medley of scent
+imaginable.
+
+The young man drew in deep draughts of it; he threw back his head,
+and, opening his mouth, revelled in the joy of feeling it steal softly
+down his throat and permeate his lungs. He was thus engaged when the
+sound of a voice brought him sharply back to earth.
+
+In the open doorway of the house, an amused expression in her violet
+eyes, stood a girl--so wondrously pretty, that at the sight of her
+Shiel was again overcome, and could only gaze in helpless admiration.
+
+"Do you want to see my father?" she inquired. "He is getting ready to
+go out, but I daresay he will see you first."
+
+"I--I am sure he will," the young man replied, "I'm Shiel Davenport.
+I've come to tell him my uncle died at four o'clock this morning."
+
+"Oh, dear!" the girl exclaimed, "I am so sorry--sorry for you, and for
+my father. I'm sure he will be terribly upset. I'm Gladys Martin,
+perhaps you've heard of me--I knew your uncle."
+
+"Often," Shiel said, "And I think my uncle's description of you an
+excellent one."
+
+"His description of me!"
+
+"Yes! he always spoke of you as the Queen of Flowers, and said you had
+a mania for all things beautiful, which was not surprising, seeing how
+beautiful you were yourself."
+
+"That was very nice of him," Gladys said, looking amused again. "Won't
+you come in? If you will wait here"--she led him to the
+drawing-room--"I'll tell my father."
+
+She disappeared, and Shiel heard her run lightly up the stairs.
+
+"By Jove," he said to himself, "she's the loveliest girl I've ever
+seen. From being so much among flowers, she has become one herself.
+Violets, roses, and heliotrope have all had a share in her creation!
+What eyes, what a mouth! what teeth! what hands! Surely I have found
+here, not only the perfection of all things beautiful, but the
+perfection of all things natural, the perfection of natural grace in
+contradistinction from artificial grace. Moreover, she is a
+romanticist. There is an expression of romance, of unworldliness, in
+those deep-set eyes of hers, that sinks into my heart of hearts.
+'Romance' and 'womanliness,' and the two terms appear to me to be
+convertible, are her distinguishing features. She is an artist, an
+idealist, and, over and above all--a woman! Hang it! I'm in love with
+her!"
+
+More he could not evolve, for his meditations were abruptly cut short
+by the entrance of a servant, who ushered him, straightway, into the
+presence of John Martin.
+
+The latter, though visibly affected by the news of his friend's death,
+was a man of the world, and, consequently, came to business at once.
+Much had to be discussed--arrangements for the funeral, the
+examination of correspondence relative to the firm, and plans for the
+immediate future.
+
+"You don't know how my uncle's affairs stand, I suppose?" Shiel asked
+somewhat nervously.
+
+"Yes," John Martin said, "I do. May I ask if you have any private
+means at all--or are you solely dependent on what you earn? By the
+way, what is your calling?"
+
+"I am an artist," Shiel said. "No, I've nothing beyond what my uncle
+was good enough to allow me."
+
+"An artist!" John Martin murmured, "how like Dick! Have you
+entertained the idea of inheriting a fortune? Have you any reason to
+suppose that your uncle was well off and had made you his heir!"
+
+"I gathered so, sir, from the manner in which he lived and his
+attitude towards me."
+
+"Well! we won't talk it over now--leave it till after the funeral. Are
+you bent on continuing painting? There is very little remuneration in
+it, is there?"
+
+"Not much," Shiel answered gloomily, "but I shouldn't care to give it
+up--unless of course it is absolutely necessary for me to do so."
+
+"Being an artist you wouldn't be much good in business."
+
+"None!"
+
+"At all events, you are candid. Well! I don't see any good in our
+dallying here--I had best go back with you to Sydenham. I've got a
+letter to write first, but I shan't be long."
+
+He was long enough, however, for Shiel to have another chat with
+Gladys. "Do you believe in dreams?" she asked him. "I had such a queer
+one last night, about trees and flowers; and, oddly enough, my father
+also dreamed of trees and flowers, and of the very same ones too. I am
+going into Town to-day to consult a firm that has just set up, called
+the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. They profess to interpret dreams, and
+I am anxious to see whether they can."
+
+"In Cockspur Street, aren't they?" Shiel asked. "I saw their
+advertisement in one of the papers. I presume you are not going there
+alone?"
+
+"No!" Gladys laughed, "I shall go with a friend, though I often do go
+into Town alone. I can assure you I am quite capable of looking after
+myself. In that respect, at least, I am quite up to date. Probably you
+are more accustomed to French girls?"
+
+"Yes! I have spent most of my life in Paris," Shiel said. "But how
+could you tell that?"
+
+"Oh! I guessed you were an artist--and had probably spent some time in
+Paris"--Gladys rejoined, "by the way you looked at the house and
+garden. I could read appreciation in your eyes and gesture; such
+appreciation, as I knew, could only come from an artist. G.W. Barnett
+helped me in planning this cottage and the garden."
+
+"What! Barnett the landscape painter! I am a great admirer of his
+work. Were you a pupil of his?"
+
+"Yes, he was one of the visiting R.A.'s at the Beechcroft Studio in St.
+John's Wood, where I worked for three years. We were then living in
+Blackheath--St. John's Park--a hateful place. Mr. Barnett was awfully
+good, when I told him we were moving, and that I wanted to live in
+really artistic surroundings--he suggested that I should be my own
+architect, and promised to do everything he could to assist me,"
+
+"And your father hadn't a say in the matter," Shiel commented, with an
+amused smile.
+
+"Not in that," Gladys said complacently, "though there are one or two
+things in which he has a very decided say. Father can be very
+self-willed and obstinate, when he likes. But as I was remarking when
+you interrupted me--"
+
+"I beg pardon!" Shiel murmured.
+
+"Mr. Barnett promised to assist me. He came over here with me, and we
+chose this site."
+
+"Is he an old man?" Shiel inquired, a trifle anxiously.
+
+"Not much more than middle aged--fifty perhaps!" Gladys said, "though
+he looks much younger. He is still very good-looking. Well! he came
+over here--we chose this site, and--"
+
+"Is he married?"
+
+"No! Really you seem very interested in him. Perhaps you will meet him
+some day: he comes here a good deal. As I was saying, we chose the
+site together, and he supervized the plans I drew up for the garden
+and cottage; I don't think, perhaps, I should have thought of that
+avenue if it hadn't been for him!"
+
+"At all events it does you both credit," Shiel remarked, "for a more
+charming house and garden I have never seen. I should like to live
+here all my life. I should like--" but he was interrupted by John
+Martin. "Come, it's time we were off," the latter called out
+brusquely, "time and trains wait for no man!"
+
+"A young ass!" John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio
+passed through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform,
+"not a bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!"
+
+"Encourage him!" Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who
+had his ticket to get, was out of hearing. "Do I encourage any one?
+All the same," she added defiantly, "I rather like him. It isn't every
+one's good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick--hurry
+up! That's your train--and the guard's about to blow his whistle."
+
+With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
+they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
+the station.
+
+An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
+with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
+lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.
+
+"Have you an appointment, madam?" the commissionaire, in a bright blue
+uniform, asked.
+
+"No," Gladys replied. "Is it necessary?
+
+"The firm are unusually busy," the man explained, "and unless you have
+made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
+whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into
+the waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I
+will take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to
+consult?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," Gladys said. "I want to have a dream
+interpreted."
+
+"Then, that will be Mr. Kelson," the man observed "he does all that
+kind of thing--tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts.
+Mr. Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar
+divines the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the
+waiting-room now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there
+nearly an hour. This way, madam!"--and he escorted, rather than
+ushered, Gladys into a large, elaborately furnished room, in which a
+dozen or so well dressed people--of both sexes--were waiting, looking
+over the leaves of magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide
+their only too obvious excitement.
+
+Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the
+commissionaire, Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next
+to a strikingly handsome girl, she at once appropriated it.
+
+There was something about this showy girl that had attracted Gladys.
+She was one of those rare people that have a personality, and although
+this was a personality that Gladys was not at all sure she liked,
+nevertheless she felt anxious to become more closely acquainted with
+it. Both girls suddenly realized that they were staring hard at one
+another. The girl with the personality was the first to speak. With a
+smile that, while revealing a perfect set of white teeth, at the some
+time revealed exceedingly thin lips, she remarked, "It's most
+wearisome work waiting. I've been here nearly an hour. I shouldn't
+stay any longer, only I've come from a distance. London is so hot and
+stuffy, I detest it."
+
+"Do you?" Gladys observed. "I don't. I find it so full of human
+interest--indeed, of every kind of interest. Not that I should care to
+live in it, but I like being near enough to come up several times a
+week. I live at Kew."
+
+"Then you're lucky!" the girl said, "I'd live at Kew if I could. But I
+can't--I'm one of those unfortunate creatures who have to earn their
+living."
+
+"I sometimes wish I had to," Gladys remarked.
+
+"Do you! Then you don't know much about it. It isn't all jam by a long
+way. I loathe work. I've been spending my holiday at Kew. I've just
+come from there."
+
+"Are you by any chance Miss Rosenberg?" Gladys asked.
+
+"That's my name," the girl replied with a look of astonishment. "How
+do you know?"
+
+Gladys explained. "I've just been to the Vicarage," she said, "and
+Mrs. Sprat has told me about the verses. Did you really dream them?"
+
+"Of course! I shouldn't have said so if I hadn't," Miss Rosenberg
+replied angrily. "I don't tell crams. Besides, I've never composed a
+line of poetry in my life. The verses were repeated to me in my sleep
+by some occult agency--of that I am quite certain. They were so
+vividly impressed on my mind that I had no difficulty at all in
+remembering them--every one of them, and I got up and wrote them down.
+Of course they must mean something."
+
+Gladys was about to make some observation, when the commissionaire,
+opening the door of the room, called out, "Miss Rosenberg;" whereupon,
+with a sigh of relief, Miss Rosenberg took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+
+"Tell Miss Rosenberg I'll see her now," Matt Kelson said; and as he
+leaned back in his luxurious chair with that dignity of self-assurance
+only the man who is rich can maintain, it was hard to realise that he
+and the Matt Kelson of a year ago were the same. A year ago he had
+been a poor, underpaid, ill nourished pen-driver, with all the odious
+marks of a pen-driver's servility thick upon him. It was true he had
+been fastidious as to his appearance--that is to say, as fastidious as
+any one can be, who has to buy clothes ready made and can only afford
+to pay a few dollars for them; that he had sacrificed meals to wear
+white shirts--boiled shirts as one called them in San Francisco--and
+to get his things got up decently at a respectable laundry; but his
+teeth in those days did not receive the attention they ought to have
+received (he could not afford a dentist), the tobacco he smoked was
+often offensive; and there were to be found in him sundry other
+details that one usually finds in clerks, and in most other people who
+literally have to fight for a living.
+
+But now, all that was changed. Kelson was rich. He bought his suits at
+Poole's, his hats at Christie's, his boots in Regent Street. He
+patronized a dentist in Cavendish Square, and a manicurist in Bond
+Street. He belonged to a crack club in Pall Mall, and never smoked
+anything but the most expensive cigars. His ambition had been speedily
+realized. He had passionately longed to be a fop--he was one. The only
+thing that troubled him, was that he could not be an aristocrat at the
+same time. But, after all, what did that matter? The girls looked at
+him all the same, and that was all he wanted. He worshipped, he
+adored, pretty girls; and he was most anxious that they should adore
+him.
+
+Consequently, his first thought, when he saw Lilian Rosenberg's name
+on the form the commissionaire presented him, was "Is she pretty?" And
+the first thing he said to himself directly the door opened to admit
+her was, "By Jove! she is."
+
+Then he assumed an air more suited to a partner in a big London firm,
+and flourishing a richly bejewelled hand, said "Pray take a seat,
+madam. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I want you to tell me the meaning of these verses," Lilian Rosenberg
+said, handing him two sheets of foolscap and then sitting down. "They
+were suggested to me in my sleep--in other words, I dreamed them."
+
+"You dreamed them, did you!" Kelson said, noticing with approval that
+the girl had well-kept white hands, and that her clothes, though not
+particularly expensive, were _chic_, and up-to-date. "Do you want me
+only to interpret this poem, or shall I tell you something about
+yourself first?"
+
+"By all means tell me something about myself first--if you can,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said. "I want to get as much as I can out of you.
+Your fees are exorbitant."
+
+"Very well, then," Kelson rejoined with a smile. "Don't blame me if I
+tell you too much. You were born at sea. Being a troublesome girl at
+home, you were sent to a boarding-school, where you distinguished
+yourself in various ways, and last but not least, by making the
+headmistress--a married woman--desperately jealous. This led to your
+being removed. Removed is a more delicate term than 'expelled.' Am I
+right?"
+
+"Yes! I believe you are inspired by the devil."
+
+"Shall I go on?"
+
+"Yes--I think so. Yes, go on, please."
+
+"You came home. Your mother died. Your father married again. You
+disliked your stepmother--you considered she ill treated you."
+
+"She did!"
+
+"I won't dispute it. At all events you had your revenge. You pretended
+to commit suicide, and wrote several letters--to the police amongst
+others--declaring that you were about to drown yourself owing to the
+cruelty of your stepmother. And so cleverly did you manage it, that
+every one believed you were drowned, and blamed your stepmother
+accordingly. Changing your name to Lilian Rosenberg you came direct to
+London. For some time you worked in a milliner's shop in Beauchamp
+Gardens, and then you set up as a manicurist in Woodstock Street.
+Among your clients was the wife of the Vicar of St. Katherine's, Kew,
+who took a great liking to you--you have extraordinary personal
+magnetism. Unable, however, to do more than pay your way at legitimate
+manicuring you--"
+
+"That will do," Lilian Rosenberg cried, a faint flow of colour
+pervading her cheeks. "That will do! Explain the verses."
+
+"As you will!" Kelson said, "but mind, I don't insist on the necessity
+of your paying the slightest heed to my explanation. According to the
+usual method of interpreting dreams, the valley of flowers is
+symbolical of innocence and self-restraint--of that path in life with
+which the goody-goodies say every young lady should be satisfied.
+
+"The hunter is representative of the love of change and excitement;
+the horse--of self-indulgence. The misty moon means ruin, the
+metamorphosis into the crawling phantasm--death. Leave the path of
+virtue, and give way to self-indulgence and a craving for everlasting
+change and excitement, and a miserable ending will be your mead--and
+has been the mead of all others who have done the same thing."
+
+"Then the dream is a warning?"
+
+Kelson was about to reply, when the door opened, and Hamar, with an
+apology for intruding, beckoned to him.
+
+He spoke with him for several moments relative to a matter of some
+consequence, and then, glancing at Miss Rosenberg, and drawing Kelson
+still further aside, whispered, "Let me caution you again, Matt. On no
+account let your soft feelings with regard to the other sex get the
+better of you. Remember it is imperative for us to do evil not
+good--to lead our clients into temptation, not out of it. I am doing
+my best to follow the injunctions of the Unknown, but we must all work
+in harmony--that is the most vital point in our compact, and you know
+if we do not keep the compact something frightful will happen to us. I
+can't impress this fact on you too much. Only yesterday I had to pull
+you up for giving good advice to a lady. Damn your good advice, give
+bad--bad advice, I say; anything that will do people harm--no matter
+whether they are ugly or pretty--and if you are not jolly well
+careful, pretty girls will be your--and our--undoing. I see you have a
+pretty girl here now--and from what I can read in her face, she is not
+a saint. Rub it in to her--rub it into her well--persuade her to be a
+bigger sinner still. Now I can't wait to say more, I must go."
+
+"I asked you," Lilian Rosenberg said, as Kelson resumed his seat, "if
+the dream was a warning?"
+
+"No," Kelson said, "I shouldn't take it as such. Despite the rather
+peculiar form it took, I am inclined to think it isn't a dream with
+any real significance--but merely a chance dream--a dream compounded
+of sayings and actions of the past that have come back to you all
+higgledy-piggledy, as they so often do in dreams. You learned a lot of
+poetry I suppose when you were at school?"
+
+"Yes, but none like this."
+
+"No, I didn't suppose so, but the mere fact that your mind was at one
+time used to verses--acquainted with metre and rhythm, would account
+for the form adopted by your dream. I assure you it was purely
+chance--and that there is no significance in it! You are on the look
+out for work, is it not so?"
+
+"I am," Lilian Rosenberg said. "Can you tell me where to go to get
+it?"
+
+"I am just thinking," Kelson replied, "I believe my partner, Mr.
+Hamar, wants a secretary. I can't, of course, say whether you would
+suit him. Do you type?"
+
+"I can type and do shorthand," Lilian Rosenberg replied eagerly, "and
+I can correspond in German and French."
+
+"And the salary? Would two hundred a year do?"
+
+"Yes," after a slight pause, "I could make it do. I should want one
+half-day holiday--from one o'clock--every week; and Sundays--and three
+weeks' holiday in the summer, and one at Christmas, and of course, the
+usual Bank Holidays."
+
+"I see!" Kelson said thoughtfully; "you want plenty of time for
+amusement. Well! I will speak about it to Mr. Hamar, and if you leave
+me your address I will give it him. How nicely you keep your hands."
+
+"I manicure them every day," Lilian Rosenberg said; then looking up at
+him from under the long lashes which swept her cheeks, she added, "You
+won't forget to tell Mr. Hamar about me, will you? I am very anxious
+to get a post. You don't know what it is to be hard up, do you?"
+
+The earnest, pleading expression in her long, dark eyes appealed to
+Kelson as nothing else had ever appealed to him. Since his arrival in
+London, he had seen many pretty faces, many beautiful eyes, but
+assuredly none so lovely as these. And what features! what teeth! what
+lips! what a chin! what a figure! It seemed to him that she was not
+like an ordinary girl, that she was not of the same composition as any
+of the girls he had ever met; that she was something hardly
+human--something elfish, something generated by the beautiful English
+woods and glades, filled with the soft glamour of the moon and stars.
+And all the while he was thinking thus, his heart rising in rebellion
+against the words of Hamar, the girl continued gazing up at him, and
+toying with the rings on her slender, milk-white fingers.
+
+At last he dare look at her no longer, but stammering out his promise
+to do all he could to get her the vacant post, he pressed her hand
+gently, and bade her good morning.
+
+Then he returned to his chair, and, leaning back in it, was seeing
+once again in his mind's eye the fair face of the girl who had just
+left him, when there was a rap at the door, and the commissionaire
+announced Miss Martin.
+
+"Another of them," Kelson said to himself. "And about as pretty in her
+way as the last. Now I wonder what she wants." He looked closely at
+her, but no past rose up before him--as far as this client was
+concerned his power of divination in that direction was nil--she was a
+blank.
+
+"I've come to ask you the meaning of a dream I had last night," she
+began, inwardly shuddering at the sight of so much pomade and
+jewellery.
+
+"Yes," he said with an encouraging smile, "what was it?"
+
+Of course she did not tell him all, but merely that she had dreamed of
+certain flowers and trees as, curiously enough, so had her father.
+
+Kelson looked at her thoughtfully. Once he opened his mouth to speak
+and then checked himself; and it was some seconds before he actually
+broke silence.
+
+"Taken separately," he said at last, "the ash tree portends an
+unexpected visit; a poppy, a visit from a man; red roses, falling in
+love; lilac, a present; a willow, kisses--heaps of them; bluebells, a
+proposal; brambles, difficulties in the way--for example, tiresome
+relatives; buttercups, a marriage; an ash tree, a son and heir--a dear
+little----"
+
+"Thank you!" Gladys remarked, rising frigidly. Thank you! I will go
+now. What is your fee?"
+
+"I trust, madam, you are pleased," Kelson said in great distress.
+
+"Will you kindly take your fee and let me out," Gladys demanded, as he
+nervously placed himself in her way. "Thank you. Good morning!"
+
+And as she swept regally past him and down the stone passage, Hamar
+came out of his room and passed by her on his way to Kelson's office.
+
+"Ye gods!" he exclaimed, eyeing the discomfited Kelson wrathfully.
+"What in the world have you done to offend the lady? I never saw any
+one look so angry in my life. D--n it all! I hope you didn't insult
+her!"
+
+"It was all your fault!" Kelson wailed. "She asked me to tell her the
+meaning of a dream which was brimful of warnings against us."
+
+"Against us!"
+
+"Yes, against us! I have never listened to such admonitions in a dream
+before. She must have some very friendly spirits watching over her.
+Well! what was I to do? I did my best. Mindful of what you said to me
+a short time ago, I put her entirely off the track; gave her an
+entirely misleading--and as I thought very pleasant--interpretation of
+the dream."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+Kelson told him.
+
+"Jackass!" Hamar exclaimed. "Jackass! You were far too broad. What
+pleases a San Francisco girl shocks a London lady. For goodness sake
+have more tact another time, we don't want to get into hot water. I
+feel quite convinced that if any harm befalls us--if that compact is
+in any way broken--it will be through you. I wish to heaven the
+Unknown had given you some other power."
+
+"So do I," Kelson groaned.
+
+"At all events," Hamar went on, "the first three months is nearly at
+an end. Who was she?"
+
+"Miss Gladys Martin!"
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"I don't know. I could divine nothing about her. She can't have any
+vices."
+
+"I don't suppose she has," Hamar remarked dryly, "Not from the look of
+her anyway. But there is time yet. Matt! I've taken a fancy to that
+girl and I mean to get hold of her somehow. I wonder if she is related
+to Martin--Davenport's partner! Jerusalem! What sport if she is!"
+
+"Why? Why sport?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Dolt! Don't you see! Martin is at our mercy. We are more than his
+rivals. We can drive him out of London any moment we like. His tricks
+indeed! Pshaw! Curtis can do them all right off the reel! And Curtis
+shall--we will show Martin up--make a laughing stock of him--ruin him!
+Unless--unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Great Scott! Don't look so alarmed! Unless--supposing that girl is
+his daughter--unless he gives me permission to pay my addresses to
+her!"--and Hamar laughed coarsely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+
+"Where's Gladys?" John Martin asked as he rose with an effort, stiff
+and tired, from the remains of a meat tea.
+
+In reply Miss Templeton merely pointed a finger--and went on
+crocheting.
+
+Following the direction indicated, John Martin stepped out on to the
+lawn, and glancing round the garden, called "Gladys!" Then he
+listened, and there came to him snatches of a song, the words of
+which, full of arch sentiment, allied with (and to a large extent
+dependent on), a unique knowledge of and love of nature--would not
+have disgraced a Herrick or a Raleigh--the music--a Schubert, or a
+Sullivan. John Martin had spared no money in educating Gladys, and she
+did him credit. He thought so now, as exhausted from a hard day's
+poring over letters, he paused and leaned his back against a tree. A
+gentle breeze blew her notes to him, full of melody and mirth; fresh
+and young and tender--as tender as the rosebuds and violets that
+nestled at her bosom.
+
+"By Jove!" John Martin murmured. "Fancy my having a daughter like
+Gladys! I ought to be jolly well pleased. And so I am. The only thing
+I fear, is, that she'll marry some one who isn't half good enough for
+her! But who would be good enough for her! God alone knows! And God
+alone knows whether she or I ought to decide! Gladys!"
+
+"Hulloa!", and the next moment a vision in pink emerged from the
+bushes.
+
+"Gladys, I want to confide in you!"
+
+"What's wrong, Daddy, dear?" Gladys said, thrusting an arm through his
+and walking him gently along with her through the glade. "You weren't
+at all nice to me when we parted this morning, but you look so wearied
+that I'll be magnanimous and forgive you. What is it?"
+
+"Why it's like this!'" John Martin said, putting his arm round her and
+holding her close to him, as he used to do when, a little girl, she
+came sidling up to him for sugar-plums. "Poor Dick's affairs are in a
+terrible muddle. Unknown to me he speculated right and left, and he
+has not only muddled through everything he had, but he has left a
+number of debts, and unfortunately I have to meet them."
+
+"You, Father! But why you?" Gladys cried.
+
+"Because they were incurred in the name of the Firm. I can meet them
+all right, but it will be a big drain on my resources. That's worry
+number one. Worry number two is about young Davenport--Shiel. I don't
+know what to do about him. He was entirely dependent on Dick. His work
+as an artist doesn't bring him in enough to keep him in tobacco, and
+the worst of it is he doesn't seem capable of turning his hand to
+anything else; I can't see him starve, so I shall have to allow him
+something."
+
+"He seemed to me very intelligent," Gladys observed, "couldn't you
+take him into the Firm? Who are you going to have in his uncle's
+place?"
+
+"That's the trouble!" John Martin replied. "I do feel I want some one.
+I am getting on in years, my brain is not so vigorous as it used to
+be, and I can't go on inventing fresh tricks _ad infinitum_. Moreover,
+I need assistance in the purely business side of the concern. I want
+some one who is both business-like and inventive--some one young,
+brilliant and reliable."
+
+"You couldn't sell out I suppose?"
+
+"No, not just at present. Thanks to poor old Dick the Firm is in
+rather a precarious condition! Another six months over, and we may be
+perfectly all right. No! I must stick on, and get another partner. And
+look here, Gladys, you know I let you do pretty nearly everything you
+like. But let me beg of you not to be too friendly with that young
+Davenport. I caught him looking very impressibly at you this morning,
+and I am quite sure, if he sees anything more of you, he will be
+falling head over ears in love. Which is the very last thing in the
+world I want!"
+
+"That's making me out to be very attractive, Daddy," Gladys said,
+looking round at him mischievously.
+
+"And so you are, dear!" John Martin said. "Wonderfully attractive! and
+none knows it better than yourself. But in this case you must think of
+consequences--consequences that might be disastrous to us all!
+Confound it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?"
+
+Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
+advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
+height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right
+ear standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest;
+his nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting
+and yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
+saturnine.
+
+Gladys shivered. "What a horrible person!" she whispered, "there is
+something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how
+he stares!"
+
+"Yes--what is it?" John Martin demanded. "Do you want to see me?"
+
+"You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!" the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
+characteristic of California. "I've come to have a little talk with
+you on business."
+
+"With me--on business!" John Martin cried. "I don't know you! I've
+never seen you before!"
+
+"You see me now anyway!" the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes
+at Gladys. "My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show
+of yours."
+
+"D--n your impudence!" John Martin said, raising his stick
+threateningly. "How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext."
+
+"Calmly, calmly, sir!" Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. "I've come here
+with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
+programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
+rivals."
+
+"I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry," Gladys broke in,
+meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.
+
+Hamar bowed.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what
+we profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per--"
+
+"You have no permission from me, sir," John Martin cried fiercely.
+"Go!"
+
+Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. "You ought not to get so heated,"
+he said, "considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
+standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink
+a well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water.
+As you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer
+and purer. Also," he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin
+again raised his stick, "in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a
+hollow about eight feet from the ground, and if you look inside it,
+you will discover an iron box full of curios and jewellery. Shall I--"
+
+"No!" retorted John Martin. "If you don't go instantly I'll send for
+the police,"--and Hamar, coming to the conclusion that upon this
+occasion discretion was better than valour, hurriedly beat a retreat.
+
+"You'll be sorry, John Martin!" he shouted from a safe distance, "and
+so will Miss Gladys, charming Miss Gladys. But remember you have only
+yourselves to blame. Ta-ta!", and the next moment he was lost to
+sight.
+
+"Well!" Gladys ejaculated, "of all the beastly cads I have ever seen
+he fairly takes the biscuit. What colossal cheek! The idea of his
+coming here and speaking to us like that! Can't we prosecute him,
+Father?"
+
+"Hardly!" John Martin replied, "best leave him alone. I wish he hadn't
+come! He's upset me! My nerves are anyhow! Which was the tree he spoke
+about?"
+
+"This one," Gladys exclaimed, walking up to an elm, and patting it
+with her hand, "but you surely don't believe what he said, do you? It
+was all rubbish from start to finish. Daddy, my dear old Daddy, I do
+believe you are worrying about it."
+
+"Hold my hat and stick a moment," John Martin said, and making a
+spring, which for one of his age and weight showed surprising agility,
+he succeeded in catching hold of one of the nearest lateral branches.
+The elm being old, the bark had become very gnarled and uneven, and
+thus the difficulty of ascension lay more in semblance, perhaps, than
+in reality. Embracing the huge trunk, as closely as possible, with his
+arms and knees, much to the detriment of his clothes, seizing with his
+hands some projections, and resting his feet upon others, John Martin,
+after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled
+himself into the first great fork, and paused to wipe his forehead.
+
+"Oh, do take care, Father!" Gladys pleaded, "you'll fall and break
+your neck. Do be sensible and come down now."
+
+But John Martin paid no attention, he went on groping.
+
+"I've found it," he suddenly shouted. "That bounder was right, the
+trunk is hollow." He was silent then, for some minutes, and Gladys
+could only see his boots. Then there was a muffled oath, a sound of
+choking and gasping, which made Gladys's blood run cold, and then--a
+great cry. "There's something here, something hard and heavy. It's a
+box, an iron box! Take it from me." And leaning as far down as he
+dared, he placed in Gladys's outstretched hands, a rusty iron box.
+Then there was the sound of scraping and tearing, and John Martin
+gradually lowered himself to the ground--his coat covered with green,
+and the knees of his trousers ripped to pieces.
+
+Gladys ran indoors for a hammer and chisel, and, the hinges of the box
+being worn with age and exposure, it was but the work of a few seconds
+to break it open. It was full of gold and silver coins and jewellery;
+there were only a few gold pieces, the greater number of the coins
+were silver--the bulk Georgian--and their dates ranged from 1697 to
+1750. The jewellery consisted of several massive gold bracelets, (two
+or three of very fine workmanship); some dozen or so plain gold rings;
+two silver watches, and a varied assortment of silver trinkets. All
+were more or less antique, but none--apart from the gold bracelets--of
+any great value.
+
+"Well!" John Martin exclaimed, as they concluded their examination of
+the articles, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"Why that man put them there, of course," Gladys said, "can't you see
+the whole thing is nothing but a dodge to intimidate you into forming
+a friendship with him. I daresay he has heard that Mr. Davenport is
+dead, and thinks he sees an opportunity to be taken into partnership.
+He had a horrid face--sly and cunning, and his way of looking at me
+was positively disgusting. It makes me feel sick and horrid even to
+think of it."
+
+"What shall we do with these things?" John Martin asked, picking up
+one of the watches and eyeing it with curiosity.
+
+"Are they ours?" Gladys replied.
+
+"I certainly consider we've a right to keep them," her father said,
+"since we've found them ourselves on our own property, but I suppose,
+legally, they are treasure trove and ought to be given up."
+
+"Then surely the Government would pay us something for them, wouldn't
+it?"
+
+"I should think so, at least a decent Government would. Anyhow, I
+think to give them up will be our best course. I doubt if the whole
+lot is worth fifty pounds. Where was it he said there was water?"
+
+"Good gracious!" Gladys exclaimed, "you don't mean to say you are
+going to bother about that now!"
+
+"It was here, I think," John Martin went on, thrusting his stick in
+the ground, "to the best of my knowledge--and I had experts'
+advice--there is no water any where near here. Had there been, I
+should not have gone to the expense of having pipes laid down to feed
+the pond."
+
+"Oh, Father, how can you be so silly," Gladys cried, "of course there
+isn't any water here. It's only a trick, a trick to frighten you--and
+I'm beginning to think it has succeeded."
+
+"I shall try here anyway to-morrow," John Martin said grimly. "Let us
+go in now."
+
+When Gladys went into the garden on the following morning she beheld
+an extraordinary sight. Her father, the gardener, and a man whom she
+did not recognize at first, as his back was turned towards her, but
+who, to her utter astonishment, proved to be Shiel Davenport, were
+hard at work, digging a pit.
+
+Her father paused every now and then, and rested; but he did not allow
+the others a moment's respite. Every time they were about to slack, he
+urged them on. It was all very well for the gardener who was
+accustomed to it, but it was obviously killing work for Shiel
+Davenport, and Gladys--as soon as she had overcome a preliminary
+outburst of laughter--gave vent to her sympathies.
+
+"What a shame," she exclaimed, "Father how can you? Poor Mr. Davenport
+looks ready to drop. Take a rest, Mr. Davenport! Do--you have my
+permission."
+
+Looking very hot and exhausted, Shiel Davenport threw down his spade
+and attempted to make himself presentable.
+
+"His clothes will be ruined, Father," Gladys said, indignantly.
+
+"They're not his clothes--he's wearing an old suit of mine," John
+Martin explained, trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+Shiel forced a laugh. "I'm rather out of form, Miss Martin, I haven't
+had much exercise lately."
+
+"You're getting it now anyway," John Martin chuckled.
+
+"And it's blistered your hands horribly!" Gladys cried, pointing to
+several raw places. "I will fetch you a pair of father's gloves--he's
+a brute!"
+
+"Please don't trouble," Shiel exclaimed, "I'll use my handkerchief
+instead. Digging is even harder work than painting--in one way."
+
+"It's not fit work for you," Gladys replied with another reproachful
+glance at her father. "When did you arrive, I never heard you?"
+
+"I 'phoned to him last night," John Martin said, looking rather
+sheepish. "I thought a day out here would do him good. He thought so
+too, and came on by the seven o'clock train. We've been digging ever
+since breakfast--but a bit of exercise won't hurt him, and I'll give
+him plenty of vaseline presently."
+
+They resumed work again; and Gladys retired indoors. At eleven o'clock
+John Martin let Shiel go. "You can amuse yourself till luncheon with
+books and papers," he said, "you'll find plenty of them in my study.
+I'll join you later."
+
+But Shiel had other ideas of amusing himself, and as soon as he had
+washed and changed back into his own clothes, he followed the sounds
+of music until he reached the drawing-room.
+
+"I'm sure you must feel dreadfully tired," Gladys said, leaving off
+playing. "It was too bad of Father to make you work like that."
+
+"I'm afraid your father thinks me a very useless article," Shiel
+replied, seating himself in an easy chair, and trying his hardest not
+to look too ardently. "And an artist is not much good outside his
+profession."
+
+"Who is?" Gladys smiled. "Shall you still go on painting?"
+
+"Now that my uncle has died? It all depends--depends on whether he has
+been able to leave me anything in his will. From one or two things
+your father has said I fear he has not--in which case I don't quite
+know what I shall do. I could hardly expect Mr. Martin to take me into
+his firm."
+
+"Aren't you any good at invention?" Gladys asked, "I know he wants
+some one who is--some one who can help him devise fresh tricks. This
+everlasting racking of the brains to think of something new is
+beginning to be too much for him."
+
+"I wish I could be of some use," Shiel said, "both for his sake and
+mine, and may I add yours. Anyhow I'll try. I have a certain amount of
+imagination--I suppose most artists have, and henceforth I'll devote
+it to trickery."
+
+"No, not to trickery!" Gladys said, "to conjuring!"
+
+"Well, to conjuring then--to planning something novel and startling in
+the way of a trick. And as they say, two heads are better than one,
+perhaps, you will help me."
+
+"I," Gladys laughed, "why I've never invented anything in my life,
+barring a song."
+
+"Nevertheless I'm sure you would be of great help to me," Shiel said;
+"you would at least criticize my efforts, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh! I should certainly do that," Gladys laughingly rejoined, "and
+probably do more harm than good."
+
+"You could never do any harm!" Shiel said, with so much eagerness that
+Gladys got up and began searching for a piece of music. "I would give
+anything to paint you."
+
+"I have been painted--twice," Gladys observed.
+
+"For the R.A.?"
+
+"Yes! I didn't much care about it, and I grew desperately tired of
+sitting."
+
+"Who painted you?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me once, and Darker painted me once."
+
+"Then it's useless for me even to think of it. How did they treat you
+in their pictures?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me in evening dress, and Darker painted me in the
+character of Enid--you know, the Enid in the 'Idylls of the King.'"
+
+"Yes. But I should like to paint you as 'Melody in Flower Land.'"
+
+"I'm afraid I can't grasp it," Gladys said.
+
+"Can't you!" Shiel exclaimed, "I can. The idea came to me when I heard
+you singing just now, and saw you sitting here, in the midst of
+flowers, and dressed like a rose. I should paint you clad as you are
+now--all in pink--seated in the garden singing; and all the flowers
+leaning towards you listening. I would give anything to paint it," and
+he spoke with such enthusiasm that Gladys, remembering her dream,
+flushed.
+
+"I think," she said, "we might go into the garden and see how the work
+is progressing."
+
+"I fear I can't do any more digging," Shiel put in hastily, "I
+willingly would if I could, but I really can't use my hands."
+
+"And you've not had any vaseline," Gladys cried. "I'll get you some,"
+and before he could prevent her she had gone.
+
+She was back again, however, in a few moments with a tiny white jar
+and some linen bandages. "I couldn't find my aunt," she began, "or she
+would bandage your hands for you."
+
+"Won't you?" Shiel asked. "Do!"
+
+He thrust his hands towards her as he spoke, and Gladys uttered an
+exclamation of horror--the palms and fingers were raw and swollen.
+
+"I feel heartily ashamed of myself for being so thin-skinned," Shiel
+said. But Gladys had disappeared. She returned almost immediately with
+a bowl of water.
+
+"I'm sure they must hurt you dreadfully," she exclaimed, as she gently
+bathed the hands. "It makes me feel quite ill to see them."
+
+For the next few moments Shiel was in Paradise. The touch of her cool,
+white fingers on his hot and burning skin was far nicer than anything
+he had ever imagined. Her sweet-scented breath stealing gently up his
+nostrils soothed away all his care--even the remembrance of his recent
+loss.
+
+With his whole heart and soul concentrated in his gaze, he watched her
+every movement--watched the waving and tossing of the stray wisps of
+hair over her temples and ears, as the breeze rustled through the open
+windows; and the gentle tightening and relaxation of her delicately
+moulded lips each time she breathed.
+
+Shiel had always led a very solitary existence. Apart from his uncle
+he had no near relatives, and with the exception of the five or six
+weeks in the year he had spent at Dick Davenport's house at Sydenham,
+he had always been in rooms. He had often felt lonely, but never quite
+so lonely as now--now that the only person he had known intimately and
+for whom he had entertained any real affection, was suddenly taken
+away. He was now absolutely alone in the world, and the poignancy of
+his position came home to him acutely.
+
+It is a terrible thing to be lonely. Lonely men do all sorts of
+dreadful things--things they would certainly never dream of doing if
+they had companionship. And Shiel was doing a dreadful thing now.
+Every moment he was falling more and more desperately in love, despite
+the fact that he had no money, and worse still--no prospects of ever
+making any. And loneliness was in the main responsible for it.
+
+Had he not been so lonely--had he not spent days and days, alone in
+lodgings, with no one to talk to--no one to care whether he were ill
+or dying; had this not been his experience--the experience he was even
+then undergoing, reason would have outweighed folly, and even though
+he might have realized that in Gladys Martin he had found his ideal of
+beauty--of womanliness, he would have been content only to admire.
+
+As it was, he was in that very dangerous mood when the heart yearns
+for sympathy; when a plain woman's sympathy means much--and a pretty
+woman's more than much. It is no exaggeration to say that Shiel would
+have lain down and died for Gladys ten times over. For her sake--if
+only to see her smile, no mere physical pain would have been too
+excruciating for him to bear. And when she put the finishing touches
+to the bandages, and quite by chance, of course, their eyes met, he
+looked at her as if he never meant to leave off looking at her, as if
+he never meant to do anything else but look at her for all eternity.
+
+Whether she understood as much or not, is impossible to say. Shiel
+asked himself the question over and over again before the day was out,
+and in his sleep, and during the next day, and for many days
+afterwards. Could she tell how much he admired her? How much he
+worshipped her? All that he was prepared to do for her sweet sake? All
+this he asked himself repeatedly, and went on thinking of her when he
+knew he ought never to have thought of her at all.
+
+"I'm sure your hands are more comfortable now. Won't you go into the
+garden and see how the work is progressing?" she said. "Or if you are
+afraid Father will want you to dig again, perhaps you would like to go
+into his study and read the papers."
+
+"I should like to stay here and listen to you singing," he said.
+"Mayn't I do that?"
+
+"You might," she said, "but I have to go out."
+
+"Then I'll stay here till you return," he said, "I've never been in
+such a delightful room."
+
+"What do you think of Shiel Davenport?" Gladys remarked to her aunt a
+few minutes later. "I don't think I've ever met such an extraordinary
+young man. He does nothing but stare at me, and when I ask him to do
+one thing he suggests doing another. He's the most difficult person to
+manage. In fact, I can't manage him at all."
+
+"Never mind about managing him, my dear," Miss Templeton replied, "so
+long as you don't let him manage you. Young men who do nothing but
+stare are not merely difficult--they are dangerous."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+
+When John Martin came into tea that afternoon, he gave Gladys a shock.
+Despite the fact that he had been in the sun all day and was much
+tanned in consequence he had never looked--so Gladys thought--so old
+and haggard.
+
+"You dear old Daddie!" she said, hastening to pour him out some tea,
+"you shouldn't work so hard--this silly digging has quite knocked you
+up! Haven't you finished?"
+
+"Yes, I've finished!" John Martin said, catching his breath. "I've
+found water!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"It's true all the same. We struck it at exactly the distance he
+said--twenty feet."
+
+"Then of course he knew."
+
+"How? How the deuce could he have known?"
+
+"I can't say," Gladys replied. "All I know is, that he's not straight,
+and that there's some underhand trickery going on. But do have your
+tea now, and dismiss it from your mind. Anyhow, he can do you no
+harm."
+
+"Here's a letter for you, John," Mrs. Templeton exclaimed, entering
+the room at that moment.
+
+John Martin took it from her, and tore open the envelope curiously. It
+was a handwriting he did not know, and did not like--its
+characteristics were sinister.
+
+"I knew it!" he cried; "I knew the fellow was a scoundrel. What the
+deuce do you think he has the impertinence to do now?"
+
+"He!" Gladys said, looking anxiously at her father. "Whoever do you
+mean?"
+
+"Why, that confounded young bounder who came here last night--Leon
+Hamar he signs himself. In this letter he declares that he can perform
+any of our tricks, and will accept the wager I offered for their
+solution some little time ago. He also says that unless I consent to
+see him, and to listen courteously to what he has to say, he will
+publicly announce his intention of taking up the wager, at our Hall,
+in Kingsway, to-night."
+
+"Do you think there is any possibility of his having discovered the
+secrets of your tricks?" Gladys asked. "Could he have bribed any one
+to tell him?"
+
+"I don't think so," John Martin said. "The only people who have any
+clue as to how they are done are my two attendants--both as you know
+natives of Cashmere, and men who, I feel pretty certain, could not be
+'got at.'"
+
+"In that case," Gladys remarked, "I fail to see what there is to worry
+about. Your course is perfectly clear--take no notice of it."
+
+John Martin was silent--dazed. He did not know what to think or do!
+There was something painfully ominous to him in the discovery of the
+money and the water--something that accentuated the impression Hamar's
+sinister appearance had made on him. The man did not look
+ordinary--his manner, gestures, walk and expression were decidedly
+abnormal--in fact they put him in mind of the superphysical. The
+superphysical! Might not that account for his knowledge? Bah! There
+was no such thing as the superphysical. The man was extraordinary--but,
+after all, only a man--his knowledge only that of a man. And it must
+be as the shrewd Gladys conjectured--he had put the money in the tree
+himself and had learned of the presence of water through some subtle
+artifice--perhaps only guessed at it. He would defy him--let him do
+what he would!
+
+This was John Martin's decision as he finished tea. An hour later he
+had changed his mind, and was speaking to Hamar on the telephone,
+expressing his willingness to grant him a brief interview if he came
+at once.
+
+In rather less than an hour a motor drew up at the Martins' door and
+Hamar stepped out of it.
+
+"Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin," he exclaimed
+on being ushered into the latter's presence. "I reckoned you would
+sing to a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me
+to give you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to
+business?"
+
+"Name your business at once," John Martin replied gruffly; "I haven't
+many minutes to spare."
+
+"No!" Hamar said, "that's a pity; because part of what I have at the
+back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The
+situation in a nutshell is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.
+Martin?"
+
+"How dare you, sir?" John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.
+
+"Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!" Hamar observed, backing towards the
+door. "Gently--you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no
+offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely--she takes the shine
+out of our American girls."
+
+"The deuce she does!" John Martin foamed.
+
+"She does, you bet!" Hamar went on. "And I see no reason if she likes
+me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as
+far as money goes. What do you say?"
+
+"I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and
+kick you."
+
+"I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership," Hamar
+went on complacently, "and I would introduce a number of new tricks
+that would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry--the
+length of the engagement would be for you to decide."
+
+"Then it would be _ad infinitum_," John Martin said grimly, "for
+you'll never get my consent to a marriage."
+
+"Never is a long day--and even a John Martin may change. You want new
+blood and new capital in your Firm--you would have both in me. I
+assure you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!"
+
+"And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my
+daughter?"
+
+"You have said it--that is the one and only condition. Your
+daughter--my brains, my dollars."
+
+"I have decided!" John Martin said.
+
+"Good!" Hamar exclaimed; "I guessed you would! There's nothing like
+the almighty dollar, is there?"
+
+"Yes!" John Martin rejoined; "the almighty fist--and that's what
+you'll get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you
+ever come skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll
+set my. solicitor on to you."
+
+"Then it's war--war to the knife!" Hamar sneered. "How melodramatic!
+But it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner--and I shall yet
+have Miss Gladys! Au revoir--I won't say good-bye!" and with a mock
+bow he hurriedly took his departure.
+
+That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed
+as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop.
+A man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the
+audience in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen!"
+
+In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts
+of "Silence!"
+
+But Curtis--for it was he--was not easily daunted. "Do you call this
+fair play!" he demanded; "I am here to-night to make a sporting offer,
+and one which will afford you vast entertainment."
+
+Cries of "Shut up!" "Silence!" "He's drunk!" "Turn him out!" merging
+into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials
+now invaded the box, but Hamar--who, as well as Kelson, was with
+Curtis--fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the
+half-lowered lights of the house--for the stage only at that moment
+was fully illuminated--held them in check, and they hung back not
+knowing what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of
+the audience--some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts,
+whilst others were merely curious--and the somewhat premature cries of
+"Turn him out!" etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: "Let
+them alone!" "Let them speak!" "Let us hear what they have to say." It
+was in the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of
+nervous agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the
+cause of the commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who
+had come to the performance anticipating something of the sort, called
+to her father, from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to
+speak.
+
+"You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father," she added; "and
+besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on
+their part."
+
+Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in;
+and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of
+clapping.
+
+"I wish I were spokesman," Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the
+sight of so many pretty upturned faces. "Go on, old man!" he added,
+giving Curtis a nudge. "Fire away, and show them you know a bit about
+elocution, for the credit of the Firm."
+
+Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once
+possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned
+over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.
+
+"I am Edward Curtis," he said, "one of the directors of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often
+boasted that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I
+have come here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only
+accept their offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their
+tricks, but I agree to pay them double that amount--cash down--if I do
+not do everything they do--from 'The Brass Coffin' to their
+world-famed 'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's
+permission I will explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night,
+and the only thing I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that
+I get fair play."
+
+A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon
+as it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to
+speak, said: "I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this
+challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here,
+in this hall to-night, of displaying their skill--or their ignorance,
+as the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be
+performed by any outsider--the Firm in accepting this challenge will
+merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer--and if--as is hardly
+likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure
+they themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their
+successful rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee."
+
+"I too!" shouted a dozen other voices. "Be a sport and accept his
+bet!"
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," John Martin replied with dignity, "you have
+given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who
+have so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is
+maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of
+which Mr. Curtis--I think that is the name of my rival--will be quite
+at liberty to try his exposition of my tricks."
+
+The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar
+and Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had
+volunteered to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were
+provided for the referees--three on the one side of the stage and
+three on the other; and having seen that everything was fair and
+square John Martin retired to the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was
+concealed.
+
+A brief description of "The Brass Coffin" trick, which was the first
+Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
+suffice.
+
+A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
+audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
+anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.
+
+The operator then summons an assistant, jokingly refers to him as "the
+corpse"--puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet,
+securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the
+audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the
+coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet
+over the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on
+removing it and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A
+shout from the front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to
+their amazement, "the corpse" is seen standing up at the back of "the
+Pit," holding the sack with the rope and seal--intact--in his hand.
+Such was the marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and
+Davenport's Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of
+which no one as yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the tremendous excitement of the audience at the
+prospect of seeing this notorious puzzle tackled--and tackled by a
+member of a Firm which was already reputed to be doing all kinds of
+weird and extraordinary things. But, whereas it was quite obvious that
+John Martin was greatly perturbed (his eyebrows were working
+nervously, and his lips and fingers twitching), Curtis, on the other
+hand, was as cool as possible--he literally did not turn a hair.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning to the referees, "keep your eyes
+well skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen," he
+went on, raising his voice, "I am now about to show you how the coffin
+trick is done. Observe me--I'm 'the corpse'--Mr. Kelson, here, is the
+operator--" and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced,
+down the stage to take part in the proceedings.
+
+"Watch me get into the sack!" He stepped into it as he spoke. "Look at
+what I have in my hand," he went on, holding up his right hand in full
+view of the audience. "I have a plug of wood covered with the same
+material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
+over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
+will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
+think you know this coffin but you don't. See!"--and stepping out of
+the sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and
+deep. "Come closer!" and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers
+were now augmented by three newspaper reporters--representatives of
+the _Daily Snapper_, the _Planet_ and the _Hooter_ respectively. "Here
+is a secret panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press
+too."
+
+And amidst a breathless silence--the nine members of the audience on
+the stage following every movement--Curtis put his hand inside the
+head of the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In
+an instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid
+back, leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to
+squeeze through.
+
+Everyone now looked at John Martin--he was leaning back in his chair,
+breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.
+Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died
+out of his face when he glanced at Gladys--the scorn in the girl's
+eyes made his blood boil.
+
+"All right, Miss Martin," he muttered between his teeth; "you adopt
+that attitude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on!
+I'll win you body and soul, or my name is not what it is."
+
+He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. "I'm too
+stout to play the rôle of the corpse, and so is Matt," Curtis said to
+him; "you must undertake that part. Now!" he went on, "take this plug
+and get into the sack," and he whispered a few instructions in his
+ear. Then he tied the top of the sack--in reality tying it round the
+plug Hamar was holding--and one of the audience sealed the knot.
+Curtis and Kelson then lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and
+corded it. Then Curtis, turning to the audience, said:
+
+"What is now happening inside the coffin is this--'the corpse' pulls
+the plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus
+becomes loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once
+touches the spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and
+the panel slides back--So!"
+
+And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first
+of all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture
+thus made.
+
+"The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is
+this," Curtis explained; "the head of the coffin is always turned away
+from you and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to
+you appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly
+opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this
+'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it
+you. Here it is"--and beckoning to the referees to come quite close,
+he pointed to a glass screen, in the centre of the base of which was a
+glass trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the
+coffin. "Here, corpse!" Curtis said, "crawl through"--and Hamar,
+looking as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of
+wriggling on his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight
+together as he could, and squirmed through.
+
+"Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"Perfectly!" the referees answered. "Nothing could be plainer. We see
+exactly, now, how the trick is done."
+
+At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the
+elegant manner in which he had been patiently and assiduously coached
+by Kelson.
+
+He then proceeded to the second trick--"Eve at the Window," a trick
+almost, if not quite, as famous as "The Brass Coffin," and for the
+solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge
+sums of money.
+
+A large pane of glass some nine by six feet in area, and set in
+a frame, made to represent that of a window, is placed on the
+stage, about eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches
+from the ground a wooden shelf is placed against the window. An
+assistant--usually a woman--then mounts on the shelf and, looking out
+of the glass, proceeds to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a
+shocked voice asks her to desist. She refuses and, to the amusement of
+the audience, carries on her pantomimic flirtation more desperately
+than before. The operator pretends to lose his temper, and snatching
+up a screen places it at the back of her. He then fires a pistol,
+pulls aside the screen, and she has vanished. As the top, bottom and
+sides of the window, all in fact except the very middle, have been in
+full view of the audience, and as the window has been tightly closed
+all the time, the disappearance of the girl completely mystifies the
+audience.
+
+Curtis explained it all. He pointed out that the keynote to the
+illusion lay behind the wooden shelf, which was so placed as to
+conceal the fact that the lower part of the window was made double,
+the bottom of the upper part being concealed from view by a second
+sheet of silvered glass placed in front of it. The shelf covers the
+line of junction and enables the window frame to be scrutinized by the
+audience.
+
+As soon as the screen is put in front of the lady on the shelf--the
+glass pane slides up about a foot and a half into the top of the
+frame, purposely made very deep. The bottom of the window is cut away
+in the middle, leaving an aperture about two feet square, which was
+previously hidden from view by the double glass at the base. Eve makes
+her exit through this hole, and slides on to a board placed behind the
+window in readiness for her. The pane of glass then slides down again,
+the screen is removed, and the window appears just as solid as before.
+
+When Curtis concluded his verbal explanation he gave the audience a
+practical illustration of how the thing was done; he manipulated the
+screen and pistol, whilst Hamar posed as Eve, and directly he had
+finished there was another outburst of applause. Kelson dared not look
+at John Martin or Gladys. The brief glance he had taken of them at the
+conclusion of the giving away of the first trick had shocked him--and
+he purposely stood with his back to them. With Hamar it was
+otherwise--the joy of triumph was strong within him, and the picture
+of John Martin, leaning forward in his chair, with his mouth half open
+and a dazed, glassy expression in his eyes, only thrilled him with
+pleasure; he laughed at the old man, and still more at Gladys.
+
+"That's the way to treat a girl of that sort," he whispered to Kelson;
+"scoff at her--scoff at her well. Let her see you don't care a snap
+for her--and in the end she'll run after you and haunt you to death."
+
+"I'm not so sure," Kelson said. "It might act in some cases, perhaps,
+but I don't think you can quite depend on it."
+
+"Pooh! You are no judge of women, in spite of all your experience,"
+Hamar retorted. "I'll bet you anything you like she'll come round and
+make a tremendous fuss of me."
+
+"Supposing you fall in love with her, how about the compact?" Kelson
+asked. "You've warned me often enough."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not like you," Hamar replied. "There's nothing soft in my
+nature. I fall in love! Not much! Why, you might as well have
+apprehensions of my joining the Salvation Army, or wanting to become a
+Militant Suffragette--either would be just about as possible. No--! I
+shall make the girl love me--and we shall be engaged for just as long
+as I please. If I find some one that attracts me more, I shall throw
+her aside--if not, maybe, I shall marry her--but in either case there
+will be no question of love--at least not on my part. She shall do as
+I want--that is all! Hulloa! Curtis is beginning again."
+
+There were five other tricks on the programme--all of which were world
+renowned. They were "The Floating Head"; "The Mango Seed"; "The
+Haunted Bathing-machine," "The Girl with the Five Eyes," and "The
+Vanishing Bicycle" illusion. As with the first two tricks, so Curtis
+did with the following five--he explained them, and then, aided by
+Hamar and Kelson, gave practical demonstrations of their solutions;
+and so thoroughly and clearly were these solutions demonstrated that
+the referees asked no questions--they were absolutely satisfied.
+Turning to the audience--at a sign from Curtis--they announced that
+the whole of Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks had been solved to
+their entire satisfaction, and that Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. had, without doubt, won the wager.
+
+"Have you anything to say?" Curtis asked, addressing John Martin.
+
+"I acknowledge my defeat, though I do not understand it!" John Martin
+said with very white lips. "I shall pay you the ten thousand pounds
+to-night."
+
+"Don't worry about that," Hamar interposed; "we don't want to take
+your money, all we wanted to do was to prove to you we could perform
+the tricks you believed to be insoluble.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen!" he went on, raising his voice, "the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. has given you some proof to-night of their
+capabilities in the conjuring line, and if you will give us the
+pleasure of your company to-morrow night--we invite you all free of
+charge for the occasion--we will give you a still further
+demonstration of our powers. May we count upon your patronage?"
+
+A terrific storm of clapping was the reply, and as the audience slowly
+filed from the hall, John Martin staggered into the wing, reeled past
+Gladys ere she could catch him, and sank helplessly on to the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+
+The days that followed were dark days for Gladys. Her father, whom she
+loved--and, until now, had never realized how much she loved--lay
+seriously ill. He had had a stroke which, although fortunately slight,
+must, as the doctor said, be regarded as a prelude to what would
+happen, unless he was kept very quiet. And to keep him quiet was not
+an easy thing to do. His mind continually reverted to what had just
+taken place, and he was for ever asking Gladys to tell him whether
+anything further had occurred in connection with it, whether there was
+anything about it in the papers.
+
+Gladys, of course, was obliged to dissemble. She hated anything
+approaching dissimulation, but on this occasion there was no help for
+it, and what she told John Martin was the reverse of what she knew to
+be actually happening. The papers were full to overflowing with
+accounts of that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous
+gratis exhibition given on the succeeding evening by the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd.
+
+The _Hooter_, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
+in large type--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT MARTIN AND DAVENPORT'S
+    THE GREATEST CONJURING TRICKS IN THE WORLD SOLVED!
+
+Whilst the _Daily Snapper_, determined to be none the less sensational,
+began thus:
+
+    MYSTERIES NO LONGER!
+    "THE BRASS COFFIN TRICK" AND "EVE AT THE WINDOW" DONE AT LAST!
+    MARTIN AND DAVENPORT LOSE THEIR PRESTIGE
+
+This was bad enough, but the _Planet_ published a paragraph that was
+even more galling, viz.--
+
+    "Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
+    explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home
+    of Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
+    surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should
+    turn elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is
+    above all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort
+    to the Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids
+    fair to become the future home of everything uncanny. Their
+    programme--to the uninitiated--presents possibilities--and
+    impossibilities."
+
+So said the _Planet_, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
+Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
+succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled
+to overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being
+verified. The solution of Martin and Davenports' tricks had taken
+place (Hamar had so planned it) on the last night the trio possessed
+the property of divination, and, consequently, on the night that
+terminated the first stage of their compact. The following night they
+would be in possession of new powers, such powers as would warrant
+them giving a gratis exhibition--an exhibition of jugglery absolutely
+new and unprecedented. That the exhibition was successful may be
+gathered from the following article in the _Daily Cyclone_--
+
+    "MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+
+    "The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., in their new premises in
+    Cockspur Street, gave the most remarkable display of Phenomena it
+    has ever yet fallen to our lot to report. Indeed, the performances
+    were of such an extraordinary nature that the huge audience, _en
+    masse_, was scared; not a few people fainted, whilst every now and
+    again were heard screams of terror intermingled with long
+    protracted 'Ohs!'"
+
+A brief _résumé_ of the entertainment ran as follows:--The first part
+of the Modern Sorcery Company's programme was carried out by Mr. Leon
+Hamar, solus, who, stepping to the front of the stage, announced that
+he was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further
+prelude he pointed to various members of the audience, and described
+spiritual presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he
+could see a spirit, answering to the name of James or George--or some
+such equally familiar name--and then proceed to give a description of
+it, so elastic, that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly
+have fitted nine out of every ten people one meets with every day, but
+unlike any other clairvoyants we have known, he described the
+individual physical and moral traits of the people he professed to
+see. For example: To a lady sitting in the third row of the stalls, he
+said: "There is the phantasm of an elderly gentleman standing behind
+you. He has a vivid scar on his right cheek that looks as if it might
+have been caused by a sabre cut. He has a grey military moustache, a
+very marked chin; wears his hair parted in the middle, and has
+light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously on the gentleman seated on
+your left. Do you recognize the person I am describing?"
+
+"I think so," the lady answered in a faint voice.
+
+"I will spare you a description of his person," Hamar went on, "but I
+should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
+He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
+pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
+revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
+right?"
+
+There was no reply--but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
+words.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. "I can see behind
+you," he said, "an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large
+emerald drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of
+which she appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She
+died of pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of--Ahem!--of
+her relatives--for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
+however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square--a Society
+for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to
+whom I refer."
+
+Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.
+
+"Only too well!" came the indignant and spontaneous reply.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. "Hulloa!" he
+exclaimed. "What have we here--an Irish terrier answering to the name
+of 'Peg.' It is standing upright with its two front paws resting on
+your knees. It is looking up into your face, and its mouth is open as
+if anticipating a lump of sugar. From the marks on its body I should
+say it has been killed by being run over?"
+
+Again Mr. Hamar was correct. "What you say is absolutely true," the
+gentleman replied; "I had a dog named Peg. I was greatly attached to
+it, and it was run over in Piccadilly by a motor cyclist. I hate the
+very sight of a motor bicycle."
+
+After a brief interval of awestruck silence a voice from the gallery
+called out--
+
+"You are in league with him!"
+
+Then the man in the stalls stood up, and essayed to speak; but his
+voice was drowned in a perfect tornado of applause. He had no need--he
+was instantly recognized--he was J---- B----. With a few more examples
+of clairvoyance Mr. Hamar continued to entertain his audience for half
+an hour or so, by the end of which time, we have no hesitation in
+saying that every one was convinced that he actually saw what, he
+said, he saw.
+
+The second part of the programme was entirely in the hands of Mr.
+Curtis, who now came forward with a bow. "Ladies and gentlemen," he
+said; "you all know that man is complex--that he is composed of mind
+and matter, the material and immaterial. I now propose to give you a
+physical demonstration of this fact. Will twelve of the audience
+kindly come up on the stage and sit around me, so that you may feel
+quite certain that I have here no mechanical devices to assist
+me?"--And amongst other well-known people who responded to Mr.
+Curtis's request, were Lord Bayle, Sir Charles Tenningham and the
+Right Hon. John Blaine, M.P. Having arranged these twelve volunteers
+in a semi-circle at the back of the stage, Mr. Curtis, standing in the
+centre of the stage, again addressed his audience. "Ladies and
+gentlemen," he said; "the secret of separating the mind--or what
+Spiritualists, who love to bolster up their pretended knowledge of the
+other world by the invention of pretentious nomenclature, call the
+'ethical ego'--from the body, lies in intense concentration. If you
+wish to acquire the power, practise concentration--concentrate on
+being in a certain place. If nothing happens at first, don't be
+discouraged, but keep on trying, and a time will come when you will
+suddenly leave your body, in a form, which is the exact counterpart of
+the body you have left. You will visit the place whereon you are
+concentrating. Perhaps the best method of practising projection is to
+put your forehead against a door or wall, and concentrate very hard on
+being on the other side. It may take weeks before you get a result,
+but if you persevere, you will eventually succeed in leaving your
+physical form and passing through the door, or wall, into the space
+beyond. Now watch me! I shall concentrate on projecting my immaterial
+body, and of walking in it, three times round my material body."
+
+Mr. Curtis closed his eyes, and for some seconds appeared to be
+thinking very hard. Then the audience witnessed a remarkable
+phenomenon--a figure, the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, stepped
+out, as it were, from his body, and slowly walking round it three
+times, deliberately glided into it, and apparently amalgamated with
+it. The twelve members from the audience who were within a few feet of
+the alleged ethereal body, as it walked past them, declared they saw
+it most vividly, and that feature for feature, detail for detail, it
+was the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, whose material body remained
+standing, upright and motionless, with its eyes tightly closed. Our
+representative questioned several of these eye-witnesses very closely,
+and they were all most emphatic in their belief that what they had
+seen was a _bona-fide_ case of spiritual projection. At the request of
+a large part of the audience, Mr. Curtis repeated his demonstration, a
+further complement of men from the stalls joining those already on the
+stage to witness the operation.
+
+Several tests were now applied to the ethereal body of Mr. Curtis, as
+it walked round his material body. One man, clutching at its sleeve,
+tried to detain it, but his hand passed through the sleeve, and
+held--nothing. Another man put out an arm to act as a barrier, and the
+projection, without swerving from its course, passed right through it;
+and, on the completion of the third round, disappeared as before.
+
+In answer to inquiries, Mr. Curtis stated that the phenomenon might be
+taken as a good illustration of projections; and that he was prepared
+to project himself once again, in order to prove that it was erroneous
+to suppose that phantasms could not do all manner of physical actions.
+A deal table (upon which stood a tumbler and jug of water), a
+grandfather clock, and a piano were brought on to the stage, and Mr.
+Curtis once again projected his spirit form. The latter at once walked
+to the table, and, taking up the tumbler, filled it with water from
+the jug; after which it wound up the clock, and, sitting down on a
+seat in front of the piano, played "Killarney" and "The Star-spangled
+Banner." And then, amidst the wildest applause--the first time
+assuredly "a ghost" has ever received public plaudits in recognition
+of its services--it modestly re-entered its physical home.
+
+Mr. Curtis then announced that not only could he project his ethereal
+body from his material body in the manner he had already demonstrated,
+but that with his ethereal body he could amalgamate with inorganic
+matter. He bade those on the stage approach the table in convenient
+numbers, _i.e._ two or three at a time, and listen attentively. He
+then took his stand on one side of the stage, about fourteen feet from
+the table; and the audience approaching the table and listening
+attentively, first of all heard it pulsate as with the throbbings of a
+heart, and then breathe with the deep and heavy respirations of some
+one in a sound sleep. The table then raised itself some three or four
+inches from the ground and moved round the stage; at the conclusion of
+which feat Mr. Curtis informed the audience that "table-turning"--when
+not accomplished through the trickery of one of the sitters--was
+frequently performed by the work of some earth-bound spirit--usually
+an Elemental--that could amalgamate with any piece of furniture, in
+precisely the same way as his own projection had amalgamated with the
+table in front of them. "Elementals," Mr. Curtis continued, "are
+responsible for many of the foolish and purposeless tricks performed
+at séances; and for the unintelligible and useless kind of answers the
+table so often raps out. The best you can hope for, from an Elemental,
+is amusement--it will never give you any reliable information; nor
+will it ever do you any good."
+
+With these words Mr. Curtis's share in the entertainment concluded. He
+retired to the wings, whilst Mr. Kelson stepping forward--begged those
+several gentlemen who, on Mr. Curtis's exit, had reseated themselves
+among the audience, once again to step up on to the stage.
+
+"Be good enough," he said addressing them in his most polite manner,
+"to observe me very closely. I am about to give you a few further
+examples of what intense mental concentration can do, thus proving to
+you to what an unlimited extent mind can gain dominion over matter.
+You all know that will-power can overcome any of the internal physical
+forces; for instance, when you have tooth or ear ache--you have only
+to say to yourselves: 'I shan't suffer'--and the suffering ceases. But
+what you may not know--what you may not have realized, is that
+will-power can over-rule external forces and principles--as for
+example--gravity. As a matter of fact, airships and aeroplanes are
+absolutely superfluous--and the time, money and labour they involve is
+a prodigious waste. Any man with strong mental capacity can fly
+without the aid of mechanism. He has only to will himself to be in the
+air--and he is there. Look!" And to the amazement--the indescribable,
+unparalleled amazement--of all present, Mr. Kelson knit his brows, as
+if engaged in intense thought, and, jumping off his feet, remained in
+the air, at a height of some four feet from the floor.
+
+At his request members of the audience came up to him, and passed
+their hands under, over and all around him, to make sure there were no
+wires. He then struck out with his hands and legs after the manner of
+a swimmer, and moving first of all round the stage, and then over the
+stalls and pit, gradually ascended higher and higher, till he reached
+the level of the boxes, to the occupants of which he spoke.
+
+Such an extraordinary spectacle--which apparently gives the lie to all
+our preconceived notions of gravity--has certainly never before been
+witnessed, and the effect it had on those who saw it, baffles
+description. When Mr. Kelson returned to the stage, and the terrific
+applause that greeted his arrival there had subsided, he gave the
+audience a few valuable hints as to how they, too, might accomplish
+this feat.
+
+"Practise concentration," he said, "and develop your will power, if
+only by a very little, every day. Jump off a stool to begin with,
+saying to yourself as you do so: 'I will remain in the air. I won't
+touch the ground,'--and though you may fail for the hundredth time, if
+only you keep on trying you will eventually succeed. To keep your
+equilibrium on a bicycle is a feat which would have been pronounced
+utterly impossible by your ancestors of two hundred years ago; but
+just as that power came to you--after many futile efforts, all at
+once--so, in the end, will flying come to you. See, I am now going to
+rise to the highest point in the building. Gravity pulls me back, but
+I say to myself: 'I will rise--I will fly there'--and fly there I
+do!"--and, springing off the ground, he struck out with his arms and
+legs, flew swiftly and easily to the dome of the hall, which he
+touched--and then flew back again to the stage.
+
+This completed the evening's entertainment. If only on the strength of
+its first performance, the Modern Sorcery Company, in our opinion, has
+more than justified its name; and although we understand they will
+give no more performances gratis, we feel confident in prophesying
+that, for many a long night, there will be no falling off in the
+attendance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+Gladys did not feel too happy when she read notices such as these; she
+could not do other than see in them destruction to her father, and the
+worst of it all was she could do nothing to help him. Who could? Who
+could possibly invent anything as wonderful as the marvels of the
+Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.? And yet unless John Martin gave up
+altogether, that is what he must do. Nay, he must do more--he must not
+only equal the Modern Sorcery Company's marvels, he must eclipse them.
+But after the affair of the challenge, it seemed to Gladys that there
+was no help for it--the Hall would have to be closed for a time. Now
+that Dick Davenport was dead, there was no one to take her father's
+place. On the night succeeding the catastrophe, she had persuaded one
+of the Indian attendants to undertake the rôle of operator, but his
+skill was not equal to the tax upon it, and the audience--a poor
+one--was very lukewarm in its applause. The following day she talked
+the matter over with her father. The latter was in favour of keeping
+the show on at any cost; Gladys, for closing it temporarily.
+
+"A bad performance is worse than no performance," she said, "much
+better to close till you have invented some new tricks."
+
+John Martin groaned. "I fear my days of invention are over," he
+muttered. "If I can read the papers and write letters, that will be
+about as much as I shall be able to do."
+
+"Couldn't you retire?"
+
+"I would if I were not a Britisher," John Martin replied, "but being a
+Britisher I'd sooner shoot myself than give in to a d----d Yank!"
+
+And Gladys, in terror lest her father should over-excite himself,
+promised she would see that the entertainment was carried on as usual,
+and that the Indian continued in the rôle of operator.
+
+But when out of her father's presence, Gladys gave way to despair. How
+could she--a woman--hope to cope with such a difficult situation? And
+she was racking her brains to know how to act for the best, when Shiel
+was announced.
+
+A wave of relief swept over her. She could explain her difficulties to
+Shiel, in a way that she could not to any one who had no knowledge at
+all of her father's affairs--and she told him just how matters stood.
+
+"Look here!" he exclaimed, when she had finished, "why not let me take
+your father's place at the Kingsway? I have done a little amateur
+acting, and am not nervous at the thought of appearing in public. Your
+father confided in you so much--you must know all his tricks by
+heart--couldn't you coach me!"
+
+Gladys looked at him critically.
+
+"It wouldn't be half a bad idea," she said. "Supposing you come with
+me to the Hall, I can explain the tricks better if I show you the
+apparatus at the same time."
+
+Shiel thoroughly enjoyed that journey up to town. He knew it was wrong
+of him to think of his own pleasure, when the affairs of his companion
+were in such a critical condition. He knew he ought not to look at her
+in the way he did--as if she was the most precious thing in the world,
+and he would give her his soul if she wanted it--he knew that he--a
+penniless artist without any prospects--had no right to behave thus.
+But her beauty appealed to him with a force he was entirely incapable
+of resisting, and he went on looking at her in the way he knew he
+ought not to look at her, simply because he couldn't help it.
+
+He lunched with her at her club in Dover Street, and then they taxied
+to the Kingsway.
+
+The door-keeper, the only living creature in the building, saving
+themselves, seemed to share in the general depression hanging over
+everything--the great, empty front of the house with its gloomy,
+cavernous boxes and grim, grey gallery--the dark, dismal flies--the
+chilly wings--all hushed and still, and impregnated with the sense of
+desertion. But with this man beside her, who, she knew, would do
+anything he could to help, the place did not look quite so bad to
+Gladys as it had done the day before. There was a ray of light now
+where, before, ebon blackness had prevailed.
+
+Without delay Gladys rang up the Indian attendants on the telephone,
+and occupied the time prior to their arrival by describing to Shiel
+how each of the tricks was done.
+
+Her pupil proved far more able than she had anticipated. After several
+rehearsals he was able to go through the whole performance without a
+hitch.
+
+When they had finished, Gladys stretched out her hand impulsively. "I
+don't know how to thank you enough," she said. "You are a brick, and
+if only you do half as well this evening as you have done now, we
+shall get on swimmingly--that is to say, as well as we can expect,
+until we can arrange a fresh programme. If only you were an inventor!"
+
+"If only I were. If only I had money!"
+
+"Why, what would you do?" Gladys asked curiously.
+
+"Give it to you! Give you every halfpenny of it!--But as I haven't
+any, I mean to give you all the energy I possess instead."
+
+"Why me? My father you mean!"
+
+"No, you!" Shiel said impulsively, "both of you if you prefer it, but
+you first."
+
+"Me first! That doesn't seem very lucid--but I can't stay to hear an
+explanation now, for if I miss the four-thirty train I shall miss my
+dinner, which would indeed be a calamity!" And slipping on her gloves,
+she hurried off, forbidding Shiel to escort her further.
+
+Left to himself, Shiel strolled along the Strand into the Victoria
+Gardens, where he bought an evening paper, and sat down to read it.
+The first thing that caught his eye was--
+
+    "MAGIC IN LONDON"
+
+    "This morning the West End received a shock. About twelve o'clock,
+    a gentleman, fashionably dressed, turned into Bond Street from
+    Piccadilly, and when opposite Messrs. Truefitt's prepared to cross
+    over. The street happened just then to be blocked by a long line
+    of taxis. The gentleman, however, had no intention of waiting till
+    they had passed. Measuring the distance from one pavement to the
+    other with his eyes, he jumped about fifteen feet into the air and
+    cleared the intervening space without the slightest apparent
+    effort--a feat that literally paralysed with astonishment all who
+    beheld it. On being remonstrated with by a policeman, who was
+    highly perplexed as to whether such extraordinary conduct
+    constituted a breach of the peace or not, the gentleman calmly
+    leaped over the policeman's head, and striking out with arms and
+    legs swam through the air.
+
+    "Continuing in this fashion, the cynosure of all eyes--even the
+    traffic being suspended to watch him--he passed along Bond Street
+    into Oxford Street, where he once more alighted on his feet. On
+    being questioned by a representative of the Press, it transpired
+    he was Mr. Kelson, one of the partners in the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., whose wonderful performances at their Hall, in
+    Cockspur Street, have already been reported in these columns."
+
+"I should well like to know how that flying trick is done," Shiel said
+to himself. "According to Kelson it is entirely a question of will
+power. I'll see if I can't develop my concentrative faculty and
+introduce a few of the same performances in our show. I'll go to the
+Hall and try them now."
+
+But his preliminary efforts were certainly far from successful. He
+jumped off chairs saying to himself, "I'll fly! I will fly," and he
+struck out heroically each time, but the result was always the
+same--gravity conquered--he fell.
+
+Had he not been so much in love with Gladys, he would have desisted;
+as it was, the more he bumped and bruised himself, the more determined
+he was to go on trying. In fact, flying with him became a mania; and
+according to the daily journals, his was by no means the only case.
+All over England people were trying to fly. An old lady, in Gipsy
+Hill, appeared in the Police Court to answer a charge of causing
+annoyance to her neighbours by practising flying, from off her bed, at
+night. Her bulk being large and her will power apparently small, she
+yielded to gravity and landed on the ground with prodigious bumps,
+which set everything in the room vibrating, and which could be plainly
+heard in the adjoining houses, through the thin brick walls on either
+side of her room.
+
+An old gentleman in Guilsborough had an extremely narrow escape. Being
+warned on no account to practise flying in the house or garden, lest
+his grandchildren should see him and want to do the same, he retired
+to the seclusion of an old, disused and dilapidated coach house. Here,
+in the upper storey, he practised by the hour together. He climbed on
+to a stool which he had taken there for the purpose, and when he
+fancied he had acquired the right amount of concentration, he sprang
+into the air, arriving, presumably through want of will power, on the
+floor. For two whole days he practised--bump--bump--bump--and the more
+he bumped, the more he persevered. At last, however, the floor gave
+way, and with loud cries of "I will! I will!" he fell on the ground
+floor, ten feet below! He was unable to go on experimenting, owing to
+a broken leg and a fractured collar-bone.
+
+In Aylsham, Norfolk, there had been a perfect epidemic among the
+children for trying aeronic gravity. Rudolph Crabbe, aged five, after
+listening to an account of the performances at the Modern Sorcery
+Company's Hall, which his father had read aloud, sprang off the
+dining-room table crying out "I will fly! I will stay in the air."
+Fortunately, he fell on the tabby cat, which somewhat broke the shock
+of concussion, and he escaped unhurt.
+
+In College Road, Clifton, Bristol, an octogenarian thinking he would
+add novelty to the Jubilee celebrations at the College, leaped off the
+roof of his house, crying, "I'll fly over the Close! I will fly over
+the Close!"--and broke his neck.
+
+In St. Ives, Cornwall, where the treatment of animals is none too
+humane, a fisher-boy threw a visitor's Pomeranian over the Malakoff
+saying, "You shall fly! You shall remain in the air;" whilst at Bath a
+girl of ten, snatching her baby brother from the perambulator, leaped
+over Beechen Cliff, calling out, "We will fly together! We will fly
+together!"
+
+These are only a few of the many similar cases Shiel read in the
+paper, and which he narrated afterwards to Gladys Martin.
+
+"I am quite convinced," Gladys said, "that Kelson does his flying
+through supernatural agency. His assertion that it can be done through
+mere will power, is sheer humbug. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consult
+a clairvoyant. What do you think?"
+
+Shiel thought it was an excellent suggestion. He saw in it an
+opportunity of spending yet another afternoon in Gladys's company, and
+asked her to go with him to an occultist the very next day. When she
+assented, the pleasure of it tingled through every pore of his skin.
+Of course, Gladys assured herself there was no harm in her acceptance
+of Shiel's escort--that neither he nor she meant anything by it--that
+it was on her part merely a sort of an acknowledgment that he had been
+awfully good to her in her present predicament. Besides, if she needed
+further excuse, she had no reason for supposing Shiel to be in love
+with her--and had her father not spoken to her about it, she would not
+have remarked anything different in his glances, from the glances--for
+the time being, perhaps, earnest enough--bestowed upon her by other
+young men; which excuse, was, certainly, in Gladys's case, a more or
+less honest one.
+
+They had some difficulty in selecting a psychometrist--so numerous
+were those who advertised, in an equally alluring manner--but they at
+length decided in favour of Madame Elvita, whose consulting rooms were
+in New Bond Street. When they arrived there, Madame Elvita was, of
+course, engaged. Shiel was delighted--it gave him an extra half-hour
+with Gladys. When Madame was free, she had much to tell them. First of
+all she spoke to them of Karmas, Kamadevas, Rupadevas, vitalized
+shells, etheric doubles, the Nermanakaya, and afterwards solemnly
+announced that she must relapse into a state of clairvoyance, in order
+to get in touch with Tillie Toot, a certain spirit from whom she could
+learn all that Gladys and Shiel wanted to know. Accordingly, in the
+manner of most other two-guinea clairvoyants, she composed herself in
+a graceful and recumbent attitude, made a lot of queer grimaces and
+still queerer noises, and spoke in a falsetto voice, which purposed to
+be that of Tillie Toot, once a barmaid in Edinburgh, now one of
+Madame's familiar spirits. And the gist of what "Tillie" told them was
+that Hamar & Co. derived their powers from Black Magic; and that the
+secrets thereof could only be learned from Madame, after a series of
+sittings with her--sittings for which Madame would only require a fee
+of fifty guineas: a most moderate, in fact quite trifling, sum,
+considering the wonderful instruction they would receive.
+
+But Madame's magnanimous offer tempted neither Gladys nor Shiel; and
+they abruptly took their departure.
+
+Kateroski (_née_ Jones) in Regent Street, whom Gladys and Shiel had
+agreed to consult in the event of a non-successful visit to Madame
+Elvita in Bond Street, also told them that Black Magic was the key to
+Hamar, Curtis & Kelson's performances. She advised them to get on the
+Astral Plane, where they would meet spirits who would give them all
+the information they desired.
+
+Madame Kateroski's instructions were simple. "It is really a matter of
+faith," she said. "All you have to do is to go to some secluded
+spot--the privacy of your bedroom will do admirably--sit down, close
+your eyes, look into your lids and concentrate hard. After a while you
+will no longer see your eyelids--your lids will fade away and you will
+be on the Astral Plane, and see strange creatures, which, although
+terrifying, won't harm you. When you get used to them, you will
+communicate with them, and learn from them all you want to know."
+
+"Shall we try?" Gladys remarked laughingly to Shiel, as they stepped
+into the street. "But if faith is essential to success, I fear
+failure, as far as I am concerned, is a foregone conclusion. I know I
+shouldn't have sufficient faith."
+
+"Nor I either," Shiel said. "But, perhaps, we could acquire a
+necessary amount of it, if we were to experiment together. Supposing
+we try in that delightfully secluded copse in your garden."
+
+Gladys shook her head. "I'm afraid it would be useless. Besides, if my
+father were to hear of it, he would fear worry had turned my brain,
+and most likely have another fit. No, we must think of something more
+practical. In the meanwhile, if you will keep on with the part, you
+have so generously undertaken, you will be doing me an inestimable
+service."
+
+"Then I'll keep on with it for ever," Shiel replied, and before she
+could stop him, he had kissed her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+
+In order to explain the manner in which Hamar, Kelson and Curtis were
+initiated into their new properties, I must now go back to the day
+preceding the gratis performance of the Modern Sorcery Company, that
+is to say the last day of stage one of the compact.
+
+To Kelson the day had been one of surprises throughout. When he
+arrived at the building in Cockspur Street (he preferred living alone,
+and, consequently, rented a handsome suite of rooms in John Street,
+Mayfair), he was not a little astonished to meet Lilian Rosenberg on
+the staircase.
+
+"I thank you so much!" she exclaimed, shaking hands with him most
+effusively. "It is all owing to you I got the post."
+
+"Then Hamar has engaged you," Kelson ejaculated.
+
+"Why, yes! didn't you know!" Lilian said with a smile. "I had a letter
+from him the very evening of the day I called here."
+
+"Did you! He never told me anything about it! How do you think you
+will get on?"
+
+"Oh, splendidly! The work is interesting and full of variety.
+Moreover, I like the atmosphere of the place, it is so weird. I
+believe the three of you really are magicians!"
+
+"If that be so," Kelson said, "then we have only acted in accordance
+with our character in engaging the services of a witch--a witch who
+has already bewitched one member of the trio. Now please don't go to
+the expense of lunching out: lunch with me instead. Lunch with me
+every day."
+
+"It is very kind of you," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and I will gladly
+do so when I am not lunching with Mr. Hamar. But he has invited me to
+have all my meals with him."
+
+"That doesn't mean you are obliged to have them with him every day!"
+Kelson cried. "Lunch with me this morning."
+
+"I am very sorry," Lilian Rosenberg replied, looking at Kelson with
+mock pleading eyes, "please don't scold me, but I've really promised
+Mr. Hamar."
+
+"Have tea with me, then," Kelson said.
+
+"I've promised him that, too."
+
+"Supper then!" Kelson said, savagely.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, but I'm engaged all this evening, and practically
+every evening."
+
+"With Mr. Hamar?" Kelson asked suspiciously.
+
+"Oh no! my own private business," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Do
+forgive me. I should so like to have been able to accept your
+invitation. Now I must hurry back to my work," and she gave him her
+hand, which Kelson held, and would have gone on holding all the
+morning, had he not heard Hamar's well-known tread ascending the
+stairs.
+
+"Look here!" he said, as they entered his room together, "I want Miss
+Rosenberg to have luncheon with me one day this week, and she tells me
+you have already invited her. Let her come with me to-morrow."
+
+"It is impossible," Hamar said. "Now I'll tell you what it is, Matt, I
+anticipated this the moment I saw you two together, and its got to
+stop. You would genuinely fall in love with that girl--or as a matter
+of fact any other pretty girl--if you saw much of her--and love, I
+tell you, would be absolutely disastrous to our interests. You must
+let her alone--absolutely alone, I tell you. I have given her strict
+orders she is to confine herself to her work, and to me."
+
+"I think you take a great deal too much on yourself. I shall see just
+as much of Miss Rosenberg, when she is disengaged, as I please."
+
+"Then she never shall be disengaged. But come, do be sane and put some
+restraint on this mad infatuation of yours for pretty faces. Can't you
+keep it in check anyhow for two years--till after the term of the
+compact has expired! Then you will be free to indulge in it, to your
+heart's content. For Heaven's sake, be guided by me. Harmony between
+us must be kept at all costs. Don't you understand?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I understand all right," Kelson said, "and I'll try. But
+it's very hard--and I really don't see there would be any danger in my
+taking her out occasionally."
+
+"Well, I do," Hamar replied, "and there's an end. To turn to something
+that may spell business. Just before I got up this morning I saw a
+striped figure bending over me!"
+
+"A striped figure?"
+
+"Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
+limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs--of a sort--if it
+cared to show them."
+
+"You were frightened?"
+
+"Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
+indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit.
+To-night, at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu,
+called Karaver, in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into
+the second stage of our compact."
+
+"I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
+figures--I've had enough of them," Kelson said.
+
+"Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking
+of the compact," Hamar retorted, "otherwise you'll see something far
+worse."
+
+Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
+injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
+had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house.
+
+To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them.
+
+"How did you know we were coming," Curtis asked.
+
+"A gentleman called here early this morning and told me," Karaver
+explained. "He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
+the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
+each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there.
+I demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations
+of my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few--those born
+under the sign of Dejellum Brava.
+
+"The stranger showing me the sign--written plainer than I have ever
+seen it--in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no
+sooner done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking
+to an Elemental--a spirit of my native mountains."
+
+"My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything
+very alarming in this astral business?" Kelson asked.
+
+"It depends on what you call alarming," the Indian said coldly. "I
+shouldn't be alarmed."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Matt," Hamar interposed. "I never saw such a
+frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
+Think of what there is at stake."
+
+"Think of Lilian Rosenberg," Curtis whispered, "and be comforted."
+
+Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre
+of the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told
+to sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
+composed of: 1/2 oz. of hemlock, 3/4 oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
+oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, 1/2 oz. of assafoetida,
+and 1/4 oz. of saffron.
+
+"Are these preparations absolutely necessary?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Absolutely," Karaver said. "English clairvoyants will, doubtless,
+tell you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few
+slipshod instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the
+Astral Plane is mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely
+difficult and can only be done, in the first place, through the
+guidance of a skilled Oriental occultist."
+
+He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
+air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
+chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
+mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
+from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, "Great Spirits of the
+mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
+seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge
+to the realms of thy eternal phantoms."
+
+Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
+fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying "Give me
+authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;" and then kneeling down in front
+of the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:
+
+    "Green phantom figures of the air,
+    A ready welcome see that you prepare.
+    Black phantom figures from the earth,
+    Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth.
+    Red phantom figures of the furious fire,
+    For kindly greeting change your usual ire.
+    Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,
+    To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells.
+    Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,[19] hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,
+    And to these three poor fools, explain, explain
+    The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!"
+
+The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The
+dark, lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth
+receded farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice
+appeared to grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that
+he sprayed them all over with some sweet-smelling scent,[20] and that
+he whispered (in reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
+"Darkona--droomer--doober--parlar--poohmer--perler. A--ta-rama--
+skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomig--viartikorsa."[21] Then there came a
+temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of light. The
+light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily closed their
+eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been accustomed
+to--it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of vibration.
+When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect to keep
+their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing, apparently
+on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such as they
+knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
+breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground,
+no scenery, but only--space!
+
+They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
+glided across their vision, forms--of every conceivable shape, _i.e._,
+those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
+faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs--some apparently just dead and
+others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
+propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
+people--misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio
+and tried to peer into their faces.
+
+"For heaven's sake keep off!" Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form
+of an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks,
+came up to him, and thrust its face into his.
+
+"This is a bit thick," Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
+phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
+putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.
+
+"Curse you! d--n you!" Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a
+vain endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were
+trying to bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. "A little more
+of this, and I shall go mad!"
+
+Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
+up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence
+of mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm. "If you
+leave us, Matt," he said, "we are lost. I feel our safety depends on
+our keeping together. If I'm not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on
+the part of the Unknown to separate us. If that happens, I feel we may
+never get back to our bodies--and the compact will then be broken. We
+must hang on to each other at all costs." So saying, he slipped his
+free arm through that of Curtis, and the three stood linked together.
+
+Hamar clung on to the other two, until his hands grew numb, and
+the sweat stood on his chest and forehead in great beads. As figure
+after figure stealthily and noiselessly approached them, Kelson and
+Curtis writhed and shrieked; and, at times, it seemed as if the
+chain must be broken. But alarming as were these harrowing types of
+Vice-Elementals--_i.e._, nude things with heads of beasts and bodies of
+men and women; grotesque heads; malevolent eyes; mal-shaped hands;
+headless beasts, etc.; none had so dangerous an effect on the unity of
+the trio as the alluring types of Vice-Elementals, _i.e._, shapes of
+beautiful women that smiled seductively at Kelson, and resorted to
+every device to entice him away with them. It was then that Hamar was
+taxed to the utmost, that he exhausted voice, strength, and patience,
+in holding Kelson back.
+
+He was about to give in, when to his astonishment these Vice-Elementals
+vanished, and a phantasm, the exact counterpart of Karaver, only much
+taller, appeared before them, and commenced giving them instructions
+as to Stage Two.
+
+"You," he said, addressing Hamar, "will possess the property of second
+sight, _i.e._, the power to see, at will, earthbound spirits,
+conditionally, that you fumigate your room, for ten minutes every
+night, before retiring to rest, with a mixture composed of 2 drachms
+of henbane, 3 drachms of saffron, 1/2 oz. of aloes, 1/4 oz. of
+mandrake, 3 drachms of salanum, 2 oz. of assafoetida; that you abstain
+from animal food and wine, and give up smoking; that, three times
+every day, you bathe your face in distilled water, to which has been
+added three drops of the juice of the whortleberry, one drop of the
+juice of the mountain ash berry, 1 oz. of lavender water, 1 oz. of
+nitre, and 1/2 oz. of tincture of arnica; and that, just before going
+to sleep, you look for three minutes, without blinking, at an
+equilateral triangle, transcribed in blood, on white paper, and
+composed of these letters and figures." And he handed Hamar a piece of
+paper, on which were written these symbols:
+
+K.T.O.P.I.6.X.7.4.H.I.P.3.S.4.W.V.2.8.
+
+"So long as you observe these conditions the power will remain with
+you. To-morrow, only, it will be awarded you without any
+preparations."
+
+"You," he went on, turning to Kelson, "will possess the property of
+projection, _i.e._, the power of leaving your body, and of visiting,
+where you will, on the material plane. You will continue to possess
+the same, conditionally, that you carry out the same rules as Leon
+Hamar, with the exception that, instead of looking at a triangle
+before going to sleep, you will repeat these words. See, I have
+written them down for you." And he handed Kelson a slip of paper, on
+which were transcribed "Darkona, droomer, doober, parlar, poohmer,
+perler. A--ta--rama--skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomeg--viartikorsa."
+
+"You," he said, turning to Curtis, "will be endowed with the property
+of overcoming gravity, _i.e._, you will be able to fly, to jump great
+heights, and to lift and move prodigious weights; and this property
+will remain in your possession during the prescribed period, provided
+you abstain from all animal food, from smoking and from drinking
+alcohol; and observe the same rules with regard to fumigating your
+sleeping apartment, and bathing your face, as Hamar and Kelson. But,
+always, before you attempt to fly or to jump, it will be necessary for
+you to set in motion certain vibrations, in the ether, that counteract
+the attraction of gravity. You must repeat the words 'Karjako
+Mandarbsa Guahseela,' which I have written on this blue paper; and
+when you want to move or lift objects, you must first repeat the words
+'Perabibo Henlilee Oko-kokotse,' which I have written on this green
+paper. Gravity, as you will see, is entirely dependent on sound--sound
+can move mountains. It did so in Atlantis, it did so in Egypt."
+
+Making the sign of a triangle, an eye, and a tree in the air, with the
+forefinger of his left hand, he slowly repeated the words
+"Barjakva--ookpoota--trylisa." and the concluding syllable was no
+sooner uttered, than the trio found themselves standing in Berners
+Street. But of Karaver's house--the house they had just quitted--there
+was no trace.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 19: According to Brahminical teaching there are seven
+  main   classes of spirits; some having innumerable sub-divisions.
+  They are--
+
+    1. Arrippa Devas, with forms.
+
+    2. Arrippa Devas, without forms. (Both Classes 1 and 2 are
+    intelligent, sixth principles of certain planets. I style them
+    Planetians, and classify them with all other spirits hailing from
+    Jupiter Neptune, etc.)
+
+    3. Mara rupas (identical with Vice-Elementals).
+
+    4. Pisachas, _i.e._ male and female elementaries. (I have termed
+    them Impersonating Elementals, since they consist of the astral
+    forms of the dead, that may be utilized by Elementals.)
+
+    5. Asuras, _i.e._ gnomes, pixies, etc. (Corresponding to those
+    I have designated Vagrarian Elementals.)
+
+    6. Monstrosities. (These I include among Vice-Elementals and
+    Vagrarians.)
+
+    7. Kaksasas, viz. souls of wizards, witches, and of clever people
+    with evil tendencies, scientists with cruel or harsh
+    tendencies--such as vivisectionists and sophists. All these come
+    under my division of "earthbound phantasms of the dead"--spirits
+    tied to this earth by passions or vices; and I should add to the
+    list--militant suffragettes, strike agitators, hooligans, apaches,
+    pseudo-humanitarians, religious bigots, misers, all people
+    obsessed with manias, idiots, epileptic imbeciles and criminal
+    lunatics. All such may at times be encountered on the lowest
+    spiritual plane.]
+
+  [Footnote 20: Composed of 2 drachms of myrrh, 1/2 oz. of sweet oil,
+  2 oz. of attar of roses, 1/2 oz. heliotrope and 1/4 oz. of musk.]
+
+  [Footnote 21: These words are so arranged as to set in vibration and
+  loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the
+  physical body, and so set the latter free.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+
+The doctors had stated that the tenth day would see the crisis of John
+Martin's illness; if he could tide over that period, he might go on
+for years without another attack. When the momentous day arrived,
+Gladys was simply eating her heart out with suspense. Not a sound was
+permitted in the house. The servants, tiptoeing about, hardly ventured
+even to exchange glances; the errand boys were waylaid and sent to the
+right-about, with a vague notion that if they opened their mouths
+their heads would be off; and some one was posted at the garden gate
+to deal, in a scarcely less summary manner, with visitors. Indeed, so
+fearful was Gladys lest her father should hear Shiel, who had managed
+to elude her outpost, that without meaning it, she greeted him curtly,
+and, more plainly than politely, gave him to understand that she
+wished him elsewhere.
+
+"What have you been saying to Shiel Davenport?" Miss Templeton asked
+Gladys, when they met at lunch. "I passed him in the road just now,
+and he looked so wretched that, despite his ineligibility, I felt
+quite sorry for him. I am sure he is very much in love with you."
+
+"Nonsense," Gladys said, "he is only a boy." But boy though it pleased
+her to call him, she knew that he had played a man's part during her
+father's illness. Every night he had faithfully performed the rôle,
+she had allotted to him, at the Kingsway Hall, and upon him she was
+forced to admit the success of the entertainment, in a large measure,
+depended. Without pushing himself, or being the least bit officious,
+he had been equally helpful behind the scenes. He had held in check
+all those who, taking advantage of her father's absence, were disposed
+to dispute her authority and shirk their work--and he had also, on her
+behalf, successfully resisted their demand for higher wages. And, over
+and above all this, he had always considered her personal comfort. Her
+meals--which she could never bother about for herself, when engaged
+all day at the hall--were, thanks to him, brought to her as
+punctually, and served as daintily, as they would have been for her
+father; he had taken every care that she should not be disturbed when
+resting; and there was, in short, nothing he had not thought of doing
+to lighten the load, so unexpectedly laid upon her shoulders. The only
+fault she could find with him, was that he had not gained the good
+graces of her father.
+
+The day slowly waned. Gladys had stolen into her father's room
+repeatedly to see how he fared, and to her his condition had seemed
+much about the same--he was as usual tired and peevish. But when, at
+six o'clock, she again stole in to peep at him, and found him lying
+back on his pillow absolutely still and motionless, and without
+apparently breathing, she was immeasurably shocked. Had he had another
+fit, or was he dead? Wild with grief and terror, she rushed from the
+room to telephone to the doctor, and met him on the landing.
+
+"You need have no fear," he said to her the moment he had looked at
+John Martin, "he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will
+be past. To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will
+be himself again. Only you must take care that he does not use his
+brain too much."
+
+Gladys could hardly restrain her delight. She felt pleased with
+everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours
+later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain. In fact it was owing
+to this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in
+his performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic
+laughter of the audience. When the entertainment was over, and he was
+preparing to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of
+her sparkling eyes and animated features again overcame him.
+
+"What shall you advise your father to do?" he asked.
+
+"I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner," Gladys
+replied, "some one who can attend to the business side of the concern
+for him. It is essential he should not be worried with figures."
+
+"I suppose my services won't be required much longer?" Shiel said,
+speaking with rather an effort.
+
+"Of course I can't answer for my father," Gladys replied, "but I
+should imagine he would be only too glad to employ you. The only thing
+is the salary. You can't live on air, you know, and with the poor
+attendances he gets now, I don't see how he can afford to pay much."
+
+"I would work for very little," Shiel said. "I should be awfully sorry
+to give up now. I wonder if you would miss me at all?"
+
+"Of course I should!" Gladys retorted. "You have behaved admirably,
+and I am most grateful to you."
+
+"You needn't be grateful to me. I have never enjoyed anything half so
+much as I have trying to help you. I am poor, penniless in fact, since
+my uncle left me nothing, but supposing--supposing I were to get some
+lucrative post, do you think--do you think there would ever be any
+possibility of--"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of your caring for me! I am terribly in love with you."
+
+"I fear I must have given you encouragement," Gladys said. "I'm
+awfully sorry. You see I never thought of this, and I don't know what
+to say to you."
+
+"Won't you give me a chance, just a chance?"
+
+"But my father would never hear of it. Unfortunately he seems to be
+prejudiced against you. Won't you wait a while, and then, if you are
+still in the same mind, speak to me again in--say--a year. By that
+time you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for
+yourself."
+
+"And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else," Shiel
+exclaimed.
+
+"I don't think I shall," Gladys said. "Of course, I meet crowds of
+men, but you see I am not the marrying sort."
+
+"Do you think you would care for me just a bit?" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps," Gladys said, "but I'm not at all sure. I
+can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
+opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for
+the time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows--it may lie in your
+power to do him some service."
+
+"I don't see how," Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. "But no
+matter--after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
+first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?"
+
+"Sometimes," Gladys laughed. "Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
+to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual." And,
+with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor,
+and drove off.
+
+Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
+utterly unenviable as penury and love--to be next door to starving,
+and at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus
+afflicted, had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated
+himself with her beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure
+there would, later on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only
+in romance, he told himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds
+himself in a position to marry--in reality, his love suit is rejected
+with scorn; his adored one marries some one who has, or pretends he
+has, limitless wealth; and the despised swain ends his days a
+miserable and dejected bachelor.
+
+All the same, Shiel determined that he would for once fare like the
+hero in romance--that he would either win the object of his affections
+or perish in the attempt; and no sooner did the fit of the blues,
+consequent on the conversation just related, wear off, than he set to
+work in grim earnest to discover some means of breaking up the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and of restoring to the firm of Martin and
+Davenport their former prestige.
+
+In the meanwhile, affairs were by no means stationary, as far as Hamar
+and his colleagues were concerned. The appearance of their paper
+_To-morrow_, a morning journal, that chronicled faithfully every event
+of the following day, caused a tremendous sensation; and the sale of
+every other paper sank to nil--no one, naturally, wanting to buy the
+news that had happened yesterday, when, for the same money, they could
+obtain news of what would happen that very day. The stupid method of
+chronicling past events, Hamar announced in the first issue of his
+organ, was now obsolete. It was, perhaps, good enough for the
+Victorian era, but it was utterly out of keeping with the present age
+of hourly progress. Who, for instance, wanted to know that at 6 p.m.,
+on the preceding evening, there had been a big fire in New York? Was
+it not far more to the point for them to learn, for example, that at 2
+p.m., on that very day, Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by
+an earthquake; that the Post Office in King's Road, Chelsea, would be
+broken into by thieves; that Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square
+would be blown up by Suffragettes; or something equally fresh and
+exciting? One cannot get thrills--at least not the right kind of
+thrills in reading of what has already taken place. To say to
+ourselves, or to a friend, "Just fancy, we might have been in that
+railway accident," or, in reading of a shipwreck "What a mercy we did
+not embark after all, is it not?" is not half as enthralling as to be
+wondering if, at eleven o'clock that night, when the terrific storm in
+which twenty-six people will be killed by lightning in various parts
+of England, we shall be among the fatal number. One is not much moved
+to find oneself alive when a danger is passed, but one does get
+terribly excited in contemplating the risk we are bound to run of
+being killed. Within a week, the circulation of _To-morrow_ had gone
+up from fifty thousand to ten million, and Hamar, inflated with
+success, said to himself, "Now I will go and have another look at John
+Martin."
+
+When he arrived, Gladys was in the garden. His stealthy approach had
+given her no chance to escape.
+
+"What is your business?" she asked, glancing nervously in the
+direction of the house, and dreading lest her father should see Hamar
+from his window.
+
+"I've come to see your father," Hamar said, his eyes resting
+admiringly on her face and then running leisurely over her figure.
+"How is the old gentleman?"
+
+"He is not well enough to see visitors," Gladys said, with absolute
+hauteur. "Perhaps you will state your business to me."
+
+"Well! I don't mind if I do!" Hamar replied. "Let us sit down. It's
+more comfortable than standing." And he dropped into a seat as he
+spoke. "Now I've been noticing," he went on, "that your Show in the
+Kingsway is not getting on very well--that there are fewer and fewer
+people there every night, and I've no doubt it will soon have to dry
+up altogether. We, on the other hand, are doing better and better
+every night, and we shall go on doing better--there is no limit to our
+possibilities. We are worth half a million now--next year, we shall be
+worth ten times that amount!"
+
+"You are optimistical, at all events," Gladys said.
+
+"I can afford to be," Hamar grinned. "Now, do you know what we intend
+doing before very long?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea, and I am not in the slightest degree
+curious."
+
+"Aren't you? Well, you should be, since it concerns you. We mean to
+buy up the whole of Kingsway!"
+
+"And later on, of course, the whole of Regent Street!"
+
+"You are satirical. You are not alarmed at the prospect of having me
+for a landlord!"
+
+"I don't understand you! The Hall in Kingsway is my father's own
+property."
+
+"If that is so then you have nothing to fear," Hamar laughed, "but I
+think it just possible you are mistaken. At any rate, I've been in
+communication with some one styling himself the landlord."
+
+"My father would have an agreement, anyhow!" Gladys said.
+
+"Of course," Hamar replied, "and I've a pretty shrewd idea of the
+terms of it. But enough of this--let me come to the point. I intend
+buying the property, and I shall refuse to renew your father's lease,
+unless he agrees to give me what I want!"
+
+"Of course a preposterous price?"
+
+"No, you--only you!"
+
+"Me!"
+
+"Yes! I've never seen a girl I like more. I've limitless wealth and
+I'll give you everything you want--a steam yacht, motors, diamonds,
+anything, everything, and all I ask in return is that you should
+consent to be engaged to me on trial--say for fifteen months--just to
+see how we get on! What pretty hands you have."
+
+And before Gladys could draw them away, he had caught hold of them in
+an iron grasp, and, turning them over, cast admiring glances at the
+slim, white fingers with the long, almond-shaped and carefully
+manicured nails.
+
+"I reckon," he said, "I shall never find any one prettier all through.
+What do you say?"
+
+"Your proposition is impossible--monstrous! I detest you," Gladys
+retorted, her cheeks white with anger. "Leave go my hands at once, and
+never let me see you again!"
+
+"I can't promise not to see you again," Hamar said, "but I'll let go
+your hands now, for I'm no more a lover of scenes than you. I
+anticipated a little fuss at first--it's the way all you women
+have--you are so modest, you don't like to appear too eager to snap up
+a good offer. You'll close with it right enough in the end. I'll call
+again in a few days. By that time you may have changed your mind."
+And, before she could prevent him, he had again seized her hand and
+was kissing it over and over again.
+
+With an ejaculation of the utmost indignation, she sprang away from
+him, and with all the dignity she could assume, walked to the house.
+What became of him she did not know. Some few seconds later she told
+the gardener to see him safely off the premises, but he was nowhere to
+be found.
+
+A week later, Hamar turned up again at the Cottage, and, despite the
+vigilance of Gladys and the servants, caught John Martin alone.
+
+When the latter, at last, came to the end of what had, at first,
+seemed an inexhaustible stock of invectives, Hamar stated his
+proposals with mathematical exactitude.
+
+"I don't believe for one moment my landlord would be such a blackguard
+as to play into your hands," John Martin spluttered.
+
+"Oh, yes, he would!" Hamar replied. "An Englishman will do anything
+for money, and I am prepared to offer him just twice as much as any
+one else for your Hall. Do you think he will refuse--not he!"
+
+"But what on earth's your object! You've ruined me already."
+
+"Your daughter!" Hamar cried. "Miss Gladys! I am prepared to go any
+lengths to get her. Refuse to give her to me and I'll turn you out of
+your Hall, I'll torment you with every kind of insect, I'll plague you
+with disease, I'll make your life hell. But give her to me--and
+I'll--"
+
+"But I won't! And I defy you to do your worst, you--you--" and there
+is no knowing what would have happened, had not Gladys suddenly come
+in and dragged her father out of the room.
+
+"How dare you?" she exclaimed, returning to the study to find Hamar
+still there. "I've telephoned to the police, and unless you go
+instantly and promise not to come again, I shall give you in charge,
+for annoyance."
+
+"Foolish of you--very foolish!" Hamar said, "when I want to be
+friendly. Sooner or later you must give in, so why not end all this
+needless unpleasantness now, and receive me--if not with open arms--at
+least amicably. You are so awfully pretty! I must have just one----"
+but before he could kiss Gladys the police arrived, and Hamar once
+more retired--with somewhat undignified haste, and more than a little
+discomfited.
+
+On arriving in Cockspur Street, Hamar's temper underwent a still
+further trial. Kelson, taking advantage of his absence, had gone off
+to tea with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+In ill-suppressed fury, he waited till they returned.
+
+"A word with you, Matt," he said, as Kelson tried to shuffle past him.
+"So this is the way you behave when my back is turned. I suppose
+you've had a good time!"
+
+"Delightful!"
+
+"And you know the consequences!"
+
+"Only that I'm looking forward to the same thing another day."
+
+"She'll go!"
+
+"She won't," Kelson chuckled. "She is far too valuable. So there, old
+man! A month ago your threat might have held good. It won't now. You
+daren't--you positively daren't part with her--because, if you did so,
+you'd not only part with a good few of your secrets, but you'd part
+with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+
+"What's to be done with Matt?" Hamar asked Curtis, soon after the
+interview just recorded. "He's as sweet on Rosensberg as he can be,
+and says if I dismiss her he'll go too!"
+
+"Then don't dismiss her," Curtis replied. "Leave them both alone,
+that's my tip. I don't believe Matt's such a fool as to fall in love,
+and I'm quite sure the girl isn't. Why, she went to the Tivoli with me
+two nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before
+that. It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who
+would treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How
+about Leon and Gladys Martin.'"
+
+"So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
+pretty--splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
+and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for
+love! Well! it's not in my programme."
+
+"Still, stranger things have happened," Curtis said. "Anyhow, I guess
+you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
+dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London--I don't
+go a cent on them."
+
+To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
+he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
+her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had
+never missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on
+the elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling
+her how much he admired her.
+
+"You really mustn't," she said. "Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders
+to attend to nothing but my work."
+
+"Oh, damn Hamar!" Kelson replied, "if I choose to talk to you it's no
+business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and
+it is I you should go out with, not Hamar."
+
+And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with
+one eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told
+her his history--all about himself from the day of his birth--told her
+about his parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and
+cranks, his indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts,
+flirtations, with just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even
+went so far as to speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of
+hereditary gout, and of a slightly hectic cough with which, he
+suddenly remembered, he had at one time, been troubled.
+
+"Don't you think," Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, "you
+are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
+secret--and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
+fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
+should never forgive myself."
+
+"Would it distress you so much?"
+
+"Of course it would. I should be miserable," she laughed. And Kelson,
+unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them with
+kisses.
+
+"Your fingers would look well covered with rings," he said. "I will
+give you some, and you shall come with me and choose. Only on no
+account tell Hamar." And he kissed her--not on the hands this
+time--but the lips.
+
+Hamar saw him. He watched him from behind the angle of the passage
+wall, but he said nothing--at least, nothing to Kelson. It was to
+Lilian Rosenberg he spoke.
+
+"It is really not my fault," she said. "I don't encourage him, and if
+you take my advice, you will not interfere, for I am sure at present
+he means nothing serious. He is the sort of man who imagines himself
+in love with every one he meets. If you prevent him seeing me, you may
+actually bring about the result you are most anxious to avoid."
+
+"I'll risk that," Hamar said, "and I absolutely forbid you doing more
+than merely saying good morning to him. It is either that, or you must
+go."
+
+"Well, of course I will do as you wish," Lilian said. "I don't care a
+snap for him; and, after all, you ought to know your own business
+best! It is only natural that you should want him to marry some one
+who can bring money into the Firm."
+
+"I don't want him to marry at all, or anyhow, not yet. However, there
+is no necessity to discuss that point. We have definitely settled the
+line you are to adopt, and that is all I wanted to speak to you about.
+When next you feel inclined to flirt, come to me, and you shall have
+kisses as well as--rings."
+
+It was shortly after this _tête-à-tête_ that Lilian Rosenberg was
+interrupted in her work, by a rap at the door.
+
+"Come in," she called, and a young man entered.
+
+"I believe a clerk is wanted here," he explained. "I've come to apply
+for the situation. Can I see Mr. Hamar?"
+
+"I'm afraid he's out. There's no one in at present," Lilian Rosenberg
+replied, eyeing the stranger critically "If you like to wait awhile,
+you may do so. Sit down." She signalled to him to take a chair and
+went on typing.
+
+For some minutes the silence was unbroken, save for the tapping of
+fingers and the clicking of the machine. Then she looked up, and their
+eyes met.
+
+"It's not pleasant to be out of work," he said. "Have you ever
+experienced it?"
+
+"Once or twice," she said. "And I never wish to again. You don't look
+as if you were much used to office work."
+
+"No! I'm an artist; but times are hard with us. The present Government
+has driven all the money out of the country and no one buys pictures
+now; so I'm forced to turn my hand to something else."
+
+"I love pictures. My father was an artist."
+
+"Then we have something in common," the young man said. "Would you
+like to see my work? I love showing it to people who understand
+something about painting, and are not afraid to criticize."
+
+"I should like to see it, immensely--though I won't presume to
+criticize."
+
+"May I inquire your name?" the young man asked eagerly. "Mine is Shiel
+Davenport."
+
+"And mine--Lilian Rosenberg," the girl said, with a smile.
+
+"If I don't get the post, may I write to you sometimes, Miss
+Rosenberg, and ask you to my studio. I call it a studio, though it's
+really only an attic."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg nodded. "I shall be delighted to come," she said. "I
+am afraid I am very unconventional."
+
+There was no time for further conversation, as Hamar entered the room
+at that moment.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked curtly.
+
+Shiel told him.
+
+"You're too late," Hamar said. "I've engaged some one. If you'd called
+earlier, there might have been some chance for you, as you look
+tolerably intelligent. But it's no use now, so be off."
+
+As Shiel left the room he caught Lilian Rosenberg looking at him; and
+he saw that her eyes were full of sympathy.
+
+The acquaintance, thus begun, ripened. She went to see his pictures,
+they had tea together, and they spent many subsequent hours in each
+other's company. And although Shiel saw in Lilian Rosenberg only a
+rather prepossessing girl from whom, after cultivating her
+acquaintance, he was hoping to learn the inner working of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., with her it was different.
+
+In Shiel, Lilian Rosenberg saw the qualities she had always been
+seeking--the qualities she had almost despaired of ever finding--and
+which she had so often declared existed only in fiction. He only
+interested her, she argued; but she forgot that interest as well as
+pity is akin to love--and that where the former leads, the latter
+almost invariably follows.
+
+"I don't believe you have enough to eat," she said to him one day.
+"You are a perfect shadow. How do you exist if you have no private
+means?"
+
+"I just manage to exist, and that is all," Shiel laughed, and he spoke
+the truth, his present state of semi-starvation having resulted from
+the untoward events, which had happened prior to his application for
+the post of clerk to the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., and his
+subsequent acquaintance with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+Whilst John Martin had been ill, and he had helped at the Hall in
+Kings way, he had lived well. Gladys had taken care he was paid--not a
+big sum to be sure--but enough to keep him. But directly John Martin,
+in spite of Gladys's remonstrances, had resumed work, Shiel had been
+dismissed.
+
+"I wish I could help you," John Martin said to him, "for I really feel
+grateful to you for all you have done, but to tell you the candid
+truth, I can't afford to pay any salaries. As you know, the receipts
+of the Hall are next to nothing; but the expenses continue just the
+same--rent, gas, and staff--all heavy items. Moreover, at your uncle's
+death, many of his creditors put in claims on the Firm for
+debts--debts he had incurred without either my sanction or
+knowledge--and it has been a serious drain on me to pay them off. In
+fact, my finances are now at such a low ebb that I cannot possibly do
+anything for you. If only the Modern Sorcery Company could be cleared
+off the scenes."
+
+"You would, I suppose, feel extremely grateful to whoever cleared them
+off?"
+
+"I would," John Martin replied, with a significant chuckle.
+
+"Even though it were some one who had not stood very high in your
+estimation?"
+
+"Even though it were the devil."
+
+"Now, look here, Mr. Martin," Shiel said, trying to appear calm. "I
+will devote all my energies and all my time to your cause--the
+overthrow of the Modern Sorcery Company, if only--if only, in the
+event of my being successful, you will give me some hope of being
+permitted to win your daughter."
+
+"I promise you that hope, and any other you may see fit to aspire to,"
+John Martin said, with a grim smile, "since there isn't the remotest
+chance of your succeeding in the task you have set yourself. Believe
+me, it will take both money and wits to get the better of Hamar,
+Curtis and Kelson."
+
+"Anyhow, I have your permission to try. I shall do my best."
+
+"You may do what you like," John Martin rejoined, "so long as you
+don't talk to me again about Gladys till you've redeemed your pledge,
+that is to say, till you've overthrown the Modern Sorcery Company. In
+the meanwhile, I must ask you to abstain from seeing her."
+
+"I am afraid I can't promise that."
+
+"Can't promise that," John Martin cried, his eyes suffusing with
+sudden passion. "Can't you! Then damn it, you must. I'm not going to
+have my daughter throw herself away on a penniless puppy. There, curse
+it all, you know what I think of you now--you're a bumptious puppy,
+and I swear you shall not come within a mile of her."
+
+"I shall," Shiel retorted, drawing himself up to his full height. "I
+shall see her whenever she will permit me--and since she is not at
+home at the present moment, I shall now await her return outside the
+house, and defy the savage old bull-dog inside it." Leaving John
+Martin too taken aback with astonishment to articulate a syllable,
+Shiel withdrew.
+
+True to his word, he waited to see Gladys. He paced up and down the
+road in front of the house from eleven o'clock in the morning, when
+his interview with John Martin had terminated, till eight o'clock in
+the evening, and was just beginning to think he would have to give up
+all hope of seeing her that day, when she came in sight.
+
+"Really!" she exclaimed, after Shiel had explained the situation. "Do
+you mean to say you have stayed here all day?"
+
+"Of course I have," Shiel answered. "I told your father I would see
+you, and I meant to stay here till I did."
+
+"And what good has it done you?"
+
+"All the good in the world. I shall sleep twice as well for it. I'm
+more in love with you than you think, and I mean to marry you one day.
+My prospects at present are absolutely Thames Embankmentish, but no
+matter, I've hit upon a capital way of ferreting out the secrets of
+the Modern Sorcery Company. I shall get employed by them"--and he told
+Gladys of the advertisement he had seen in the paper.
+
+"Well! I wish you all success," she said, "but I'm afraid you've upset
+my father dreadfully, and the doctor says excitement is the very worst
+thing for him and may lead to another stroke. You must on no account
+come here again, until I give you leave."
+
+"But I may see you elsewhere?"
+
+"If you're a wise man, you'll do one thing at a time. You'll discover
+the secret of the Sorcery Company first, and then--"
+
+"When I have discovered it?"
+
+"My father may forgive you. Have I told you I'm going on the stage? I
+know Bromley Burnham, and he's offered me a part at the Imperial. It
+is imperative now, that I should do something to help my father."
+
+"If you become an actress," Shiel said bitterly, "my chances of
+marrying you will indeed be small."
+
+"Not smaller than they are now," Gladys observed. "_Au revoir._" And
+with one of those tantalising and perplexing smiles, with which some
+women, consciously or unconsciously, counteract--and sometimes,
+perhaps, for reasons best known to themselves--completely nullify the
+needless severity of their speech, shook hands with Shiel, and left
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+STAGE THREE
+
+
+The weeks sped by. Gladys Martin went on the Stage, and thanks to
+beauty and influence, rather than to talent--though in the latter
+respect she was certainly not wanting--she became an immediate
+success. Her photos, some taken alone, and some with Bromley Burnham,
+occupied a conspicuous place in all the weekly illustrateds, and in
+innumerable shop windows. People talked of her as they do of all
+actresses. Some said her father was a broken-down peer; some, a needy
+parson, and some, a policeman! Some said the Duke of Warminster was
+madly in love with her; others that Seaton Smyth, the notorious
+Cabinet Minister, was pining for a divorce on her behalf, and others,
+that she was seldom seen off the stage--she was entertaining the King
+of the Belgians.
+
+"I've met her," Lilian Rosenberg said to Shiel, as they stopped one
+evening to gaze at Gladys's portraits outside the Imperial Theatre.
+"She came to our place to have a dream interpreted, and I thought
+nothing of her. I don't admire her the least bit in the world, do
+you?"
+
+"I do," Shiel replied, rather sharply.
+
+"Why, you sound quite angry," Lilian Rosenberg laughed. "One would
+think you knew her. I wonder if Bromley Burnham is very much in love
+with her! He looks as if he were in these photographs! Do you think it
+possible for a man and woman to make love to each other every night on
+the stage, like they do, without one or other of them being affected?"
+
+"I really couldn't say," Shiel replied. "I'm no authority on such
+matters--they don't interest me in the least."
+
+But this was an untruth--they did interest him--and very much, too. He
+seldom, indeed, thought of anything else. Had Gladys fallen in love
+with Bromley Burnham? Could she resist the fascinations of so handsome
+a man? He did not, of course, pay any heed to the gossip that coupled
+her name with dukes and other notorieties. He knew Gladys too well for
+that, but when he saw her thus photographed, clasped in the arms of
+Bromley Burnham, he had grave apprehensions. He longed to see her--to
+ask her if she were still free; but his every attempt failed. She
+always avoided him, and there was no other alternative save to further
+his scheme--his scheme for crushing the Sorcery Company--and to hope
+for the best.
+
+And in these dark days of his life, when he was tormented by the
+yellow demon of jealousy, and at the same time endured hunger, Lilian
+Rosenberg was his solacing angel. Utterly regardless of
+appearances--she did not exaggerate when she said, "I am not
+conventional; I don't care twopence for Mrs. Grundy." She visited him
+in his garret, and she seldom went empty-handed.
+
+"I don't want your things," he rudely expostulated, when she loaded
+his table with cold chicken, jellies and potted meats. "I'm not
+starving."
+
+"Yes, you are," she said, "and you've got to eat all I bring you." And
+she made him eat. She made him, too, go for walks with her, and she
+insisted that he should go with her on Saturday afternoons for long
+rambles in the country, knowing all the time that Kelson was eating
+his heart out for love of her, and prophesying all kinds of terrible
+happenings to himself, unless she returned his affections.
+
+Up to this point, at all events, Shiel did not allow his friendship
+with Lilian to blind him to the fact that he was cultivating her
+acquaintance with a set object. He frequently sounded her to see how
+much she knew of the inner workings of the Firm, and he satisfied
+himself that she knew very little.
+
+"They never discuss their powers in my presence," she told him, "but I
+see them do very queer things, Mr. Kelson seldom walks to his room, he
+flies. He takes a little jump into the air, moves his arms and legs as
+if he were swimming, and flies upstairs and along the corridor. And
+what do you think happened the other day? Some men were carrying into
+the building a huge, oak chest and several large pictures that Mr.
+Hamar had bought at a sale, when Mr. Kelson arrived on the scene.
+
+"'There is no need to lift these things,' he said to the men, 'put
+them down.' He then made some rapid signs in the air and muttered
+something; whereupon the chest and pictures rose in the air, and
+followed him into the building, and up the stairs to their respective
+quarters."
+
+"The men must have been surprised," Shiel said.
+
+"Surprised!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "They were simply bowled
+over, and looked at one another with such idiotic expressions in their
+bulging eyes and gaping mouths, that I nearly died with laughter."
+
+"And you've no idea how Kelson did that trick?"
+
+"None, excepting, of course, that the signs he made, and what he said,
+must have had something to do with it."
+
+It was on the tip of Shiel's tongue to ask her, if she would try and
+find out for him, but he checked himself. Even at this juncture of
+their friendship he dare not appear too curious. He must wait.
+
+To go back to Hamar. He had seen Gladys act; he had become more
+infatuated with her than ever; and his passion was stimulated by the
+knowledge that she was universally admired, and that half the men in
+London were dying to be introduced to her.
+
+"Money will do anything," one of Hamar's friends--they were all
+Jews--remarked to him. "Offer the manager of the Imperial a hundred
+pounds and he'll do anything you like with regard to the girl. Every
+manager can be bought and every actress, too."
+
+The suggestion was a welcome one, and Hamar acted on it. But whether
+or not the exception proves the rule, he was immeasurably disconcerted
+to find that with regard to money and managers, his friend had
+deceived him. Far from being pleased at the offer of a bribe, the
+manager of the Imperial, an old Harrovian, raised his foot, and Hamar,
+who invariably paled at the prospect of violence, hurriedly withdrew.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into Stage Three, the trio were very much
+perturbed.
+
+"I hope to goodness nothing will appear to me," Kelson said. "My heart
+isn't strong enough to stand the shock of seeing striped figures. They
+should come to you, Curtis--a few jumps wouldn't do you any
+harm--you're fat enough."
+
+Agreeing each to sleep with a light in his room, they separated, and
+at about two o'clock Curtis, who had been suffering of late from his
+liver--the effect, so the doctor told him, of living a little too
+well--and could not sleep, heard a knock at his door. To his
+astonishment it was Kelson--Kelson, in his pyjamas.
+
+"Hulloa!" Curtis exclaimed. "What on earth brings you here, and
+however did you come?"
+
+"The usual way!" Kelson said, in what struck Curtis as rather unusual
+tones. "I flew here to tell you that we are now in stage three. Give
+me paper and ink. I want to write down the instructions I have
+received."
+
+Curtis conducted him into his sitting-room, switched on the lights
+and, giving him what he wanted, poured out a couple of tumblers of
+soda-and-milk.
+
+"This will lower my temperature," he said to himself. "I shall know if
+I'm dreaming."
+
+He then sat by Kelson's side and observed what he wrote.
+
+"The properties of walking on the water, and of breathing under the
+water are conferred on you during the forthcoming stage. You must
+refrain from red flesh and alcohol, but may eat poultry, fish, fruit,
+and vegetables in abundance."
+
+"The devil I may!" Curtis said, in a fury. "How very kind! I would
+rather have roast beef than all the poulets and kippers in
+Christendom."
+
+Without noticing this interruption, Kelson went on writing.
+
+"You must also concentrate for one hour every morning. Grade two in
+the scale of concentration, though sufficient for projection through
+ether, will not enable you to offer sufficient resistance to the
+pressure of water. You must reach grade three in the scale of
+concentration, before you can either walk on, or breathe under, the
+water. From six to seven a.m. you must fix your eyes on a glass of
+fresh spring water, and concentrate your very hardest on amalgamating
+with it, on passing your immaterial ego into it. At night, before
+going to bed, you must drink a mixture composed of two drachms of
+Vindroo Sookum, one drachm of Harnoon Oobey, and one ounce of
+distilled water. Vindroo Sookum and Harnoon Oobey are a species of
+seaweed; the former of a pale salmon colour, the latter of a deep
+blue. They were formerly shrubs growing in the wood of Endlemoker in
+Atlantis, and are now to be found at a depth of two hundred fathoms,
+twenty miles to the north-east of Achill Island. These weeds must be
+well rinsed first; and when the prescribed amount of each has been
+carefully cut off and weighed, it must be boiled in the distilled
+water, and the compound, thus formed, allowed to cool before being
+drunk. This mixture renders the lungs immune to the action of fluid,
+and will enable you to breathe as easily in water as in air. There is
+still, however, the action of gravity to be considered, and this must
+be counteracted by sound. Before experimenting, these Atlantean words
+must be repeated aloud in the following order: Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte.'"
+
+"It's all very well to write all these directions," Curtis said, "but
+how am I to obtain the weeds? I can't go and fish for them."
+
+"You must engage the services of Mr. John Waley, formerly employed by
+the Brazilian Government in repairing marine cables. He will do all
+you want for the sum of £200."
+
+Kelson left off writing, and, wishing Curtis good-night, walked out of
+the room.
+
+"You'll be deuced cold without an overcoat," Curtis called out after
+him. "Won't you have mine?"
+
+But there was no reply, and though Curtis strained his ears to listen,
+he could catch no sound of a vehicle.
+
+Kelson left Curtis at twenty minutes past two. At half-past two,
+Hamar, who had been sound asleep, was awakened by a loud rap.
+
+"Kelson!" he gasped. "How on earth did you get here? Are you a
+projection?"
+
+"Don't worry me with questions," Kelson replied. "I have come to give
+you instructions. A paper and ink, quick."
+
+Hamar obeyed with alacrity.
+
+"On you," Kelson wrote, "is conferred the property of invisibility--a
+property common in Atlantis, and still possessed by the Fakirs of
+Hindoostan, the natives of Easter Island and certain tribes in New
+Guinea. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, by
+concentrating, from five to six o'clock, every morning, on
+amalgamating yourself with the ether. You must sit, with your head
+thrown back, gazing up into space--allowing nothing to distract your
+mind. Wholly and solely, your thoughts must be fixed on the ether.
+This property of invisibility can only be successfully practised, when
+the third grade in the scale of concentration has been reached. Carry
+out these instructions, and, in a week's time, you will then be able
+to experiment--to become invisible at will. But before experimenting it
+will always be necessary to repeat the words 'Bakra--naka--taksomana,'
+and to swallow a pill, composed of two drachms of Derhens Voskry, one
+drachm of Karka Voli and one drachm of saffron. Derhens Voskry and
+Karka Voli are a crimson and white species of seaweed, that grows on
+the hundred-fathom level, thirty miles west-southwest of the Aran
+Islands, Galway Bay. Mr. John Waley, employed by the Brazilian
+Government for repairing cables, will procure these ingredients for
+you. To become visible, you've only to repeat the words,
+'Bakra--naka--taksomana,' backwards."
+
+"But how about my clothes?" Hamar asked. "Will they disappear too?"
+
+"Everything!" Kelson answered. "Hat, boots, tie and breeches. All you
+have on! Good-night!" And walking out of the room, he leaped into the
+air, and flew downstairs. But though Hamar listened attentively, he
+could not hear him leave the building--there was no sound of any door.
+
+When they met the following mid-day in Cockspur Street, Kelson
+remembered nothing of his visits.
+
+"All I know is," he said, "that the moment I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and suddenly found myself standing in a kind of brown desert,
+talking to a tall man with most peculiar features and eyes, and a
+dazzling, white skin. He informed me he had been an animal-trainer in
+the State of Ballyynkan, Atlantis, and was ordered to give me
+instructions as to the taming of the present day wild beast.
+
+"'You must obtain a stone called the Red Laryx,' he said. 'It is to be
+found in great quantities on the three-hundred fathom level, forty
+miles to the west-south-west of North Aran Island, and can be procured
+for you by the same man that gets the weeds for Hamar and Curtis. It
+is a blood-red pebble, covered with peculiarly vivid green spots, and
+cannot be mistaken. Sit with it pressed against your forehead for an
+hour every morning, and concentrate hard on amalgamating yourself with
+it--_i.e._ passing into it, and its properties will gradually be
+imparted to you. Do this regularly, for a week, and by the end of that
+time, you will be able to experiment with animals. All you will have
+to do, will be to hold the stone slightly clenched in your left hand,
+whilst, with your right, you make these signs in the air,' and he
+showed me certain passes. 'Stare fixedly into the animal's eyes all
+the while, and, by the time you have finished making the passes, you
+will find the animals are subdued. Pronounce these words
+"Meta--ra--ka--va--Avakana," holding up, as you do so, your right hand
+with the thumb turned down and held right across the palm, and the
+little finger stretched out as wide as it will go, and you will
+understand what any animal wishes to say.'
+
+"He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
+whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
+myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold."
+
+"You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
+two o'clock in the morning?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Don't talk rot," Kelson said. "I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
+chill on my liver."
+
+"What was it, Leon?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"A case of unconscious projection," Hamar said. "Clearly the work of
+the Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once."
+
+At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in
+practice their newly acquired properties.
+
+Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
+Brighton & South Coast Railway.
+
+"I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton," he said, "and cheat the
+Company. They deserve it."
+
+He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
+himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
+sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
+dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical _nouveau riche_
+nose!
+
+When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
+waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
+tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
+one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
+which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
+words, "Bakra--naka--taksomana!" The next moment he had disappeared.
+
+"Strike me red!" the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
+and grasping the door with the other. "What's become of him? Was
+he--a--a--gho--st?"
+
+"I don't--er--know--er what to--to make of it," the parson said,
+heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
+teeth. "I don't--er, of course--er, believe in gho--sts! He must--er
+have been--a--a--an evil spirit. Dear me--aw!"
+
+"Help me out of the carriage at once," the lady with the stare panted.
+"I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
+Company."
+
+"What's the matter, Joe?" an inspector called out, threading his way
+through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
+of the compartment.
+
+"I'm blessed if I know!" the collector said. "The honly explanation I
+can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved--the hot
+weather has melted him like butter!"
+
+At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
+the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off.
+
+As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
+words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible.
+
+The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking
+than that of his previous disappearance.
+
+"Take it away--take it away!" the lady opposite him shouted, throwing
+up her hands to ward him off. "It's there again! Take it away! I shall
+die--I shall go mad!"
+
+"How hideous! How diabolical!" a stout, elderly man said in slow,
+measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. "It
+must be the devil! The devil! Ha!" and burying his face in his hands,
+he indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter.
+
+"Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it," a
+remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
+highly indignant tones to the clergyman. "As usual, whenever there is
+something to be done, it is woman who must do it!"
+
+She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the
+clergyman--whose condition of terror prevented him uttering even the
+one telling, biting word--Suffragette--that had risen and stuck in his
+throat--raised her umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck
+it vigorously at him.
+
+"Ghost, demon, devil!" she cried. "I know no fear! Begone!" And the
+point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's
+waistcoat, all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and
+with a ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he
+writhed and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant
+continued to stab and jab at him.
+
+In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
+some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
+pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+
+With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him,
+and he was locked up in a separate compartment, "to be given in
+charge," so the indignant official announced, directly they got to
+Brighton. But Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had
+sufficiently recovered from the effects of the severe castigation the
+female furioso had inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the
+train drew up at the Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen
+arrived to march him on, he was nowhere to be found! This was his
+first experiment with the newly acquired property. "In future," he
+said to himself, "before I try any tricks, I'll take very good care
+there are no Suffragettes about."
+
+In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
+he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
+calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was
+able to enjoy many--gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on
+the very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat
+the trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at
+last caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated
+among the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch
+for him in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently,
+directly he entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was
+arrested and handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill.
+
+He was now in a most unpleasant predicament--the tightest corner he
+had ever been in. Supposing he could not escape--his sentence would be
+at the least two years' penal servitude--what would happen? Curtis and
+Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give
+himself entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian
+Rosenberg; the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after
+that--he dare not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The
+police took him away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them,
+he struggled desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel
+circle that held them. "It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!" he said
+to himself, "all right at least--now! They know nothing! They have
+never tried to think what the breaking of the compact means! Their
+weak, silly minds are entirely centred on the present! The present!
+Damn the present! They are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of
+the present--it's the future--the future that matters!" He scraped the
+skin off his wrists, he sweated, he swore! And it was not until one of
+the detectives threatened to rap him over the head, that he sullenly
+gave in and sat still.
+
+The taxi drew up in front of the Gerald Road Police Station, and Hamar
+was conducted to an ante-room, prior to being taken before the
+inspector. Just as a policeman was about to search him, he made one
+last desperate effort.
+
+"Look here," he said, "if I pledge you my word I'll not attempt to do
+anything, will you let me have my hands--or at least one of my
+hands--free a moment. Some grit has got in my eye and I cannot stand
+the irritation."
+
+"That game won't work here," one of the detectives said, "you should
+keep your eyes shut when there's dust about, or else not have such
+protruding ones."
+
+Hamar threatened to report him to the Home Secretary for brutal
+conduct, but the detective only laughed, and Hamar had to submit to
+the mortification of being searched.
+
+"What are these?" a detective said, fingering the seaweed pills
+gingerly.
+
+"Stomachic pills!" Hamar said bitterly, "they are taken as a digestive
+after meals. You look dyspeptic--have one."
+
+"Now, none of your sauce!" the detective said, "you come along with
+me,"--and Hamar was hauled before the inspector.
+
+"Can I go out on bail?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Certainly not," the inspector replied.
+
+"Then I shan't give you my name and address," Hamar said. "I shan't
+tell you anything."
+
+The inspector merely shrugged his shoulders, and after the charge
+sheet was read over, Hamar was conducted to a cell.
+
+"This is awful," he said, "what the deuce am I to do! To send for
+Curtis and Kelson will be fatal, and it will be equally fatal to leave
+them in ignorance of what has happened to me. I am, indeed, in the
+horns of a dilemma. I must get at those pills."
+
+Up and down the floor of the tiny cell he paced, his mind tortured
+with a thousand conflicting emotions. And then, an idea struck him. He
+would ask to be allowed to see his lawyer.
+
+"Cotton's the man," he said to himself, "he will get the pills for
+me!"
+
+The inspector, after satisfying himself that Cotton was on the
+register, rang him up, and after an hour of terrible suspense to
+Hamar, the lawyer briskly entered his cell.
+
+They conferred together for some minutes, and having arranged the
+method of defence, Cotton was preparing to depart, when Hamar
+whispered to him--
+
+"I want you to do me a particular favour. In the top right hand drawer
+of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, in Cockspur Street, I have left
+a red pill-box. These pills are for indigestion. I simply can't do
+without them. Will you get them for me?"
+
+"What, to-night?" the lawyer asked dubiously.
+
+"Yes, to-night," Hamar pleaded. "I'll make it a matter of business
+between us--get me the pills before eight o'clock, and you have £1000
+down. My cheque book is in the same drawer."
+
+The lawyer said nothing, but gave Hamar a look that meant much!
+
+Again there was a dreadful wait, and Hamar had abandoned himself to
+the deepest despair when Cotton reappeared. He shook hands with his
+client, slipping the pills into the latter's palm. Whilst the lawyer
+was pocketing his cheque, Hamar gleefully swallowed a pill, and crying
+out "Bakra--naka--takso--mana,"--vanished!
+
+"Heaven preserve us! What's become of you?" Cotton exclaimed, putting
+his hand to his forehead and leaning against the wall for support. "Am
+I ill or dreaming?"
+
+"Anything wrong, sir?" a policeman inquired, opening the cell door and
+looking in. "Why, what have you done with the prisoner--where is he?"
+
+"I have no more idea than you," the lawyer gasped. "He was talking to
+me quite naturally, when he suddenly left off--said something
+idiotic--and disappeared."
+
+Hamar did not dally. He quietly slipped through the open door, and
+darting swiftly along a stone passage, found his way to the entrance,
+which was blocked by two constables with their backs to him.
+
+"I'll give the brutes something to remember me by," Hamar chuckled,
+and, taking a run, he kicked first one, and then the other with all
+his might, precipitating them both into the street. He then sped past
+them--home.
+
+Hamar, by astute inquiries, learned that the police had decided to
+hush up the affair, not being quite sure how they had figured, or,
+indeed, what had actually occurred. As to Cotton, the shock he had
+undergone, at seeing Hamar suddenly melt away before his eyes, was so
+great that he went off his head, and had to be confined in an asylum.
+
+After this adventure Hamar shunned restaurants, and manipulating his
+new property sparingly, and with the utmost caution, warned Kelson and
+Curtis to do the same.
+
+"I'll bet anything," he said to them, "it was a put-up job on the part
+of the Unknown--a cunning device to make us break the compact."
+
+"Oh, we'll be careful enough as far as that goes," Curtis growled.
+"It's this vegetarian diet that I can't stick. Fancy living on beans
+and potatoes, and only milk and aerated water to wash them down. It
+was bad enough in San Francisco, when we hadn't the means even to
+smell meat cooking--but with the money literally burning a hole in
+one's pocket, it's ten times worse! Whatever the Unknown has in store
+for us it can't be a worse Hell than what I've got now. What say you,
+Matt?"
+
+"The same! Precisely the same!" Kelson said. "Only it's love--not
+potatoes and beans that worries me. In the old days when I was
+penniless, I did get some consolation from knowing it was all
+hopeless--but now--now, when, as Ed says, 'the money's literally
+burning a hole in one's pocket,' and everything might go
+swimmingly--not to be allowed even to buy a bracelet--is more than
+human nature can endure. I certainly can't conceive a Hell to beat
+it."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Hamar said, "and for goodness' sake don't let the
+Unknown give you an opportunity of comparing."
+
+The night succeeding this conversation, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+introduced their new properties into the programme of their
+entertainment in Cockspur Street, and London got another big thrill.
+Hamar exhibited such startling proofs of his power of invisibility,
+that not only was the whole audience convinced, but from amongst
+certain prominent members of the Council of the Psychical Research
+Society, who were attending with the express purpose of unmasking
+Hamar, two had epileptic fits on the spot, and several, before they
+could get home, became raving lunatics.
+
+At the commencement of the second part of the programme--the audience
+was still too flabbergasted to fully grasp what was happening. They
+saw on the stage a huge tank of water--with which they were told Mr.
+Curtis would experiment.
+
+"What I am about to do," Mr. Curtis--who now walked on to the
+stage--informed his audience, "is quite simple. All you want is faith.
+Those of you who are Christian Scientists should be able to do it as
+easily as I. Say 'I will! I will walk on the water!' and your
+faith--your colossal faith--faith in your ability to do it will
+actually enable you to do it."
+
+Curtis then repeated--in tones that could not be heard by the
+audience--the Atlantean cabalistic words--"Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte," and glided gracefully on to the
+surface of the water. Every now and then he sank slowly down to the
+bottom, where he strolled about, or sat, or lay down.
+
+The audience was simply fascinated. Nothing they had hitherto seen
+tickled their fancy half as much. As an American, who was present, put
+it--"To live under the water like a fish is immense--so hygienic and
+economical."
+
+Though the time apportioned to this part of the entertainment was
+half an hour, it was extended to over an hour, and even then the
+audience was not satisfied. They would have gone on watching
+Curtis--eating--drinking--jumping--skipping--singing and chasing gold
+fish--under the water all night, and when he was at length permitted to
+come out of the tank--exhausted and sulky--they gave him even heartier
+applause than they had given Hamar.
+
+But the cup of their enjoyment was not yet full. The greatest treat of
+all was in store for them.
+
+For the third and last part of the entertainment, a cage, containing a
+large Bengal tiger, was wheeled on to the stage.
+
+"You look precious white," Curtis remarked, just as Kelson was about
+to go on.
+
+"I guess you'd look the same," Kelson retorted, "if you had to hobnob
+with a tiger. The Unknown always gives me the nasty jobs."
+
+"And in this case," Curtis said with a low, mocking laugh, "it also
+loads you with consolations. The house is full of ladies who adore
+you, and if you are eaten, just think of the sympathy welling up in
+their beautiful eyes! If that isn't sufficient compensation for you,
+I--" But the remainder of this encouraging speech was lost in a loud
+roar. The Bengal tiger shook its bars--the audience screamed, and
+Curtis flew.
+
+With a desperate attempt to look calm, Kelson, clutching the red laryx
+stone in his left hand, walked on to the stage, whilst the tiger,
+rearing on its hind legs tried to reach him with its paws.
+
+There were loud cries of "Oh! Oh!" from the audience, and Kelson's
+heart beat quicker, when a girl with wavy, fair hair and big, starry
+eyes, screamed out "Don't go near it! Don't go near it!"
+
+As soon as there was comparative quiet Kelson spoke.
+
+"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this animal is
+genuinely savage! It is not like the tigers one sees in menageries,
+drugged and deprived of their natural weapons--teeth and claws. It
+comes direct from India, where its reputation as a man-eater is
+widespread. I am not, however, intimidated--its growls merely amuse
+me."
+
+Quaking all over, he approached the cage, and staring fixedly into the
+tiger's face, made the prescribed passes. In an instant, the whole
+attitude of the great cat changed. Dropping on to its fore-legs, it
+rubbed its head against the bars and purred. A low buzz of
+astonishment burst from the audience, and Kelson, now assured that the
+spell had worked, waved his disengaged hand, in the most gallant
+fashion, at the audience, and strutted into the cage. He shook paws
+with the tiger, patted it on the back, sat down by its side, and,
+whilst pretending to be on the most familiar terms with it, took every
+precaution to avoid coming in too close contact with its teeth and
+claws.
+
+The audience was charmed--the men cheered, the ladies waved
+handkerchiefs, and the only disappointed persons present were a few
+belligerent and bloodthirsty boys, and a Suffragette, who severally,
+and for diverse reasons, would have relished the performances of a
+savage tiger, but had little sympathy with the performance of a tame
+one.
+
+The next surprise that Mr. Kelson had for his audience, was the
+announcement that he could interpret the language of animals. At his
+invitation, a dozen members of the audience came on to the platform
+and stood near the cage. Looking steadily at the tiger he then
+pronounced the mystic words "Meta--ra--ka--va--avakana," holding up
+his right hand, with the thumb turned down and stretched right across
+the palm, and the little finger extended to the utmost. In an instant
+the great secret--the secret that Darwin had studied so strenuously
+for years--was revealed to him. The language of animals was olfactory.
+The tiger spoke to him through the sense of smell--through his nose
+instead of his ears. It regulated and modified the odour it gave off
+from its body, and which worked its way out through the pores of its
+skin, just as human beings regulate and modify the intonations of
+their voices. Indeed, so delicate are the olfactory organs of animals
+that the faintest of these language smells makes an impression on
+them, which impression is at once interpreted by the brain. If an
+animal wishes to leave a message behind it, it merely impregnates some
+article--a leaf or a root, or a clump of grass--or merely the ether
+with a brain smell, and any other animal, happening to pass by the
+spot, within a certain time (in favourable weather), will at once be
+attracted by the smell, and be able to interpret it. That is the
+reason one so often sees an animal suddenly stop at a spot and sniff
+it--it is reading some message left there by some other animal. All
+this, and more, Kelson explained to his audience, who were exceedingly
+interested, many of them getting up to ask him questions. He also
+reported to them the tiger's conversation, which consisted chiefly of
+complaints against the management with regard to its food.
+
+"To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh," it said, "when
+there were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under
+its very nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly
+speak to whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?"
+
+A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
+remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.
+
+The next day the papers were full of it.
+
+The _Planet_, under the startling announcements--
+
+    "RECOVERY OF THE LOST SENSES.
+    MORE EXTRAORDINARY FEATS IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+    LEON HAMAR BECOMES INVISIBLE AT WILL,"
+
+--narrated all that had occurred.
+
+The _Monitor_--if anything more sensational--declared--
+
+    "THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS DISCOVERED AT LAST!
+    THE PROBLEM OF BREATHING UNDER WATER--SOLVED!
+    DEMATERIALIZATION AT WILL ESTABLISHED!"
+
+And even the _Courier_--the steady, ever cautious old _Courier_,
+England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
+conspicuously large type; vide the following--
+
+    "THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!
+    ACTUAL CASE OF SUBDUING AND CONVERSING WITH WILD ANIMALS.
+    RECOVERY OF THE PROPERTIES OF INVISIBILITY; OF WALKING ON WATER,
+    AND OF BREATHING UNDER WATER."
+
+As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
+unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
+instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
+requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
+walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
+to see him, but despite the fact that he said "I will! I will!" with
+the greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed,
+since they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S----
+supported the waves.
+
+For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to
+Hyde Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
+resounded with the words, "I will walk! I will walk!" succeeded by
+splashes and cries for help.
+
+Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
+flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were
+literally packed with people trying to get into conversation with the
+animals; these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of
+fatal results. One old gentleman--a Fellow of the Royal
+Society--carried away in his enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after
+making what he thought to be the correct signs, slipped his nose
+through the bars of the tiger's cage, and had it promptly bitten
+off--whilst a girl, in her endeavours to sniff the crocodiles, and so
+get in conversation with them, fell in their midst, and was torn to
+pieces before help arrived.
+
+However, these fatalities only served as an advertisement to the firm,
+and hundreds of people, for whom there was not even standing room,
+were turned away from the house nightly.
+
+But later on there were hitches. Curtis, whose dislike to vegetarian
+diet steadily increased, when dining one evening at his club, could no
+longer withstand the sight of roast beef. The smell of it tickled his
+palate unmercifully.
+
+"Take this infernal mess away!" he said, pushing a plate of nut steak
+from him in disgust, "and let me have a full course--entrée, soup,
+fish, meat, everything you've got--chartreuse and a liqueur, and bring
+it quick--I'm famished."
+
+He ate and ate, and drank and drank, until it was as much as he could
+do to rise from the table. And then, in excellent spirits, he repaired
+to Cockspur Street.
+
+How he got on to the stage he could never tell. Everything was in a
+haze around him, until there was a dull crash in his ears, and he
+suddenly found himself drowning. No one, at first, noticed his
+helpless condition, but attributed his antics to part of the
+programme; and he most certainly would have been drowned, had it not
+been for Lilian Rosenberg, who, being quite by chance, in front of the
+house, perceived he was drunk, the moment he came on the stage. She
+flew to the wings, and, just in the nick of time, got two of the
+supers to haul him out of the tank. Of course, it was announced--with
+a pretty apology--by Mr. Hamar, that Mr. Curtis had been taken ill.
+Kelson immediately came on with his animals, and the audience departed
+without the slightest suspicion as to the truth.
+
+Hamar was furious.
+
+"You idiot!" he said to Curtis, "that all comes of your making a beast
+of yourself--you would sacrifice Matt and me, for your insatiable
+craving for meat and alcohol. Can't you see it was a trick of the
+Unknown to make us break the compact? Had you been drowned, the
+partnership, would, of course, have been dissolved--and it would have
+been your fault! You must obey your injunctions! Damn it, you must!"
+And Hamar spoke so fiercely that Curtis was for once in a way cowed,
+and solemnly promised that he would not repeat the offence.
+
+Kelson was the next culprit; and his misdoings were indirectly
+associated with the foregoing incident. Lilian Rosenberg's action in
+saving Curtis's life, thrilled him to the core, and called into play
+all his ardent passion. He had seen her sitting in the front of the
+house, and had come upon the scene just as she was urging the supers
+to go to Curtis's assistance; and he then thought she had never looked
+so lovely.
+
+"Come out with me to-morrow afternoon," he whispered. "Hamar's going
+out of town!" And before she could stop him he had kissed her.
+
+Kelson hardly expected Lilian Rosenberg would accept his invitation,
+but on arriving at the place he had named, he was delighted beyond
+measure to find her there.
+
+Nor could anyone have been nicer to him. No girl, he told himself, who
+did not in some degree at least, reciprocate his sentiments, could
+have allowed him to stare into her eyes as she did, or squeeze her
+hands, as he did. He took her to the ladies' drawing-room of his club,
+where there were plenty of quiet, secluded nooks, and there, whilst
+she poured out tea for him, he once more related to her all his early
+deeds and ailments--real and imaginary--and all his ideals and
+aspirations.
+
+Lilian Rosenberg was most sympathetic.
+
+"You should have been a poet," she said. "There is something about you
+that is quite Byronic."
+
+And Kelson, who had never even heard of Byron, was immensely
+flattered.
+
+"Will you come to the jeweller's with me," he said, "and choose
+whatever you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for
+rings--rings of all sorts!" and he gave them a gentle pressure.
+
+She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
+Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she
+laughingly refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond
+bracelets and pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore--the
+rest--unknown to him of course--she sold; sending the proceeds,
+anonymously, to Shiel Davenport--who was starving.
+
+When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
+away--planning for his honeymoon--that he entered the cage of a newly
+imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
+certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
+supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
+the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It
+had been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing
+his performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
+anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.
+
+But Hamar would not hear of it.
+
+"This is the second bungle we have had," he said, "and the reputation
+of the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve
+it."
+
+And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.
+
+After it was all over, and he had bowed himself out into the wings,
+Hamar led him aside.
+
+"Don't look so damned pleased with yourself," he said, "I don't half
+like the look of things. This is the third time the Unknown has tried
+to trap us--the fourth time it may be successful! Take care!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+
+Much to the relief of the trio, the end of stage three was at length
+reached--and, thanks to Hamar, reached without further mishap. To keep
+Curtis and Kelson up to the mark, Hamar had worked indefatigably. He
+had never relaxed his efforts in the strict watch he kept over them,
+and he had unceasingly impressed upon them, the vital importance of
+obeying, to the very letter, the instructions they had received from
+the Unknown.
+
+The part he had thus taken upon himself, the difficulties he had to
+encounter in this unceasing vigilance, had produced a new Hamar--a
+Hamar that was a personality; a personality so utterly unlike the
+old Hamar--the meek and servile clerk--as to make one wonder if
+there could possibly be two Hamars--outwardly and physically the
+same--inwardly and psychologically diametrically opposed. A year ago,
+Curtis and Kelson would have ridiculed the idea of being afraid of
+Hamar--such an idea would have struck them as simply absurd; but they
+were afraid of him now, they dreaded his anger more than anything,
+more even than the prospect of infringing their compact with the
+Unknown.
+
+"We have made pots of money," Curtis remarked one day. "Why can't we
+give up work and enjoy it?"
+
+"Because I say no!" Hamar hissed. "No! We can't give up--not, at
+least, until the last stage has been safely gone through. To give up
+now would be to break the compact!"
+
+"Well, why not?" Curtis mumbled.
+
+"Why not!" Hamar cried. "Heavens, man, can't you understand! Can you
+form no conception of what failure to keep the compact means? Has the
+memory of that night--of that tree and all the foul things it
+suggested, passed completely out of your mind? It hasn't out of
+mine--it is as clear now as it was then. And often--mark this, both of
+you--often when I am alone in the night, I see queer luminous
+shapes--shapes of repulsive vegetable growths--of polyps--and of
+disgusting tongues that come towards me through the gloom and circle
+slowly round the bed, whilst the whole room vibrates with soft,
+mocking laughter! You know how mirrors shine in the moonlight. Well,
+the other night, when I looked at mine, I saw in it the reflection,
+not of a face, but of two light evil eyes that looked at me
+and--smiled! Smiled with a smile that said more plainly than words, 'I
+am waiting!' and that is what the shapes, and the very atmosphere of
+the place at night always seem to say--'We are waiting! You are
+enjoying the joke now--we shall enjoy it later on!' If we knew exactly
+what was in store for us it wouldn't be so bad, but it is the
+vagueness of it, the vagueness of the horrors that the Unknown has
+hinted at, that makes it so appalling! We may die awful deaths--or we
+may not die AT ALL--the shapes, indefinite and misty no longer, but
+materialized--wholly and entirely materialized--may come for us and
+take us away with them! And it is to prevent this, that I am urging
+you, compelling you, to stick to the compact, and give the Unknown no
+loophole! Think of the tremendous rewards, if we succeed in passing
+through the last stage! As I have said before, Curtis need do nothing
+else but eat, whilst you, Matt, can become a Mormon and marry all the
+pretty girls in London!"
+
+This speech had the desired effect, and nothing more--for the time at
+least--was said about retiring.
+
+"Do you think Leon is quite--er--like--er--like us?" Kelson said, when
+Hamar left them, after administering his admonition. "At times he
+hardly looks human. His face is such a funny colour, such a lurid
+yellow, and his eyes, so piercing! He gives me the jumps! I can't bear
+to think of him at night!"
+
+"Rubbish," Curtis growled. "You imagine it. There's nothing of the
+spook about Leon! He's of this world and nothing but this world."
+
+It was odd, however, that from that time he, too, began to have the
+same feeling--the feeling that Hamar was perpetually watching
+them--watching them awake and watching them asleep! Curtis awoke one
+night to see, standing on his hearth, a shadowy figure with a lurid
+yellow face and two gleaming dark eyes, which were fixed on him. He
+called out, and it vanished!
+
+"Of course it's the nut steak!" And thus he tried to assure himself.
+But he was badly scared all the same.
+
+Another night, he saw some one, he took to be Hamar, peeping at him
+from behind the window curtains. He threw a slipper at the figure, and
+the slipper went right through it. If Hamar's phantom had been the
+only thing he saw, he would not have minded much; but both he and
+Kelson soon began to see and hear other things. Curtis frequently saw
+half-materialized forms, forms of men with cone-shaped heads and
+peculiarly formed limbs, stealing up the staircase in front of him,
+and, turning into his bedroom, vanish there. He heard them moving
+about, long after he had got into bed. Sometimes they would glide up
+to the bed and bend over him, and though he could never see their
+eyes, he could feel they were fixed mockingly on him. Once he saw the
+door of his wardrobe slowly open, and a white something with a
+dreadful face--half human and half animal--steal slyly out and
+disappear in the wall opposite. And once when he put out his hand to
+feel for the matches, they were gently thrust into his palm, whilst
+the walls of the room shook with laughter.
+
+Kelson was equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a
+different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room
+would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede,
+and recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber,
+full of gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly,
+close in upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to
+death. A feeling of suffocation would come over him, and he would
+gasp, choke, beat the air with his arms, be at the verge of losing
+consciousness, when there would be a loud, mocking laugh--and the
+walls and ceiling would be in their proper places again. At other
+times he would see strange figures on the wall--numbers of circles,
+that would keep on revolving in the most bewildering fashion. Then,
+suddenly, they would leave the wall and slowly approach him,
+increasing in circumference; and the same thing would happen, as
+happened with the wall and ceiling; he would undergo the whole
+sensation of asphyxiation, and be on the brink of swooning, when there
+would be a loud peal of evil, satirical laughter, and the circles
+would instantly disappear.
+
+Sometimes the bedclothes would assume extraordinary shapes; sometimes
+the articles on his dressing-table; sometimes his clothes; and once,
+when he was about to put on his bedroom slippers, he found them
+already occupied--occupied by icy cold feet. Another time, when he put
+out his hand to take hold of a tumbler, he put it on the back of
+another hand--smooth, cold and pulpy!
+
+Hardly a night passed without some sort of manifestation happening to
+one or other of the trio, and even Curtis--fat and stolid
+Curtis--began to lose flesh and look harassed.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into stage four, the three, separating
+for the night, retired to their respective quarters in a far from
+pleasant state of expectation.
+
+Hamar was undressing, when there came a loud ring at the telephone,
+outside his door.
+
+"Holloa!" he called out, "who are you?"
+
+"Are you Mr. Hamar?" a voice asked, breathlessly.
+
+Hamar replied in the affirmative, and the voice continued--
+
+"I'm Mrs. Anderson-Waite, of 30 Queen's Mansions, Queen's Gate. I have
+been holding a séance here, with some of my friends, and most
+extraordinary things have happened, and are still happening. There are
+violent knockings on the wall and ceiling, and the table has become
+positively dangerous. It has repeatedly sprung into the air, and
+savagely assaulted several of the sitters. It has thrown one lady on
+to the floor, and despite our efforts to prevent it, has rampled on
+her so viciously that she is badly hurt, and the doctor who has just
+arrived thinks very seriously of it. We wanted to stop, but some
+strange power seems to be forcing us to go on. The table has rapped
+out your name and address, and says it has something important to
+communicate with you, and that unless you come here at once, it won't
+answer for the consequences."
+
+"All right!" Hamar said. "I'll come. I'll be with you in less than
+half an hour."
+
+When Hamar arrived at Queen's Mansions, he found a terrified party of
+ladies awaiting him in the entrance to the flat.
+
+"Thank goodness, you've come!" they exclaimed, all together. "We've
+been having an awful time. The table has driven us out of the
+drawing-room--it is obsessed by a devil."
+
+"Let me have a look at it," Hamar said, "and I'll soon tell you."
+
+The leader of the party, Mrs. Anderson-Waite, very cautiously opened
+the drawing-room door, and Hamar peered in. In the centre of the room
+was a large, round, ebony table, that commenced to rock, in the most
+sinister fashion, the moment Hamar looked at it.
+
+"It evidently wants to speak with me," Hamar said; "you had better
+leave me here with it for a few minutes."
+
+"Do take care," Mrs. Anderson-Waite said, as she shut the door. "It
+may want to murder you. If it does, ring this bell, and we will all
+come to your assistance."
+
+Hamar gave her an assuring smile, but he was by no means as much at
+ease as he pretended to be. He stood staring at the table, too
+fascinated to take his eyes off it, and too afraid to move.
+
+At length, however, pulling himself together, and convinced the table
+was the medium, through which the Unknown wished to give him fresh
+instructions, he stealthily approached it. He addressed it, and it
+rapped out to him that he must at once obtain pen and ink and take
+down what it wished to say.
+
+Obtaining the requisite materials from Mrs. Anderson-Waite, he sat
+down and was preparing to write on his knee, when the table told him
+to rub its surface briskly with his left hand, to trace on it the
+three Atlantean symbols, _i.e._ a club foot, a hand with the fingers
+clenched and the long pointed thumb standing upright, and a bat--and
+then--to place his paper on it, and transcribe what it had to say.
+
+Hamar obeyed, and after sitting for exactly three minutes with his
+pencil between his fingers, he felt a cold, pulpy hand laid over his,
+impelling him to write with lightning-like rapidity. The script read
+as follows:--
+
+"To Hamar, Curtis and Kelson--to the three of you in common--is given
+the knowledge of inflicting all manner of torments and diseases, of
+imparting all kinds of injurious properties, and of causing plagues.
+
+"In the first place, you must understand that the essence of life,
+comprising the psychical, psychological and physical, permeates every
+part of the living corporeal body--and that any limb, or fragment of
+skin or flesh, cut off from the living corporeal body, retains the
+essence of life, comprising the psychical and physical in its full
+vigour and entirety. Consequently, if a person have grafted on to them
+a piece of skin or flesh, or be inoculated with the blood or veins of
+a tiger--then that person not merely becomes liable to all the
+physical infirmities of the tiger, but may--if the counteracting
+influences are not sufficiently strong--partake of all the tiger's
+psychological characteristics.
+
+"Thus, if you give a person, in whom there is a latent tendency to
+drink, a drop of a drunkard's blood--in a glass of wine, or sweet, or
+pill, no matter what--that person will at once take to drink.
+Thus--mark you--people can be metamorphosed into libertines, suicides,
+idiots and murderers. This metamorphosis can also be produced by means
+of a magnet called the 'magnes microcosmi,' which is prepared from
+substances that have had a long association with the human body, and
+are penetrated by its vitality. Such substances are the hair and
+blood. Take either one of them, and dry it in a shady and moderately
+warm place, until it has lost its humidity and odour. By this process
+it will have lost, too, all its mumia--that is to say, its essence of
+life--and is hungry to regain it. It is now a magnes microcosmi, or a
+magnet for attracting diseases and properties, and if it be placed in
+close contact with a criminal or lunatic, it will be filled with his
+essence of life, and may then be used as a means of infecting other
+people with his pernicious qualities. Bury it under the doorstep of
+the person you wish infected, or hide it in his house, or mix it well
+with earth, and plant a shrub in the earth, and the vitality the
+magnet took from the criminal or lunatic will pass into the plant; and
+if the plant, or even flower of the plant, be given to any one, that
+person--unless she or he be a person absolutely free from the germs of
+vice--will be attracted to it, and greatly affected by it.
+
+"Or again, the earth over the grave of a lunatic or criminal will
+contain his essence of life, _i.e._ his vitality, which impregnates
+everything around it, and if that earth be placed somewhere in the
+immediate presence of a person, in whom there are latent tendencies to
+vice--then that person will be affected by it.
+
+"And through these methods of using the essence of life, that is
+impregnated with the disease you wish to inflict--you may infect
+people with all kinds of incurable ailments.
+
+"But a quicker, and equally sure method of smiting people with
+disease, such as cancer, fever, epilepsy, apoplexy, etc.; of smiting
+them blind, deaf, dumb, lame, etc.; or bringing upon them all kinds of
+accidents, is to make an image of the person you wish to torment, and,
+setting it in front of you, preferably, at times when the moon is new,
+or in conjunction with Venus, Mars or Saturn, concentrate with all
+your will on whatever injury you wish to inflict. If, for example, you
+desire the person to become blind, stick a pin, or thorn, or nail in
+the eyes of the image; if deaf, in its ears; if maimed, cut a limb off
+the image; if to have a certain disease, will very earnestly that he
+or she shall have that disease. You may thus, too, torment the object
+of your aversion with plagues of insects and vermin.
+
+"If you desire to bewitch your neighbour's milk, wine, or any food he
+or she has, you may do it by placing the mumia, _i.e._ the vehicle
+containing the essence of life of some criminal or lunatic, in the
+immediate vicinity of the food, etc.; or in the case of milk, by
+giving it to the cow to eat; or you may accomplish your design simply
+by means of concentration and an image.
+
+"Always, however, whatever methods you employ, prelude them with this
+prayer: 'I conjure thee, Great Unknown Power that is Antagonistic to
+man, that was at the Beginning, that is now, that always will be; by
+the winds and rain, and thunder and lightning; by the swirling rivers;
+by the Moon; by the sinister influence of the Moon with Venus, Mars
+and Saturn; help me obtain the perfect issue of all my desires, which
+I seek to perform solely for the furtherment of what is detrimental to
+humanity. Amen.' And conclude them with the signs of the foot, the
+hand and the bat. If you desire to know anything further it will be
+unfolded to you in your dreams."
+
+The hand that had been laid on Hamar's was now removed. The writing
+ceased. The table rose several inches from the floor, and struck the
+latter three times in quick, violent succession. Then it remained
+quiet, and Hamar knew, by a subtle change in the atmosphere, that all
+occult manifestations--for that night at least--were at an end. The
+ladies were, of course, dying to know what had happened; and like most
+ladies, who dabble in spiritualism, were ready to believe anything
+they were told. Hamar, who had no intention whatever of telling them
+what had actually occurred, satisfied them admirably.
+
+He went home delighted--far too delighted to sleep--for he had in his
+possession now the greatest of all weapons--the weapon to torment. And
+with it what could he not do! What could he not get! He could
+get--Gladys!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+
+The period of stage four promised to be one of such a lucrative
+nature, that the trio set to work to profit by it at once. They bribed
+medical men to procure for them the mumia of people suffering from
+every kind of disease; of criminal lunatics; of idiots and epileptics;
+they obtained, by bribery also, the blood and hair of the most
+abandoned men and women--rakes, thieves, murderers. They bottled and
+labelled, and arranged and catalogued, the mumia, in a laboratory
+designed for the purpose; and, when all their preparations were
+complete, advertised--
+
+    SPELLS FOR SALE
+
+    THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD.
+    offer for sale every variety of spells--love
+    charms, sleep charms, etc.
+
+In order to carry out the principal conditions of the compact, namely,
+to do harm, they made pseudo-love charms as follows:--
+
+They procured the hair of a girl whom they knew to be an incorrigible,
+and, at the same time, heartless flirt; and, in the manner described
+(and related in the last chapter) made a magnes microcosmi of it. When
+ready for use, _i.e._ after it had been in immediate contact with the
+girl's flesh, so as to get it fully charged, they had portions of it
+set in rings, lockets and pendants. And the purchaser of any one of
+these trinkets had only to persuade the object of his (or her)
+affection to wear it, and his (or her) love would at once be
+reciprocated.
+
+Had the magnes microcosmi been charged with real, deep-rooted love,
+the effect on the wearer would have been highly satisfactory, but
+charged as it was with the effervescent and fleeting fancy of a flirt,
+the effect on whoever wore it could not be more disastrous. The
+sentiments of the hopeful purchaser would be reciprocated for a time,
+which would probably lead to marriage--after which the affection his
+adored had professed would suddenly decrease, and before the honeymoon
+was over, would have vanished altogether.
+
+During the week following the announcement of the sale of these
+spells, over a thousand were sold, the applicants being mostly shop
+girls, typists, clerks and servants; in the second week the sales rose
+to three thousand, and every succeeding week showed a still greater
+increase.
+
+In charging the magnes microcosmi, the motive of the purchaser had
+always to be taken into account. If the love charm were wanted by a
+woman--a housekeeper may be, who desired some rich old man to fall in
+love with her, in order that she might come into his property; or by a
+woman--a companion probably--who, having wormed herself into the
+confidence of some eccentric old lady, was anxious that that lady
+should leave her all her money--Hamar took care that the magnes
+microcosmi should be charged with a lasting infatuation; and the sale
+of this love spell--the spell that was sought solely that the
+purchaser might inherit property to which he (or she) had no
+claim--far exceeded the sale of any other spell. Indeed, it was
+extraordinary how many people--people one would never have
+suspected--desired spells that would do other people harm.
+
+Lady De Greene, the well-known humanitarian, who was most
+indefatigable in getting up petitions to the Home Secretary, whenever
+the perpetrator of any particularly heinous and inexcusable murder was
+about to be hanged, and who was universally acknowledged "incapable of
+harming a fly," called, surreptitiously, on Hamar.
+
+"I understand," she said, "everything you do here is in strict
+confidence!"
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly!" Hamar said. "We make it a point of
+honour to divulge--nothing!"
+
+"That being so," Lady De Greene observed, "I want you to tell me of a
+spell that will hasten some very obnoxious person's death."
+
+"If you will give me a rough idea of their personal appearance," Hamar
+said, "I will make a wax image of them, and undertake they will
+trouble you no longer."
+
+But Lady De Greene shook her head. She had no desire to commit
+herself.
+
+"Can't you do it in any other way," she said, "can't you let me give
+them an unlucky charm--the sort of thing that might bring about a taxi
+disaster?"
+
+Hamar thought for a moment and then--smiled.
+
+"Yes!" he said, "I think I can accommodate you."
+
+Leaving her for a few minutes, he went to the laboratory, and from a
+tin box marked homicidal lunatic, he took a plain, gold ring. With
+this he returned to Lady De Greene, murmuring on the way the prayer he
+had learned from the table.
+
+"Here you are," he said handing the ring to Lady De Greene, "give it
+to the person you have mentioned to me--and the result you desire will
+speedily come to pass."
+
+Three days later, London was immeasurably shocked. It read in the
+papers that the highly accomplished Lady De Greene, beloved and
+respected by all, for the strenuous exertions on behalf of
+humanitarianism, had been barbarously murdered by her husband (from
+whom--unknown to the public--she had been living apart for years), who
+had suddenly, and, for no apparent reason, become insane. Hamar, who
+was immensely tickled, alone knew the reason why.
+
+This was no isolated case. Scores of Society women came to the trio
+with the same request. "A spell, or charm, or something, that will
+bring about a fatal accident--not a lingering illness"--and the person
+for whom the accident was desired, was usually the husband. And the
+trio often indulged in grim jokes.
+
+Without a doubt, Lady Minkhurst got her heart's desire when her
+husband abruptly cut his throat, but alas, amongst those decimated,
+when the charm fell into the hands of one of the footmen, was her
+ladyship's lover.
+
+Again, Mrs. Jacques, the beauty, who, at one time, wrote for half the
+fashion papers in England, certainly secured the demise of Colonel
+Dick Jacques, who tumbled downstairs and broke his neck, but as in his
+fall the Colonel alighted on one of the maids, who was not insured,
+and so seriously injured her that she was pronounced a hopeless
+cripple, Mrs. Jacques--with whom money was an object--had, of course,
+to maintain her for the rest of her life.
+
+Likewise, Sir Charles Brimpton, in jumping out of the top window of
+his house, besides pulverizing himself, pulverized, too, Lady
+Brimpton's pet Pekingese "Waller," without whom, she declared, life
+wasn't worth living; and Lord Snipping, in setting fire to himself,
+set fire to Lady Snipping's boudoir (which he had been secretly
+visiting), and thereby destroyed treasures which she tearfully
+declared were quite priceless, and could never be replaced.
+
+Crowds of young married women were anxious to get rid of their rich
+old relatives, who clung on to life with a tenacity that was "most
+wearying."
+
+"Can you give me a spell that will make my grandmother go off
+suddenly?" a girl with beautiful, sad eyes said plaintively to Kelson.
+"Don't think me very wicked, but we are not at all well off--and she
+has lived such a long time--such a very long time."
+
+"You don't want her to be ill first, I suppose," Kelson inquired.
+
+"Oh, no!" the girl replied, "she lives with us and we could never
+endure the worry and trouble of nursing her. It must be something very
+sudden."
+
+"This will do it," Kelson said, giving her a locket containing the
+mumia or essence of life of a mad dog; "fasten it round the old lady's
+neck, and you will be astonished how soon it acts."
+
+"And what is your fee?" the girl asked, her eyes brimming over with
+joyous anticipation.
+
+"For you--nothing," Kelson said gallantly. "Only tell no one. May I
+kiss your hand."
+
+The firm's sale of spells for getting rid of husbands having risen one
+day to five hundred--and the sale of their spells for putting old
+people out of the way to fifteen hundred--even Hamar, who was no
+believer in the perfection of human nature, was astonished.
+
+"My word!" he remarked. "Isn't this a revelation? Who would have
+thought how many people have murder in their hearts? At least half
+Society would, I believe, become homicides if only there were no
+chance of their being found out and punished. Anyhow, if we go on at
+this rate there will be no old people left."
+
+And it did indeed seem as if such would be the case. For the moment
+the idea got abroad that old people could be thrust out of existence
+with absolute safety and ease, there was a perfect mania amongst men,
+women, and even children, to get rid of them, and the deaths of people
+over sixty recorded in the papers multiplied every day. The following
+is an extract from the _Planet_ of July 28--
+
+    BOLT.--On July 27, at No. ---- Elgin Avenue, S.W., Emily Jane,
+    loved and venerated mother of Mary Bolt, M.D., in her 69th year.
+    Drowned in her bath. And all the Angels wept!
+
+    CUSHMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Sheep Street, Northampton, Sarah
+    Elizabeth, adored mother of Josiah Cushman, Plymouth Brother, in
+    her 88th year. Run over by a taxi. Joy in Heaven!
+
+    STARLING.--On July 27, at No. ---- Snargate Street, Dover, Susan,
+    highly esteemed and greatly beloved mother of Alfred Starling,
+    Wesleyan Minister, in her 71st year. Lost in the harbour. Asleep in
+    Jesus.
+
+    TRETICKLER.--On July 27, at No. ---- The Terrace, St. Ives,
+    Cornwall, Elizabeth, adored grandmother of Tobias Tretickler,
+    Congregationalist, in her 91st year. Fell over the Malatoff. "Oh,
+    Paradise! Oh, Paradise!"
+
+    BROOT.--On July 27, at Charlton House, Queen's Gate, S.W., Jane,
+    greatly beloved mother of John Broot, Labour M.P., in her 83rd
+    year. Fell down the area. Peace, blessed Peace.
+
+    GUM.--On July 27, at No. ---- Church Road, Upper Norwood, Sophia,
+    widow of the late Albert Gum, L.C.C., in her 85th year. Choked
+    whilst eating tripe. Sadly missed!
+
+    PAVEMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol,
+    Anne Rebecca, dearly beloved mother of Alfred Paveman, grocer, in
+    her 74th year. Accidentally burned to death! At rest at last.
+
+But it must not be supposed from these few notices, selected from at
+least a hundred, that the applicants for spells were by any means
+confined to the upper and middle classes. By far the greater number of
+spells were sold to the working people--to those of them who, prudent
+and respectable, counted amongst their aged relatives, at least, one
+or two who were insured.
+
+Nor was the sale of spells confined to adults; for among the numbers,
+that flocked to consult the trio, were countless County Council
+children.
+
+"Can you give me a spell to make teacher break her neck?" was the most
+common request, though it was frequently varied with demands such as--
+
+"I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more
+than three lumps of sugar in my tea;"--or, "Mother has got very teazy
+lately. I want a spell to make her fall downstairs"--or, "Father only
+gives me twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a
+spell to make him have an accident whilst he's at work." And it was
+not seldom that the trio were petitioned thus: "Please give us a spell
+to make our parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect
+freedom is the birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have
+perfect freedom whilst our parents are alive."[22]
+
+The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the
+week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were--over sixty
+years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and
+sixty, six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were
+responsible.
+
+The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham,
+Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants
+became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with
+them, and were forced to raise their charges.
+
+Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant
+Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson.
+
+"Give me a spell," demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a
+half-up-to-the-knee skirt, "one that will cause the roof of the House
+of Commons to fall in and smash everybody--EVERYBODY. This is no time
+for half-measures."
+
+Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented,
+but he had no sympathy with the ugly--they set his teeth on edge--he
+loathed them.
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly," he said, "here is a spell that will
+have the effect you desire," and he handed her a ring containing a
+magnes microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot.
+"Wear it," he said, "night and day. Never be without it."
+
+She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home
+for incurables.
+
+Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him
+with a similar request.
+
+"Let me have a spell at once," she said, "that will make every member
+of the Government be run over by taxis--and killed. They are monsters,
+tyrants--I abominate them. Let them be slowly--very slowly--SQUASHED
+to death!"
+
+"Very well, madam," Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, "here
+is what you want--wear it next your heart;" and he gave her a locket,
+containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a
+leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense.
+
+"I consider your fee far too high," the Suffragette said. "You take
+advantage of me because I'm a woman."
+
+"Very well, madam," he said, "I will make an exception in your case,
+and let you have it for half the sum."
+
+With a good deal more grumbling she paid the half fee, and, fastening
+the locket round her neck, flounced out of the building. As Kelson
+gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
+such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
+Suffragette--a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
+animosity.
+
+"Quick! Quick!" she cried, bursting into the room where he was
+sitting. "Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet
+Minister, and their wives and families as well."
+
+"Such an ambitious request as that, madam," Kelson rejoined, "cannot
+be granted in a hurry. I must have time--to--"
+
+"No! No! At once!" the lady cried, stamping her feet with
+ill-suppressed rage.
+
+"--to consider how it can best be done," Kelson went on calmly. "I
+must have time to think."
+
+The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
+gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its
+head off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her
+description had been run over by a train at Chislehurst--and
+decapitated.
+
+Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only
+plain but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.
+
+"Look here," he said, "it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
+decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
+longer." And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic
+to humour him.
+
+"Very well, Matt," he said, forcing a laugh. "I'll try and arrange
+differently in future. After to-day you shall have your share of the
+pretty ones--anything to keep the peace. Only--remember--no falling in
+love."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 22: Lest the reader should query this, let him consult the
+  police in any of our big centres, and he will learn that crime and
+  prostitution is immensely on the increase among children. In
+  Newcastle it is estimated that there are over two thousand girls, of
+  under fourteen years of age, voluntarily leading immoral lives, and
+  making big incomes.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+
+Hamar's one great idea on reaching stage four was to utilize the
+torments as a means of getting Gladys. Though he saw crowds of pretty
+girls every day, none appealed to him as she did--and the very
+difficulty of getting her enhanced her value and stimulated his
+passions.
+
+"I will give her one more chance," he said to himself, "and then if
+she won't have me I'll plague her to death."
+
+He went to the Imperial, and passing himself off as her father to the
+new official at the stage-door entrance, was shown into the ante-room
+(which led to her dressing-room). It took a good deal to scare Hamar,
+but he admitted afterwards that he did feel a trifle apprehensive
+whilst he awaited her advent; and his anticipations were fully
+realized.
+
+"Why, father!" she began, as the door of her dressing-room swung open
+and she appeared on the threshold, clad in a shimmering white dress,
+that intensified her fair style of beauty, "what brings you--" The
+smile on her face suddenly died away.
+
+"You!" she cried, "how dare you! Go! Go at once! And if you dare come
+here again or attempt to molest me in any way, I'll prosecute you!"
+
+Hamar, dumbfounded at such an exhibition of wrath, slunk out of the
+room without uttering a syllable.
+
+"The vixen," he muttered as soon as he found himself in the street. "A
+thousand cats in one! Treated me like mud. Jerusalem! I'll pay her
+out. And I'll lose no time about it either. She'll look differently at
+me next time we meet."
+
+He hurried back to Cockspur Street and going into the laboratory,
+threw himself into a chair and--thought.
+
+That same evening at nine-thirty, in the interval between her first
+and second "going on," Gladys hastened to her dressing-room, and was
+preparing to partake of the light refreshments she had ordered,
+when--to her horror--she perceived crawling towards her, across the
+floor, a huge cockroach--a hideous black thing with spidery legs and
+long antennae that it waved, to and fro, in the air, as it advanced.
+It was at least double the size of any Gladys had hitherto seen, and
+her feelings can best be appreciated by those who fear such
+things--her blood ran cold, her flesh crawled, she sat glued to her
+chair, terrified to move, lest it should run after her. She screamed,
+and her dresser, startled out of her senses, came flying into the
+room.
+
+"What is it, madam? What is it?" she cried.
+
+Gladys pointed at the floor.
+
+"Kill it!" she shrieked. "Stamp on it! Oh, quick, quick, it is coming
+towards me."
+
+But the moment the dresser caught sight of the cockroach, she sprang
+on a chair and wound her skirts round her.
+
+"Oh, madam," she panted, "I daren't! I daren't go near it. I'm
+frightened out of my life, at beetles. And there's another of
+them"--and she pointed to the wainscoting--"and another! Why, the
+room's full of them!"
+
+And so it was. Everywhere Gladys looked she saw beetles crawling
+towards her--dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds--and all of
+the same monstrous size and ultra-horrible appearance.
+
+"Look!" she screamed. "They are climbing on to my clothes. One's got
+into my shoes, and another will be in them, in a second. There's
+another--crawling up my cloak--and another on my skirt. Oh! Oh!" and
+her cries, and those of the dresser, speedily brought a troop of
+actors and actresses to the door. The instant, however, the cause of
+the alarm was ascertained, there were loud yells, and a wild stampede
+down the passages. The Stage Manager was called, but one glance at the
+floor was enough for him--he fled. And in the end three of the supers
+had to be fetched. Hot water, brooms, ashes, and quicklime were used,
+and although thousands of the cockroaches were killed, thousands more
+came, and so hopeless did the task of getting rid of them become, that
+the room eventually had to be vacated, and the cracks under the door
+securely sealed.
+
+Before Gladys left the theatre, she was called on the telephone.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked.
+
+"Hamar," came the reply, in insinuating tones. "How do you like the
+beetles? You'll never see the end of them till--"
+
+But Gladys rang off.
+
+On her return home something scuttled across the hall floor in front
+of her. She sprang back with a scream. It was a gigantic cockroach.
+The hall was full of them. She summoned the servants, and they set to
+work to kill them. But they might as well have tried to stop Niagara,
+for as fast as they squashed one battalion, another took its place.
+They came out of cracks in the floor, from behind the wainscoting,
+from every conceivable place in the kitchens, and in a dense black
+ribbon some six inches broad, ascended the staircase. Gladys tried to
+barricade her room against them, but it was of no avail. They came
+from under the boards of the floor and poured down the chimney. They
+swarmed over the furniture, in the cupboards, chest of drawers, the
+washstand (where they kept continually falling into the water), in her
+clothes (her dressing-gown was covered with them), over the bed, and
+the climax was reached when they approached the chair she stood on.
+Too fascinated with horror to move, she watched them crawling up to
+her. She was thus found by her father. He had come to her assistance
+in the very nick of time, and after lifting her from the chair and
+taking her to a place, as yet safe from molestation, returned to her
+room, where, with savage blows, smashing, equally, beetles and
+furniture, he remained till daybreak.
+
+With the first streak of dawn the beetles decamped, and the fray
+ended. The work of devastation had been colossal. Corpses were strewn
+everywhere--and it took the combined household hours, before all
+evidences of the slaughter were obliterated. As for Gladys, she had
+not slept all night and was a wreck.
+
+"I can never go through another night of it," she said to Miss
+Templeton. "Do you think we shall ever get rid of the horrible
+things?"
+
+"We can but try, dear!" Miss Templeton said consolingly, and she
+accompanied Gladys up to town, where they inquired of doctors, and
+chemists, and all sorts of possible and impossible people; and
+returned to Kew laden with chemicals, and patent beetle destroyers.
+But though they tried remedies by the score, none were of use, and the
+beetles repeated their performance of the preceding night.
+
+Gladys did not go to bed: surrounded with lighted candles, she sat on
+the top of a wardrobe till daybreak. The following morning the house
+was fumigated with sulphur; and people were told off to kill the
+cockroaches, as they made their escape out of doors. By this means an
+enormous number were killed; but at night they were just as bad as
+before.
+
+An engineer friend then suggested a freezing-machine. The temperature
+of the house was reduced to ten degrees below zero; the pipes froze
+(and burst next day), the milk froze, the housemaid's toes and the
+cook's little finger of the left hand froze, everything froze; and
+presumably the beetles froze, for there was not one to be seen.
+
+However, it was quite impossible to resort again to this extreme
+measure. John Martin had the most agonizing attacks of lumbago. Gladys
+had neuralgia, and Miss Templeton--a slight touch of pleurisy.
+
+When Gladys reached the Imperial that evening, she found that the
+staff had been battling with cockroaches all day, and that they had at
+last succeeded in getting rid of them with a fumigation mixture of
+camphor, cocculus, sulphur, bezonia and assafoetida--suggested to them
+by a Hindoo student.
+
+For the next week not a beetle was to be seen at the theatre nor at
+the Cottage; and Gladys was beginning to hope that Hamar had ceased
+plaguing her (in despair of ever winning her), when the persecutions
+suddenly broke out again.
+
+She had been in bed about half an hour, and was falling into a gentle
+and much needed sleep, when a tremendous rap at the wall, close to her
+head, awoke her with a start, and set her heart pulsating violently.
+Thinking it must be some one on the landing, she got up and lit a
+candle. There was no one there. The moment she got into bed again, the
+rapping was repeated, and it continued, at intervals, all night. This
+went on for a week, during which time Gladys was never once able to
+sleep.
+
+A brief respite ensued; but it was abruptly terminated one morning,
+when Gladys awoke feeling as if some big insect were attempting to
+penetrate her body. Uttering a shriek of terror, she whipped the
+clothes from her, and sprang out of bed. Miss Templeton, who slept in
+the next room, came rushing in, and they both saw an enormous insect,
+half beetle and half scorpion, dart under the pillow. John Martin was
+fetched, but although he searched everywhere, not a trace of the
+insect could be found.
+
+That night, directly Gladys got in bed and blew out the light, she
+heard a ticking sound on the sheets, and a huge insect with long hairy
+legs ran up her sleeve. Her shrieks brought the whole household to the
+room, but the insect was nowhere to be seen.
+
+She was thus plagued for nearly a fortnight. One insect only--never a
+number, but only one, of prodigious size and terrifying form--appeared
+to her in the least suspected places, _i.e._, on the dressing-table or
+chimney-piece, in her shoes, or pockets; crawled over her in the dark;
+and could never be caught.
+
+These perpetual frights, and consequent sleeplessness, wore Gladys
+out. She grew so ill that she had to give up acting, and go into a
+home to try the rest cure.
+
+Hamar then communicated with her, through a third person, and offered
+to leave off tormenting her, if she would agree to be engaged to him.
+
+"I never will!" she said.
+
+"Then I will never leave off persecuting you," was his retort.
+
+But he was wary. He had no wish to kill her or to damage her looks--so
+he let her get well and remain thus for a brief space. When she was
+once again in full vigour, acting at the Imperial, he recommenced his
+unwelcome attentions.
+
+At first he confined his new plague to the servants at the Cottage.
+The cook was one day turning out a drawer in the kitchen dresser, when
+she was horrified out of her senses to find squatting there, a large,
+black toad, which stared most malevolently at her, and then sprang in
+her face. She shrieked to the housemaid to help her kill it, but
+before a weapon could be got, the creature had bounced through an open
+window, and disappeared.
+
+After this incident the servants knew no peace. Their bedclothes were
+thrown off them at night, their dresses torn and bespattered with ink,
+their brushes and combs thrown out of the window, and the water they
+poured out to wash in was sometimes quite black, sometimes full of a
+bright green sediment, and sometimes boiling, when it invariably
+cracked both the jug and basin.
+
+Unable to stand these annoyances the servants left in a body. Their
+successors fared the same, and worse. Besides having to endure the
+above-named horrors, pebbles were thrown through the windows, their
+chairs were pulled away as they were about to sit down (the cook, who
+was one of those upon whom this trick was played, thereby seriously
+injuring her spine), and all sorts of obstacles were placed on the
+stairs, so that those who ran down unwarily tripped over them and hurt
+themselves (two successive housemaids broke their legs, whilst another
+sprained her wrist).
+
+The meat, too, was a constant worry--it went so bad that enormous
+maggots crawled out of it by the thousand and covered the table and
+floor; and the milk, of which a large quantity was taken daily,
+"turned" in a very curious manner. After being deposited, in its usual
+place, in the pantry, it began to darken; first of all it became light
+blue, then deepened into an almost inky blackness, exhibiting curious
+zigzag lines; and, lastly, the whole mass began to putrefy and to emit
+a stench so overpowering that every one in the house retched, and the
+whole place had to be disinfected. This occurred day after day.
+Nothing would stop it. The dairyman who supplied the milk did all he
+could to counteract it. He had his dairies constantly cleansed, he saw
+that the cattle had a change of food, he bought an entirely new stock
+of dairy utensils, and no milk was ever sent to the Cottage that he
+had not had carefully analyzed.
+
+The troubles continued for three weeks, at the end of which period
+John Martin received a telephone call from Hamar.
+
+"Hullo!" the latter said, "I guess you've had about enough of it by
+this time. Wouldn't you like some sweet-smelling milk for a change, or
+do you prefer to go on till you all get typhoid? The remedy, you know,
+lies in your own hands. You've only to tell that daughter of yours to
+accept me, and I'll undertake all your troubles shall cease."
+
+"I'll see you hanged first," John Martin answered.
+
+"Very well, then, you old mule," Hamar shouted, "look out for
+yourself--and Miss Gladys."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LOVE
+
+
+To bring about plagues of insects Hamar had resorted to a very simple
+method. He had first of all made a wax image representing a
+cockroach--scorpion--centipede, or whatever other species came into
+his mind. Then, placing the image he had made in front of him, and
+repeating the prayer he had learned from the Unknown, through the
+medium of Mrs. Anderson-Waite's table, he had concentrated body, soul,
+and spirit on plaguing Gladys with the insect, which the image
+represented. When his concentration reached the highest degree,
+insects in their actual physical bodies were transported from the
+tropics;[23] but when he was unable to concentrate to the utmost, only
+the ethereal projections of the insects were obtainable; hence the
+hybrid--partly scorpion and partly beetle, that appeared and
+disappeared in Gladys's bed and bedroom.
+
+To produce the rappings on the walls of Gladys's room, he had made a
+wax representation of a wall, and whilst concentrating to the very
+utmost, had struck it with his knuckles.
+
+The plaguing of the servants Hamar had also accomplished by means of
+images and concentration.
+
+But in order to bewitch milk, he had been obliged to resort to other
+means. He had converted the mumia of an idiot into a magnes
+microcosmi; and bribing the man who delivered the milk, he gave him
+instructions to soak the magnes microcosmi, for a few minutes, in
+every portion that he left at the Cottage.[24]
+
+At length Hamar having failed to gain his object by plaguing Gladys
+and the servants, set about tormenting John Martin. He made a wax
+image of the latter, and after pronouncing the necessary prayer, stuck
+the image full of pins, crying out as he did so "John Martin, I hate
+you. John Martin, I curse you. John Martin, a plague on you." And each
+time Hamar stuck a pin in the image he had made of John Martin, the
+real John Martin felt an acute pain in the region of his body
+corresponding to that in which the pin was stuck.
+
+The doctor, who was called in, could make nothing of the malady, but,
+following the etiquette of the profession, cloaked his ignorance with
+a look of profound wisdom, and the pronouncement that he would tell
+them, in a day or two, what was the matter. In the meanwhile, he found
+it necessary and politic to prescribe a non-committal mixture of chalk
+and rhubarb, which, although disguised under the usual fanciful
+pharmacopoeia appellation, did not, however, allay the pain. Sharp,
+agonizing pricks, now on the neck now in the chest, now in the most
+sensitive part of the knee-cap, now under the toe-nail, now--most
+painful of all--under the finger-nail--continued to torment John
+Martin, who, though as a rule fairly stoical, could not stand these
+attacks with any degree of composure. He screamed, and swore, and
+cursed, until the whole household was terrified--and Gladys, pretty
+nearly out of her mind.
+
+During a lull--an interval, wherein John Martin enjoyed a brief
+respite, the telephone bell rang.
+
+"Hulloa," called a voice, "I'm Hamar. Haven't you had about enough of
+it? Remember, you've only to say the word and I'll stop."
+
+"Tell him I'll do nothing of the sort," John Martin said, "that he'll
+never get the better of me this way."
+
+Miss Templeton gave the message, and Hamar replied "Wait! Wait and
+see!"
+
+He then thrust wool, pins, horsenails, straw, needles and moss into
+the mouth of the image, and John Martin had such frightful pains in
+his stomach that he went into convulsions; and, after an emetic had
+been given him, vomited up all the above-named articles, save the pins
+and needles which worked their way out through his flesh, causing him
+the most exquisite tortures.
+
+Gladys, having given up going to the theatre in order to be with her
+father during these attacks, now declared that she could no longer
+bear to see him in such excruciating pain, whilst it was in her power
+to prevent it.
+
+"Tell him," she said, "tell Hamar you'll accept his conditions. Don't
+think of me! I would rather do anything than see you suffer like
+this."
+
+"I can hold out a bit longer," he groaned, "at any rate I needn't give
+in yet."
+
+Every now and then there came a respite--perhaps for several hours,
+perhaps for several days--then the tortures recommenced. And always
+John Martin steeled himself to bear them. At last came the climax.
+
+Hamar, infuriated that his efforts, so far, had proved fruitless,
+resolved, since time was pressing, to play his trump card and either
+win, or lose all. He rang up Gladys on the telephone.
+
+"My patience is exhausted," he said. "I'll give you one more chance,
+and one--only. Agree to be engaged to me at once--or I'll smite your
+father with the most virulent form of cancer, and leave him to die."
+
+There was no question now in Gladys's mind as to what she should do.
+Of all things in the world, she dreaded cancer most, and after the
+many evidences Hamar had given her of his skill in Black Magic, she
+did not doubt for one instant that he could, immediately he chose,
+carry out his threat.
+
+"I have decided," she said faintly, "to--to--give in."
+
+"You accept me, then?" Hamar said.
+
+"Y-yes!"
+
+"When may I see you?"
+
+"When you like."
+
+"Then I'll come at once," Hamar replied. "_Au revoir._"
+
+But Hamar, when he arrived at the Cottage, did not realize any of the
+gleeful anticipations he had indulged in _en route_. Gladys was
+ill--so Miss Templeton informed him--at the same time begging him, if
+he really had any regard for Miss Martin, not to ask to see her for
+the next few days; and to this request Hamar, seeing no alternative,
+was obliged to assent.
+
+Shortly after he had gone, Shiel Davenport called, and found Gladys
+alone in the garden.
+
+"I've been told that your father is ill," he said, "and should like to
+hear better news of him. How is he?"
+
+"I think he's all right now," Gladys replied, "but he has suffered
+frightfully. Indeed, we've all had a terrible time," And she told him
+what had happened.
+
+"Then you've not been acting at the Imperial lately?" Shiel asked.
+
+"Not for the past week," Gladys replied. "I couldn't leave father."
+
+"How has Mr. Bromley Burnham got on without you?" Shiel asked
+bitterly.
+
+"I don't understand you," Gladys said quietly. "I have an understudy,
+and from what I am told she has given every satisfaction. I have some
+news which I fear won't be altogether welcome to you."
+
+Shiel turned a shade paler. "What is it?" he faltered.
+
+"I'm engaged to be married."
+
+For a few moments there was silence, and then Shiel exclaimed
+mechanically "Engaged to be married! To whom?"
+
+"To Leon Hamar! I couldn't help it." And she explained the position.
+
+"But he'll never keep you to it," Shiel said. "He couldn't be such a
+brute."
+
+"I'm afraid he will," Gladys replied. "He's shown pretty clearly that
+he's capable of anything. I've given him my promise--I must keep it."
+
+"Then it's good-bye to all interest in life--for me," Shiel said, with
+a gulp. "I've thought of no one but you since we first met. For
+you--in the hope of someday winning you, I've struggled on; I've
+reconciled myself to a bare existence. Now I've lost you, I've lost
+everything. I hate life. I shall--"
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort," Gladys interrupted, "unless you want
+me to regret ever having met you. I wonder that you say 'I've nothing
+to live for'--when we can still be friends; and when you can, at
+least, win my respect, by putting your shoulder to the wheel, and
+exerting yourself to the utmost to get on."
+
+"And you--what about you?"
+
+"Never mind me--I can well look after myself."
+
+"You'll live in Hell," Shiel cried, her eyes goading him to madness.
+"Even though you may not care for me, I do not choose to stand quietly
+by, whilst you spend your life in Purgatory. Hamar has won you through
+some diabolical trickery, and if I can't thwart him in any other
+way--I'll kill him. He shan't marry you."
+
+"He will," Gladys sighed. "No one can stop him. He is omnipotent."
+
+Apparently, Gladys's statement was more or less true; and ninety-nine
+men out of a hundred, in the same circumstances as Shiel, would have
+now recognized the hopelessness of the situation. But Shiel was
+abnormal. As he walked home from the Cottage that evening he kept on
+repeating to himself "Gladys is my goal. I want only Gladys. I'll have
+only Gladys." And having once made up his mind to get Gladys, it
+seemed to him, as if out of every obstacle, that lay between him and
+Gladys, he could and would merely make a stepping-stone. "Since," he
+argued to himself, "all's fair in love and war, I'll win Gladys
+through another woman."
+
+And he straightway telephoned to Lilian Rosenberg to have tea with
+him.
+
+The latter had already made an engagement for the afternoon; but, all
+the same, she accepted Shiel's invitation.
+
+"Will you do me a favour?" he asked.
+
+"If it is anything that lies in my power," she said. "What is it?"
+
+"I want you to find out how Hamar works his spells. I asked you
+before?"
+
+"I know you did and I've not forgotten," Lilian said, "but I have to
+be very careful. I've played the part of eavesdropper once or twice,
+and heard enough to confirm me in my suspicions that Hamar is in touch
+with evil, occult powers. I've heard him praying aloud to them on more
+than one occasion, and I've also a shrewd idea he performs, at least,
+some of his spells by means of wax images. But why do you want to
+know?"
+
+"Only curiosity. I am intensely interested in the occult."
+
+"You don't want to start a rival show, do you?" Lilian asked
+jestingly.
+
+"With a maximum capital of two pounds--and a minimum of knowledge!"
+Shiel laughed. "Hardly. I wish I could. I would offer you the post of
+manageress."
+
+"Partner!"
+
+"Well, partner, if you like. Would you take it?"
+
+"Perhaps!" she said, looking at him with a sudden shyness. "What a
+pity you are not rich. Can't you get a post that would bring you in
+about £200 a year for a start? I believe you really want something to
+stimulate you, to make you work in grim earnest--then you would
+succeed. There's grit in you--I love grit--but at present it's latent,
+it wants bringing out."
+
+"You are very kind," Shiel said, "but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case,
+and, being such, have no business to be in your company. Will you come
+to the theatre with me?"
+
+"The theatre! When you've no business to be in my company, and when it
+is as much as you can do to pay the rent of a back attic!"
+
+"Oh, never mind that. I've had tickets given me. I've been doing odd
+bits of journalism lately, and a dramatic critic I know has given me
+two stalls at the Imperial!"
+
+"The Imperial!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "That's where Gladys
+Martin is acting, surely! I can't bear her!"
+
+"She's not the only person in the cast," Shiel observed drily, "and
+the play's a good one! Do come!"
+
+With a little more persuasion Shiel gained her consent; and both he
+and she enjoyed the play, or more correctly speaking, the occasion,
+immensely. So long as Gladys was on the stage Shiel's eyes never once
+left her; whilst throughout the performance Lilian Rosenberg saw only
+Shiel, thought only of Shiel. The interest she had taken in him, the
+interest she had so confidently asserted was only interest, had grown
+apace--had grown out of all recognition. It needed only a fillip now
+to convert that interest into something warmer; and the fillip was not
+long in coming.
+
+Shiel was seeing Lilian home to her lodgings in Margaret Terrace, a
+turning off Oakley Street, when a man knocked a woman down right in
+front of them. He was just the ordinary type of street ruffian--the
+whitewashed English labourer--and the woman, having without doubt been
+served by him in the same manner fifty times before, was probably well
+used to such treatment. But it was more than Shiel, who had spent so
+much of his life where they treat women differently, could stand, and
+before Lilian Rosenberg had time to remonstrate, he had rushed up to
+the prostrate woman, and was holding the man at bay. A scuffle now
+began, in which the woman, whom Shiel had helped to regain her feet,
+joined. Both man and woman now attacked Shiel, who, placing himself
+with his back against the railings, defended himself as best he could.
+
+The hour was late, there were no police about, and it seemed only too
+probable that the fracas would end in a tragedy. The labourer was a
+burly fellow, shorter than Shiel, but far broader and heavier, and any
+one could see at a glance that Shiel stood no chance against him.
+Lilian Rosenberg, at her wits' end to know what to do, ran into Oakley
+Street, and as there was no one in sight, she made for the nearest
+lighted house and rang the bell furiously. A man came to the door,
+whom, unheeding his expostulations, she caught by the arm and dragged
+into the street.
+
+They arrived on the scene of action, just as the ruffian, breaking
+through Shiel's guard, struck him a terrific blow on the forehead,
+which sent him reeling against the railings. The newcomer (upon whom,
+both man and woman, seeing Shiel incapacitated, instantly turned)
+would probably have shared the same fate, had not the occupants of
+several of the neighbouring houses--amongst whom were some half-dozen
+athletic young men--roused by the noise, come out into the street, and
+the ruffian and his companion, seeing the odds were against them,
+decamped.
+
+Shiel had not fully regained consciousness, when Lilian Rosenberg,
+regardless of propriety, led him into her sitting-room, bathed his
+forehead, dosed him with brandy, and making up a bed for him on the
+sofa, bade him rest there, till the morning.
+
+When he took his departure, he had quite recovered, and Lilian
+Rosenberg had, at last, realized that she loved him.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 23: There is no doubt that Moses inflicted the plagues,
+  with which he tormented Pharaoh, in this way.]
+
+  [Footnote 24: In stage two this might have been performed by
+  ethereal projection, but Hamar could not resort to this method as
+  the power of projection had now passed from him.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE SUBPOENA
+
+
+A few days after the incident in Margaret Terrace, Shiel had an
+inspiration. He was lunching with an old schoolfellow whom, quite by
+chance, he had met in Lincoln's Inn, having previously lost sight of
+him for many years, and the conversation, which had at first been
+confined to the old days, had gradually drifted to what was ever
+uppermost in Shiel's mind--namely, the Modern Sorcery Company, _i.e._
+Hamar, Kelson and Curtis.
+
+"Did you know," his friend remarked, "that the old statute, introduced
+in Henry the Fifth's reign against sorcery, has never been repealed?"
+
+"You don't mean to say so," Shiel cried excitedly--a vague idea
+dawning on him. "Tell me all about it."
+
+"Well, that's rather a long order. For one thing, it imposes all kinds
+of penalties from capital punishment to fines. For another, it was in
+force up to the beginning of George the Third's reign, when the last
+case of a person being burned for witchery in England occurred, and
+since then it has fallen into disuse."
+
+"Could it be revived?" Shiel asked, a sudden wild hope surging through
+him.
+
+"For all I know to the contrary, it could," his friend--who, by the
+way, was a barrister--replied. "Of course no one could be burned or
+hanged under it, but they might be fined or imprisoned."
+
+"Then I wish to goodness you would file a case against the Modern
+Sorcery Company! I'd move heaven and earth to get the scoundrels sent
+to prison!" And he told his friend how matters stood between Gladys
+and Hamar.
+
+The barrister--whose name was Sevenning--H.V. Sevenning, of T.C.D. and
+Cheltenham College renown--was keenly interested. It was not only that
+his sense of chivalry was stirred, but he saw sport. Consequently, the
+foregoing conversation resulted in a prosecution which, taking place
+some four weeks later, was reported in the London Herald as follows--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE HEARD AT THE OLD BAILEY.
+
+    REVIVAL OF AN ANCIENT STATUTE.
+
+    Yesterday, at the Old Bailey, before His Honour Judge Rosher, Leon
+    Hamar, Edward Curtis and Matthew Kelson, of the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., were indicted under the 23rd of Henry the Fifth, C.
+    15, which makes it a capital offence to practise and administer
+    spells. The case for the prosecution promises to be a lengthy one.
+    An enormous number of witnesses, who are most anxious to make
+    statements, will be called; and it is anticipated that much of
+    their evidence will be of a most extraordinary nature.
+
+    The accused are cited with having worked spells to the
+    injury--which injury, in many instances, has been fatal--of a vast
+    number of people, representative of every rank in life.
+
+    Hilda, Countess of Ramsgate, who appeared in heavy mourning, was
+    the first witness called. In her evidence she stated, that it was
+    owing to an advertisement she had seen in the _Ladies' Meadow_,
+    that she had consulted the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., with the
+    object of buying a spell to prevent her Pekingese pet, Brutus,
+    catching colds on his liver. She had hoped to see Mr. Kelson, as
+    she had heard that he was more sympathetic, where ladies were
+    concerned, than either Mr. Hamar or Mr. Curtis, but as Mr. Kelson
+    was engaged, she had consulted Mr. Edward Curtis instead. The
+    latter had given her a spell which he had assured her would have
+    the desired effect, but directly she got home, her adored Brutus
+    developed melancholia, and died raving mad, after having bitten
+    her child, who, by the way, had died, too.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., declared that the spell his
+    client had given the Countess was perfectly harmless; that it
+    could not possibly have produced either melancholia or madness.
+    "Can any dependence," he said, "be placed on a woman, who
+    obviously thinks more of her dog's death than that of her child!"
+
+    The Court was adjourned till to-morrow.
+
+In the following day's paper, the evidence for the prosecution was
+continued. Lady Marjorie Tatler, who, in the weekly and illustrated
+journals, for no other reason than her reputed beauty, was reintroduced
+over and over again to the long-suffering public, was the first to
+step into the witness-box.
+
+    She declared that Edward Curtis, instead of giving her a spell to
+    make Florillda win the Derby, had given her a diabolical something
+    that had brought out spots all over her face, and that she had to
+    undergo a most expensive treatment before they could be got rid
+    of.
+
+    In cross-examination, Lady Marjorie Tatler admitted that she had
+    asked Edward Curtis for a spell that would cause all the horses
+    running in that particular race, save Florillda, to be taken ill.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., explained that his client was
+    so disgusted at the immorality of Lady Marjorie's request, that he
+    had purposely given her a spell that would have no effect upon a
+    horse, and could not possibly bring out spots on her Ladyship's
+    face. "The spell Edward Curtis gave her," Gerald Kirby said, "was
+    a mixture of hempseed and sago, flavoured with violet powder, and
+    my client instructed her Ladyship to wear it next her heart."
+    (Loud laughter.)
+
+    Lady Coralie Mars, the next witness, who declared she had sought a
+    spell to make the man, she was forced into marrying, fall into a
+    trance, just before the marriage ceremony was to take place; and
+    that, instead of bringing this about, the spell Edward Curtis had
+    sold her had caused her to have St. Vitus's Dance,--was adroitly
+    trapped into admitting that she had really wanted her fiancé
+    smitten with paralysis. "A wish," Gerald Kirby announced, with a
+    dramatic flourish of his hands, "that so aroused my client's
+    indignation that, instead of giving her the spell she wanted, he
+    gave her one that would make her affianced husband more than ever
+    hungry for the marriage hour to arrive. As for St. Vitus's Dance,
+    would any woman, with an emotional and hysterical-nature, such as
+    obviously was that of Lady Coralie Mars, ever be free from such a
+    complaint?"
+
+    The Hon. Augusta Mapple, who stated that she had visited the
+    Modern Sorcery Company, for the purpose of obtaining a spell to
+    bring about a defeat of the Government, by afflicting the bulk of
+    their supporters with such bilious attacks as would necessitate
+    their absence from the House, and that, instead of giving her such
+    a spell, Edward Curtis had given her one which had caused every
+    member of her household to fall downstairs--admitted, under
+    cross-examination, that she had asked for a spell that would make
+    every supporter of the Government in the House be suddenly seized
+    with tetanus. "A diabolical request, your lordship," Gerald Kirby
+    said, "and one to which my client could not possibly accede.
+    Consequently, as a punishment for such cruelty, he sold her a
+    spell that would result in her having a sharp attack of toothache.
+    It could not possibly have produced any of the mishaps she
+    attributes to it."
+
+It is unnecessary to quote further. By far the greater number of these
+witnesses, on being cross-examined by Mr. Kirby, who defended with an
+ability that has rarely, if ever, been excelled, were made to confess
+that they had wanted the spells for a far more subtle and dangerous
+purpose than they had previously stated; admissions which, of course,
+were highly prejudicial to the case for the prosecution.
+
+Shiel lost hope. He had looked forward to the trial with an excitement
+that almost bordered on frenzy. It was never out of his mind. He
+thought of it at meals, he thought of it at his work, he thought of it
+out of doors, and, when he went to bed, he dreamed of it.
+
+"I'll save you! I'll save you yet!" he wrote to Gladys. "The trial can
+only result in one thing--the breaking up and imprisonment of the
+trio."
+
+But when he read the papers each day, and saw how, in almost every
+instance, evidence which ought to have been damning to the accused,
+had been twisted into their favour, his heart sank.
+
+There was only one chance now--Lilian Rosenberg. She, of all the staff
+employed in the Hall in Cockspur Street, was best acquainted with the
+_modus operandi_ of Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson.
+
+"We must get hold of that girl at all costs," H.V. Sevenning remarked
+to Shiel. "You say you feel sure she likes you. Work upon her feelings
+to show the Firm up."
+
+"I don't much like the idea of it," Shiel said, "but I suppose the end
+justifies the means."
+
+"Of course it does!" Sevenning retorted. "It's your only chance of
+saving Miss Martin."
+
+Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the
+subject.
+
+"What about the spells?" he asked her. "Have you found out yet how
+Hamar works them?"
+
+"I have only heard him muttering in his room again," she said, her
+cheeks paling. "And--you will only laugh at me--I have seen queer
+shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages,
+shadows that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before
+I came to Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been
+almost too afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see
+something standing outside."
+
+"You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio
+practise sorcery?"
+
+"I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits."
+
+"Do you approve of such proceedings?"
+
+"I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into
+the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but
+until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone."
+
+"If you think like that," Shiel said, "how can you reconcile yourself
+to working for these people?"
+
+"How can I help myself?" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "Beggars can't be
+choosers. I am not responsible for what they do."
+
+"But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous
+crime, wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?"
+
+"That depends," Lilian Rosenberg said. "If I could stop them without
+running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop
+them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly
+shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays--especially good
+paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!"
+
+"Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?" Shiel
+said slowly.
+
+"That depends on the degree of friendship," Lilian replied. "If it
+were for some one I liked very much, then--perhaps!"
+
+"Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you
+being very fond of any one."
+
+"Couldn't you?" Lilian said, with a faint laugh. "You don't think me
+capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman
+doesn't always wear her heart on her sleeve."
+
+"I confess I don't understand women," Shiel said, "and I had best come
+to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio--or at least one
+of the trio--is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable--a
+cruel and shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I
+may not be able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?"
+
+"How _can_ I?" Lilian asked.
+
+"Why, by finding out something which might be damning evidence against
+them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of
+staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by
+getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them."
+
+"Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What
+would become of me?"
+
+"Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a
+noble action."
+
+"How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on
+you personally?"
+
+"It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted."
+
+"Some one you like?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"A relation?"
+
+"That I can't say."
+
+"Then I can't help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as
+you know, a woman's privilege. You must tell me all."
+
+"It's for a friend, then!"
+
+"A man?"
+
+"No," Shiel replied, "for a girl!"
+
+There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.
+
+"Have I ever heard you mention her?"
+
+"Occasionally," Shiel replied.
+
+There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly--
+
+"You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else."
+
+"I do mean her!" Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. "She is to be
+coerced into marrying Hamar."
+
+"The silly fool!" Lilian Rosenberg said. "I would like to see any one
+trying to coerce me. And it is to serve _her_ you want me to sacrifice
+myself." And she turned away in disgust.
+
+After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
+at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to
+H.V. Sevenning.
+
+"We must subpoena her," said Sevenning.
+
+"You'll never get her to speak that way," Shiel said. "If once she has
+made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her."
+
+"I have heard that said of people before," H.V. Sevenning replied
+dryly, "but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the
+most mulish tongues in a marvellous manner."
+
+"It wouldn't hers," Shiel maintained.
+
+H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best--what lawyer doesn't?
+Moreover, it was all part of the game--the great game of becoming
+notorious at all costs. He served the subpoena.
+
+Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
+this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up
+with the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly
+what she thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however,
+the unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion,
+and confronted for the first time in her life with the startling
+proposition of "self-sacrifice." She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry
+him for the very simple reason he had no money--but that only added
+poignancy to the situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel
+loved Gladys Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another
+matter--but he loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had
+been so abruptly thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should
+sacrifice herself, not only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar,
+but to pave the way for Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile
+herself to penury, to marry her himself. In other words she had been
+called upon to give up what was, at the moment, dearest to her in the
+world, and to court all the inconveniences and worries of being thrown
+out of employment--for if she gave evidence that would in any way tend
+to damage the firm of Hamar, Curtis & Kelson, she would undoubtedly
+lose her post and, in all probability, never get another--at least not
+another as good--for the sake of a woman whom she did not know, but,
+nevertheless, hated.
+
+Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
+date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she
+would have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
+actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it,
+too, until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up
+her mind to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the
+subpoena was served.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CURTIS IN A NEW RÔLE
+
+
+In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would
+adopt.
+
+"What a disgusting thing to do," she indignantly exclaimed. "I
+wouldn't have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give
+evidence--of forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the
+woman he thinks he loves! I shan't do it!"
+
+And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
+witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
+appearance--she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women
+who had hitherto appeared in the witness-box--though many of them were
+so-called Society beauties.
+
+"You were wrong," was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
+eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. "She is on our side."
+
+But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
+lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
+assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
+misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
+favour of the trio.
+
+The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
+Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
+proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
+centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
+counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution.
+
+"Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
+the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
+yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
+and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
+medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
+their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
+Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
+along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
+intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
+efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
+lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
+to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
+this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
+that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
+assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
+trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
+as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them. But, of
+course you did not believe the statements of such witnesses. How could
+you? How could you expect anything but falsehood from women who, upon
+cross-examination, had owned that their object in obtaining the spells
+was a far more dangerous object than they had at first led you to
+suppose. They sought spells that would do evil, and that evil was not
+accomplished. Now, I ask you, if the Firm worked their spells through
+the instrumentality of evil spirits--for it is assuredly only evil
+spirits that are associated with Sorcery--would not the spells they
+sold naturally have brought about the sinister results for which they
+were required? Undoubtedly they would! And they failed to produce the
+desired effect, simply because their efficacy depended, not on spirit
+agency, but on human will power; which power one could only too
+plainly see the society ladies--who had witnessed for the
+prosecution--did not possess.
+
+"It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
+spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'--and
+so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.
+'The Sorcery Company' is an attractive title, a 'catchy' title, and
+for this reason, which is surely a legitimate one, since it is
+strictly in accordance with the prevailing custom of advertisement--the
+firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson adopted it. They did not expect--they
+were not so extraordinarily foolish as to expect--any one would take
+them literally. They thought--as you and I think--that sorcery cannot
+be taken seriously--that it is confined to fairy tales--and that, as a
+fairy tale, it is potent only in the nursery."
+
+This was the gist of counsel's speech for the defence. A number of
+witnesses then gave evidence for the defendants; and when the
+prosecuting counsel rose, it was only too evident that he was pleading
+for a lost cause. The Court with ill-concealed derision barely
+accorded him a hearing.
+
+Two hours later the _Meteor_, always the first in the field when
+sensations crop up, headed the first column of their front page with--
+
+    COLLAPSE OF THE SORCERY CASE
+    CRUSHING SPEECH BY GERALD KIRBY, K.C.
+    ACQUITTAL OF THE DEFENDANTS
+
+"The Judge"--so the _Meteor_ reported--"expressed himself in absolute
+agreement with the defending counsel. 'The action,' he said, 'ought
+never to have been brought--it was sublimely ridiculous to accuse any
+one of being in league with forces in the existence of which no sane
+person could possibly believe.'"
+
+Shiel was in despair. All chance of saving Gladys seemed to be fast
+disappearing. He telephoned to her, and was answered by Miss Templeton.
+
+"Gladys," she said, "had gone out with Hamar, who had motored down to
+the cottage the moment the trial was over and the verdict known."
+
+"I wish to God we had won the case," Shiel observed.
+
+"So do I," Miss Templeton replied, "and so did Gladys--she regards her
+position now as absolutely hopeless!"
+
+"Tell her not to lose heart," Shiel answered hurriedly. "If I can't
+find any other means, I'll--" but Miss Templeton rang off, and he
+spoke to the wind.
+
+Full of wrath against Lilian Rosenberg, he went round to see her, and
+met her, just as she was entering her house.
+
+"I've come to see you for the last time," he announced. "After the way
+you behaved in Court, we can no longer be friends."
+
+"I don't understand," she said in rather a faltering voice. "What have
+I done?"
+
+"Only perjured yourself," Shiel retorted. "The tale you told the judge
+was very different to the tale you told me, therefore it is impossible
+for us to continue our friendship. I could never have anything to do
+with a woman whose word I can't rely upon--whose character I scorn,
+whom I despise--and--" he was going to add, "detest," but checked
+himself, and unable to trust himself in her presence any longer, he
+gave her a glance of the utmost contempt, and wheeling round, walked
+quickly away.
+
+As in a dream, Lilian Rosenberg went upstairs to her room, and
+throwing herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow and
+indulged in a fit of crying. It was not the thought of losing Shiel
+that was so painful to her--she might have grown reconciled to
+that--it was the thought of losing his esteem. Most people would agree
+with her--would assure her she had done the right thing in looking
+after number one. "What, after all, is perjury?" she argued. "Nearly
+every one in this world perjure themselves at one time or
+another--certainly all women."
+
+But it was not the opinion of the majority she cared about--it was the
+respect of the one; the respect she had wilfully and spitefully
+sacrificed.
+
+Was it too late to recover it?
+
+With regard to Gladys she was very sceptical. The reluctance to accept
+Hamar as her future husband she still believed to be all pretence, and
+she felt convinced that Gladys, in her heart of hearts, was only too
+glad to get the chance of marrying any one so rich. This being so, she
+could not bring herself to think she had done Shiel any actual wrong.
+Gladys would never marry him. The only person she had harmed was
+herself. She had lied, and Shiel was not the sort of man to condone an
+offence of that sort easily. Still, weeping would do no good; it would
+only make her ugly. She got up, had tea, and went out. She could think
+better in the open air--it soothed her. For some reason or
+other--custom perhaps--she strolled towards Cockspur Street, and there
+ran into one of the few people she particularly wished to
+avoid--Kelson.
+
+He was delighted to see her.
+
+"It's nectar to me to be out again," he said. "Jerusalem!--it was
+awful in the Courts. Have supper with me."
+
+It was a fine starlight night--the air cool and refreshing, and a wild
+abandonment seized Lilian Rosenberg. She would have supped with the
+devil had he asked her.
+
+"I've nothing to lose now," she said to herself. "Nothing! I'll have
+my fling."
+
+"Where shall we go?" she asked. "It must be somewhere entertaining."
+
+"Why not to my rooms?" he said. "We can talk better there--we shall be
+all alone!"
+
+She raised no objection, and they were about to step into a taxi, when
+Hamar and Curtis suddenly put in appearance.
+
+"Matt!" Hamar cried, seizing his elbow. "I want a word with you."
+
+"Not now," Kelson protested, looking hungrily at Lilian.
+
+"Yes, now!" Hamar said. "At once! I shan't keep you more than five
+minutes"--and he dragged Kelson away with him.
+
+The moment they had gone, Curtis, who was obviously the worse for
+drink, addressed Lilian.
+
+"Kelson won't come back," he said. "Hamar is mad with him. He says if
+he ever sees you two together again he'll sack you. Let me take his
+place!"
+
+A sudden inspiration came to her. There were one or two things she
+badly wanted to know--and with a bit of coaxing, Curtis, in his
+present state, might tell her anything. She would try.
+
+"All right," she said. "I'll come."
+
+They got into the taxi and Curtis, as far as his fuddled senses would
+allow, made violent love to her.
+
+After supper--they had supper in his rooms--he grew a great deal more
+amorous. She let him sit close beside her, she let him put his arm
+round her waist; but before she let him kiss her, she struck her
+bargain.
+
+"No!" she said, thrusting him away. "Not just yet. That can come
+later--if you are good. I want you to tell me something first. About
+this marriage of Mr. Hamar and Miss Martin--is it likely to come off?"
+
+"Ish it likely!" Curtis said with a stupid leer. "Ish it likely! Not
+much. Leon means nothing! He only wants the fun of being engaged to a
+pretty girl--like I wantsh fun with you. Nothing more."
+
+"Then he'll throw her over after a while."
+
+"After he gets what he wantsh to get."
+
+"And suppose she prove different to what he expects?"
+
+"After he pashes stage seven--that will be all right!" Curtis said
+giving her waist an emphatic squeeze. "Everybody will be all right
+then. You and Matt--for exshample--and I and--and--whishky!"
+
+"Stage seven! What do you mean?"
+
+"Why don't--you know!" Curtis gurgled--and then a sudden gleam of
+intelligence coming into his watery eyes, he added. "Then I shan't
+tell you--nothing shall make me. It's a shecret!"
+
+"I won't kiss you till you do!" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll make you."
+
+"Oh, no, you won't," Lilian Rosenberg cried, disengaging herself from
+his grasp, and rising. "Don't you dare touch me. I'm going."
+
+Curtis watched her with a helpless grin. Then he suddenly cried out,
+"Come back! Come back, I shay!"
+
+"Well, will you do as I want?" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll do anything--anything to please you--if only you shtay with me."
+
+She sat down, and his arm once again encircled her.
+
+"Now," she said, pushing his face away. "Tell me!"
+
+Bit by bit she drew out of him the whole history of the compact with
+the Unknown, how in stage five, the stage they were about to enter,
+they would have fresh powers conferred upon them--their present power,
+_i.e._ of working spells and causing diseases, being then cancelled;
+how they would obtain supreme power over women when they reached the
+final stage--stage seven; and how the compact would be broken and
+their ruin brought about, should either of them marry, or should
+anything happen before this final stage was reached, to disunite them.
+
+Lilian could account for a great deal now. The uncanny feeling she had
+always experienced in the building; the curious enigmatical shadows
+she had seen hovering about the doorways and flitting down the
+passages; the extraordinary nature of the feats and spells; Hamar's
+mutterings and his fury, whenever Kelson spoke to her--were no longer
+wholly unintelligible. But she must know all. She must be most
+exacting.
+
+Finally, she got from Curtis everything there was to be got from him,
+and she laughed immoderately, when he excused himself on the grounds
+that it was all Leon's doings--Leon had told him to offer her a little
+compensation for the loss of her escort.
+
+"And you have compensated me more than enough," Lilian Rosenberg said.
+"Now you shall have your reward," and she kissed him--kissed him three
+times for luck.
+
+"But you're not going?" he said, staggering to his feet and attempting
+to hold her. "You're not going till the roshy morning sun shines
+shaucily in on us."
+
+"Oh, yes, I am," she said. "I've had quite enough of you! Good-bye!"
+
+And before he could prevent her, she had run to the front door and let
+herself out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+
+But now that Lilian Rosenberg was possessed of all this information
+respecting the trio, she was once again in doubt how to act, or
+whether to act at all. Supposing she were to attempt to warn Gladys
+Martin against Hamar, how would Gladys take the warning? Would she pay
+any attention to it? The odds were she would not; that having set her
+heart on marrying Hamar for his money, she would blind herself to his
+faults and resolutely shut her ears to anything said against him. Also
+there was the very great possibility of Gladys being rude to her--and
+even the thought of this was more than she could bear to contemplate.
+If only Shiel were reasonable! If only he could be made to see how
+utterly ridiculous it was for him to think of winning such a girl as
+Gladys--Gladys the pretty, dolly-faced, pampered actress, who had
+never known a single hardship, had always had a well-lined purse, and
+would never, never marry poverty! Then back to Lilian Rosenberg's mind
+came her parting with Shiel--she recalled his intense scorn and
+indignation. A liar! He did not wish to have anything to do with a
+liar! It's a good thing every man is not so fastidious, she said to
+herself bitterly, or the population of the world would soon fizz out.
+She laughed. He had never questioned her morals in any other
+sense--perhaps, in his innocence or assumed innocence, he had thought
+them spotless--at all events he had most graciously ignored them. But
+a liar! A liar--he could not put up with. And why! Because the lie had
+touched him on a sore point. When lies do not touch a sore point,
+they, too, are ignored.
+
+She walked to the Imperial and looked again at Gladys's photographs.
+How any man could fall madly in love with such a face, was more than
+she could conceive. It was a mincing, maudlin, finicking face--it
+irritated her intensely. She turned away from it in disgust, yet came
+back to have another look--and yet another. God knows why! It
+fascinated her. Finally she left it, fully resolved to let its odious
+original go to her fate--without a warning. Soon after her return to
+the Hall in Cockspur Street, she was sent for by Hamar.
+
+"Didn't I tell you," he said, "that you were on no account to
+encourage Mr. Kelson?"
+
+"You did!" Lilian Rosenberg replied.
+
+"Will you kindly explain, then," Hamar said, "why you have disobeyed
+my orders?"
+
+"How have I disobeyed them?" Lilian Rosenberg asked.
+
+"How!" Hamar retorted, his cheeks white with passion. "You dare to
+inquire how! Why, you were on the point of accompanying him to his
+rooms last night to supper, when I stopped you! I have overlooked your
+disobedience so many times that I can do so no longer. Your services
+will not be required by the Firm after to-day fortnight."
+
+"Won't they?" Lilian Rosenberg replied, her anger rising. "I think you
+are mistaken. I know a great deal too much to make it safe for you to
+part with me. I know--for instance--all about your Compact with the
+Unknown!"
+
+"You know nothing," Hamar said, his voice faltering.
+
+"Oh, yes, I do!" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "I know everything. I know
+how you first got in communication with the Unknown in San Francisco;
+I know how you receive fresh powers from the Unknown every three
+months (the old powers being cancelled). I know the penalty you will
+undergo should the Compact be broken--and--what is more--I know how
+the Compact can be broken."
+
+"How the deuce have you learned all this?" Hamar stammered.
+
+"Never you mind. Am I to remain in your service or leave?"
+
+"I think," Hamar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "it is better
+that you should remain--better for all parties. I owe you some little
+recompense for your loyalty to the Firm, and for the admirable way you
+spoke up for the Firm in Court. I will make you out a cheque for a
+hundred pounds now--and your salary shall be doubled at the end of
+this week. Promise to keep out of Mr. Kelson's way in future--for the
+next six months at any rate--after that time you may see him as often
+as you like--and I will give you as a wedding present a cheque for
+twenty thousand pounds!"
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds! You are joking!"
+
+"I'm not. I vow and declare I mean it. Is that a bargain?"
+
+"I will certainly think it well over," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let
+you know my decision later on."
+
+From what Curtis had told her she knew it was the last day of stage
+four, that the trio that evening would be initiated into stage
+five--the Stage of Cures, and a mad desire seized her to witness the
+initiation. But how would the Unknown manifest itself on this
+occasion--and to which of the trio? She could not keep a close watch
+on the three of them. If only she had been friends with Shiel, they
+might, in some way, have worked it together. Curtis had carefully
+avoided her since the supper; but she had seen Kelson, and he had
+looked at her each time he met her as if he yearned to fall down at
+her feet and worship her. Should she attach herself to him for the
+evening--and run the risk of another quarrel with Hamar? She dearly
+loved risks and dangers--and the danger she would encounter in defying
+Hamar appealed to her sporting nature. It was easy to secure
+Kelson--one glance from her eyes--and he would have followed her to
+Timbuctoo.
+
+"Charing Cross--under clock--after show to-night," she whispered as
+she flew hurriedly past him. "I want to speak to you."
+
+Now it so happened that Hamar had given Kelson orders to return to his
+rooms, directly the performance was over, and to remain in them till
+morning, in case he was wanted in connection with the initiation. But
+he might have spared himself the trouble. It was Lilian, and Lilian
+only, that Kelson now thought of--it was Lilian, and Lilian only, that
+he would obey. The idea of meeting her--of having her all to
+himself--of being able to do her a service--filled him with such
+uncontrollable delight, that he hardly knew how to comport himself so
+as not to arouse Hamar's suspicions. Directly the performance was over
+he sneaked out of the Hall, and pretending not to hear Hamar, who
+called after him, he jumped into a taxi, and was whirled away to the
+trysting-place. Lilian Rosenberg, who arrived a moment later, was
+dressed in a new costume, and Kelson thought her looking smarter and
+daintier than ever.
+
+"You shall kiss me at once," she said, "if you promise me one thing."
+
+"And what is that?" he asked, looking hungrily at her lips.
+
+"I want you to let me see the Unknown when it comes to you to-night,"
+she said.
+
+"Good God! What do you know about the Unknown!" he exclaimed, his jaws
+falling, and a look of terror creeping into his eyes.
+
+"A great deal," she laughed, "so much that I want to learn more"--and
+of what she knew she told him, just as much as she had told Hamar.
+"And now," she said, "I repeat my promise--you shall have a
+kiss--think of that--if only you will hide me somewhere so that I can
+see the Unknown or its emissary."
+
+"I would do anything for a kiss," Kelson said, "but I fear it is
+impossible to fulfil the condition, because I haven't the remotest
+idea where or when the Unknown will appear. Besides, it is just as
+likely to go to Hamar or Curtis as to come to me; and up to the
+present I haven't felt the remotest suggestion of its favouring me. Is
+this the only condition I can fulfil, so that you will let me kiss
+you?"
+
+"Certainly," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I am not in the habit of being
+kissed. Such an event can only happen in the most exceptional and
+privileged circumstances--such, for example, as exist at the present
+moment, when I ask you to put yourself to some considerable
+trouble--if not actually to incur danger--in order to accomplish what
+I wish."
+
+"And yet I remember kissing you unconditionally," Kelson commented.
+
+"Memory is a fickle thing," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and so is
+woman. Times have changed. I'll leave you at once, unless you promise
+to do your very utmost to grant my request."
+
+Kelson promised, and--after they had had supper at the Trocadero,
+suggested that they should take a stroll in Hyde Park.
+
+"I hope you are not awfully shocked?" he inquired rather anxiously,
+"but a sudden impulse has come over me to go there. I believe it is
+the will of the Unknown. Will you come with me?"
+
+"We shan't be able to get in, shall we, it's so late?" Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "Otherwise I should like to--I'm rather in a mood for
+adventure."
+
+"They don't shut the gates till twelve," Kelson said, "and it's not
+that yet."
+
+"Very well, let's go, then. I'm game to go anywhere to see the
+Unknown," and so saying Lilian rose from the table, and Kelson
+followed her into the street.
+
+They took a taxi, and alighting at Hyde Park Corner entered the Park.
+It was very dark and deserted.
+
+"It's nearly closing time," a policeman called out to them rather
+curtly.
+
+"We are only taking a constitutional," Kelson explained. "We shall be
+back in five minutes."
+
+They crossed the road to the statue, and were deliberating which
+direction to take, when they heard a groan.
+
+"It's only some poor devil of a tramp," Kelson said. "The benches are
+full of them--they stay here all night. We had better, perhaps, turn
+back."
+
+"Nonsense!" Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I'm not a bit afraid. There's
+another groan. I'm going to see what's up," and before he could stop
+her she had disappeared in the darkness. "Here I am," she called;
+"come, it's some one ill."
+
+Plunging on, in the darkness, Kelson at last found Lilian. She was
+sitting on a chair under a tree, by the side of a man, who was lying,
+curled up, on the ground.
+
+"He's had nothing to eat for two days, and has Bright's Disease,"
+Lilian Rosenberg announced. "Can't we do something for him?"
+
+"Two gentlemen told me just now," the man on the ground groaned, "that
+if I stayed here for a couple of hours--they would pass by again and
+guarantee to cure me. I reckoned there was no cure for Bright's
+Disease, when it is chronic, like it is in my case; but they laughed,
+and said, 'We can--or at least--shall be able to cure anything.'"
+
+"What were the two gentlemen like?" Kelson asked.
+
+"How could I tell?" the man moaned. "I couldn't see their faces any
+more than I can see yours--but they talked like you. Twang--twang--
+twang--all through their noses."
+
+"Sounds as if it might be Hamar and Curtis," Kelson remarked.
+
+"That's it!" the man ejaculated. "'Amar. I heard the other fellow call
+him by that name."
+
+"How long ago is it since they were here?" Kelson asked.
+
+"I can't say, perhaps ten minutes. I've lost count of time and
+everything else, since I've slept out here. They talked of going to
+the Serpentine."
+
+"We had better try and find them," Kelson said.
+
+"If you had the money couldn't you get shelter for the night," Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "It must be awful to lie out here in the cold, feeling
+ill and hungry."
+
+"I dare say some place would take me in," the man muttered, "only I
+couldn't walk--at least no distance."
+
+"Well! here's five shillings," Lilian Rosenberg said, "put it
+somewhere safe--and try and hobble to the gates. If they haven't
+closed them, you will be all right."
+
+"Five shillings!" the man gasped; "that's--it's no good--I can't
+count. I've no head now. Thank you, missy! God bless you. I'll get
+something hot--something to stifle the pain." He struggled on to his
+knees, and Lilian Rosenberg helped him to rise.
+
+"How could you be so foolish as to touch him," Kelson said, as they
+started off down a path, they hoped would take them to the Serpentine.
+"You may depend upon it, he was swarming with vermin--tramps always
+are."
+
+"Very probably, but I run just as much risk in a 'bus, the twopenny
+tube, or a cinematograph show. Besides, I can't see a human being
+helpless without offering help. Listen! there's some one else
+groaning! The Park is full of groans."
+
+What she said was true--the Park was full of groans. From every
+direction, borne to them by the gently rustling wind, came the groans
+of countless suffering outcasts--legions of homeless, starving men
+and women. Some lay right out in the open on their backs, others
+under cover of the trees, others again on the seats. They lay
+everywhere--these shattered, tattered, battered wrecks of
+humanity--these gangrened exiles from society, to whom no one ever
+spoke; whom no one ever looked at; whom no one would even own that
+they had seen; whose lot in life not even a stray cat envied. Here
+were two of them--a man and a woman tightly hugged in each other's
+embrace--not for love--but for warmth. Lilian Rosenberg almost fell
+over them, but they took no notice of her. Every now and then, one of
+them would emerge from the shelter of the trees, and cross the grass
+in the direction of the distant, gleaming water, with silent, stealthy
+tread. Once a tall, gaunt figure, suddenly sprang up and confronted
+the two adventurers; but the moment Kelson raised his stick, it
+jabbered something wholly unintelligible, and sped away into the
+darkness.
+
+"A scene like this makes one doubt the existence of a good God,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"It makes one doubt the existence of anything but Hell," Kelson said.
+"Compared with all this suffering--the suffering of these thousands of
+hungry, hopeless wretches--the bulk of whom are doubtless tortured
+incessantly, with the pains of cancer and tuberculosis, to say nothing
+of neuralgia and rheumatism--Dante's Inferno and Virgil's Hades pale
+into insignificance. The devil is kind compared with God."
+
+"I believe you are right," Lilian Rosenberg said, "I never thought the
+devil was half as bad as he was painted. The Park to-night gives the
+lie direct to the ethics of all religions, and to the boasted efforts
+of all governments, churches, chapels, hospitals, police, progress and
+civilization. There is no misery, I am sure, to vie with it in any
+pagan land, either now or at any other period in the world's history."
+
+"True," Kelson replied, "and why is it? It is because civilization has
+killed charity. Giving--in its true sense--if it exists at all--is
+rarely to be met with--giving in exchange--that is, in order to
+gain--flourishes everywhere. People will subscribe for the erection of
+monuments to kings and statesmen, or to well-known and, often,
+richly-endowed charitable institutes, in exchange for the pleasure of
+seeing, in the newspapers, a list of the subscribers' names, and
+themselves included amongst those whom they consider a peg above them
+socially; or in exchange for votes, or notoriety, they will give
+liberally to the brutal strikers, or outings for poor."
+
+"I suppose, by the poor, you mean the pampered, ill-mannered and
+detestably conceited County Council children," Lilian Rosenberg chimed
+in. "I wouldn't give a farthing to such a miscalled charity, no--not
+if I were rolling in riches."
+
+"And I think you would be right," Kelson replied. "But for these
+really poor Park refugees it is a different matter. Obviously, no one
+will make the slightest effort to work up the public interest on their
+behalf, simply because they are labelled 'useless.' They belong
+nowhere--they have no votes--they are too feeble to combine--they are
+even too feeble to commit an atrocious murder; consequently, for the
+help they would receive, they could give nothing in return. By the
+bye, I doubt if they could muster between them a pair of suspenders--a
+bootlace--a shirt-button, or even a--"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg caught him by the arm. "Stop," she said, "that's
+enough. Don't get too graphic. What's the matter with that tree?"
+
+They were now close beside the banks of the Serpentine; the moon had
+broken through its covering of black clouds, and they perceived some
+twenty yards ahead of them, a tall, isolated lime, that was rocking in
+a most peculiar manner.
+
+[Illustration: THEY GAZED FASCINATED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+
+Though the wind was nothing more than the usual night breeze of early
+autumn, the lime-tree was swaying violently to and fro, as if under
+the influence of a stupendous hurricane. Lilian Rosenberg and Kelson
+were so fascinated that they stood and watched it in silence. At last
+it left off swaying and became absolutely motionless. They then
+noticed, for the first time, that there were three figures standing
+under its branches, and that one of the figures was a policeman.
+
+"Hide quickly," Kelson whispered, "those two are Hamar and Curtis.
+Quick, for God's sake--or they will see you."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg hid behind an elm.
+
+"Hulloa!" Kelson called out, advancing to the group.
+
+"Why it's you, Matt!" Curtis cried. "Hamar said you would come!"
+
+"Said I would come! How the deuce did he know?" Kelson exclaimed. "I
+didn't know myself till the moment before I started."
+
+"I willed you," Hamar explained; "as soon as I got back to my rooms
+after the Show, a voice said in my ears--I heard it distinctly--'Be at
+the Serpentine--the south bank--underneath a lime-tree--you will know
+which--at twelve to-night.' I looked round--there was no one there.
+Naturally, concluding this was a message from the Unknown I hastened
+off to Curtis, who was in his digs--and needless to say--eating, and
+having dragged him away with me in a diabolical temper--I then sought
+you. Where were you?"
+
+"Taking a walk. I felt I needed it."
+
+"Alone! Are you sure you weren't out with some girl."
+
+"I swear it."
+
+"It seems as if I'm not the only liar!" Lilian Rosenberg said to
+herself in her place of concealment. "What would Shiel say to that?"
+
+"Humph! I don't know if I ought to believe you," Hamar remarked. "Did
+you feel me willing you to come here?"
+
+"Rather!" Kelson said. "That is why I came. I seemed to hear your
+voice say 'To Hyde Park--to Hyde Park--the Serpentine--the
+Serpentine.'" Then sinking his voice he whispered, "What's up with the
+policeman, he looks deuced queer?"
+
+"He's in a trance. We found him like this," Hamar said. "He is
+undoubtedly under the control of the Unknown. I expect it to speak
+through him every moment. Get ready to take down all he says. I've
+come prepared," and he handed Kelson and Curtis, each, a pencil and a
+reporter's notebook.
+
+He had hardly done so, when the policeman--a burly man well over six
+feet in height, who was standing bolt upright as if at "attention," his
+limbs absolutely rigid, his eyes wide open and expressionless--began
+to speak in a soft, lisping voice that the trio at once identified
+with the voice of the Unknown--the voice of the tree on that eventful
+night in San Francisco.
+
+"The great secret of medicine--the secret of healing--will now be
+revealed to you," the voice said. "Pay heed. In cases of tumours and
+ulcers take a young seringa, lay it for half an hour over the stomach
+of the afflicted person, then plant it with the mumia, _i.e._ either
+the hair, blood, or spittle of the sick person, at midnight. As soon
+as the seringa begins to rot, the ulcer will heal.
+
+"In phthisis pulmonalis, the mumia of the sick person should be
+planted with a cutting of the catalpa, after the latter has been
+subjected for some minutes to the breath of the diseased person. As
+soon as the cutting shows signs of decay, the sick person will be
+cured.
+
+"In diabetes, plant the mumia of the patient with a bignonia, and as
+soon as the latter begins to rot, the diabetes will go.
+
+"In appendicitis, cover the stomach of the sick person with a piece of
+raw beef, until the sweat enters it. Then give the meat to a cat, and
+as soon as the latter has eaten it, the patient will recover."
+
+"What becomes of the cat?" Kelson asked.
+
+"The appendicitis is transferred to it," the voice explained. "It
+should be killed at once.
+
+"In cancer take the sea wrack Torrek Mendrek--a weed of deep mauve
+colour streaked with white. It must be boiled for three hours in clear
+spring water (3 ozs. of wrack to half a pint of water), and then let
+to cool. When quite cold, a dessert-spoon of it should be taken by the
+sufferer every four hours--and at the end of two days the disease will
+have completely disappeared. The wrack is to be found at the twenty
+fathom level, six miles west-south-west of the Scilly Isles.
+
+"In Bright's disease, the mumia of the afflicted should be planted at
+1 a.m., with a cutting of sassafras, after the latter has been slept
+on, for one whole night, by the sufferer. As soon as the sassafras
+begins to rot, the patient will be cured.
+
+"In dropsy, place a hare, that has been strangled, over the diseased
+portion of the body, and let it remain there for one hour. Then bury
+the hare, together with the mumia of the sick person, and as soon as
+the hare begins to decay, the patient will recover.
+
+"In jaundice and liver diseases (apart from sarcoma), plant the mumia
+of the afflicted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of black walnut, and as
+soon as the latter begins to decay, the sufferer will get well.
+
+"In all skin diseases, the mumia of the patient must be planted, at
+midnight, with a cutting of hickory, and when the latter begins to rot
+the disease disappears.
+
+"In all fevers, the mumia must be planted, at 3 a.m., with laurel
+cuttings, after the latter have been placed under the bed of the
+patient for one night. As soon as the cuttings show signs of rotting,
+the fever abates.
+
+"In acute inflammations, diseases of the heart, rheumatism, and
+lumbago, the mumia must be buried, at midnight, with a raven that has
+been drowned, and placed on a chair by the left side of the patient
+for one night. As soon as the raven begins to rot, the patient will be
+fully restored to health.
+
+"In cases of insanity, hysteria, and nervous diseases the mumia of the
+sufferer must be planted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of white poplar,
+and as soon as the latter shows evidences of decay, the afflicted will
+get well.
+
+"In cases of hypochondria, and melancholia, the mumia of the sufferer
+must be planted, at 4 a.m., with a crocus, and as soon as the latter
+begins to rot, the disease will depart.
+
+"In every case it will be necessary to prelude the performance with
+the following invocation--
+
+"'Oh most powerful and prescient Unknown, before whom the greatest of
+the Atlanteans prostrate themselves. That was in the Beginning, that
+is now and always will be. I conjure thee by the magic symbols of the
+club-foot, the hand with the fingers clenched, and the bat, in this
+the magical year of Kefana, to extend to me thy wonderful powers of
+healing. Rena Vadoola Hipsano Eik Deoo Barrinaz.'"
+
+The lisping voice ceased, and, with a convulsive start, the policeman
+came to himself.
+
+"Hulloa!" he said, in his natural gruff tones, rubbing his eyes. "I
+must have 'dropped off.' Who are you? What are you doing in the Park
+at this time of night?"
+
+"We've been watching you!" Hamar said. "It is a bit of a phenomenon to
+see a London bobby asleep on his beat."
+
+"And to hear him talking in his sleep too," Curtis added.
+
+"I didn't know I was talking," the policeman muttered. "It all comes
+of being too many hours on duty. What have you got those note-books
+out for? Not been taking down anything about me, have you?"
+
+"Show us out of the Park and you'll hear no more about it," Hamar
+said.
+
+"And we'll give you half a sovereign into the bargain," Kelson chimed
+in.
+
+"Follow me then," the policeman said. "I'll take you to one of the
+side entrances."
+
+"Matt!" Hamar exclaimed as they passed the tree behind which Lilian
+Rosenberg was hiding, "I smell scent--and what is more I recognize it.
+It is Violette de mer--the scent that--Rosenberg uses! You were with
+her this evening!"
+
+"I swear I wasn't!" Kelson replied. "I bought some scent in Regent
+Street this afternoon."
+
+"Humph," Hamar grunted. "I have my doubts."
+
+They walked on in silence till they came to a small iron gate, where
+the policemen left them, whilst he went to the lodge for the keys; and
+all the while Kelson was in terror, lest Hamar should catch sight of
+Lilian Rosenberg, who had kept close behind them, and was now
+standing, but a few yards away, trying to conceal her identity and
+escape notice.
+
+But the policeman on his return with the keys called out to her, and
+Kelson, fearing that she might be either taken in charge for loitering
+there, in apparently suspicious circumstances, or made to remain in
+the Park all night--neither of which contingencies he could possibly
+permit--at once came forward, and explained that she was a friend of
+his.
+
+The policeman was satisfied. The sight of another half-sovereign had
+rendered him more than polite, and, without saying a word, he let them
+all out together.
+
+The moment they were in the street, Hamar turned on Kelson, white with
+passion.
+
+"So," he said, "I was right after all--liar! fool! You would risk all
+our lives for a few hours' flirtation with this silly girl."
+
+"If it's only flirtation, Leon, what does it matter?" Curtis
+interposed. "For goodness' sake shut up wrangling and let's get home.
+I'm starving."
+
+"I shall have something to say to you to-morrow morning," Hamar
+remarked, in an undertone, to Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+"And I to you," was the furious reply. "I shall not forget the
+disrespectful way in which you have just spoken of me, in alluding to
+the scent."
+
+She signalled to a taxi, and giving Kelson a friendly good-night,
+jumped into it and was speedily whirled away.
+
+On the whole, the evening had been a disappointment. She had wanted to
+see the Unknown--the awful thing that had inspired Kelson and his
+colleagues with such unmitigated horror--and instead she had seen only
+an obsessed policeman--a cataleptic "copper"--who, had he not spoken
+in a strangely uncanny voice, would certainly have seemed to her
+absolutely ordinary.
+
+With regard to Hamar's displeasure, she was not in the slightest
+degree disturbed. He would never dare say anything to her. And after
+all that had occurred he would never venture to "sack her." All the
+same she hated him. There was just sufficient in her conduct to make
+the name he had called her by applicable--therefore her bitterest
+wrath and indignation were aroused against him. He had behaved
+unpardonably. She could kill him for it.
+
+"I'll just show him," she said to herself, "what that uncivil tongue
+of his can do. He shall see that it can do him infinitely more harm
+than all Kelson's love-making. For one thing I'll spoil his chances
+with Gladys Martin; and--I wonder if I could make use of what I know
+about him, as a means of getting friendly again with Shiel. At all
+events I'll try."
+
+With this object in view she went round to Shiel's lodgings, and was
+informed by the landlady that Shiel was ill.
+
+"Nothing serious I hope?" she asked.
+
+"It has been," the landlady replied, "but he is better now. It all
+came through his not taking proper care of himself."
+
+"May I see him, do you think?" Lilian Rosenberg inquired.
+
+"I don't know," the landlady grumbled. "He's in a very touchy mood--no
+one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
+your trying," she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in
+Lilian Rosenberg's fingers.
+
+She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered.
+Shiel was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had
+very considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some
+resentment, he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation
+for his health. She put his room straight and dusted the furniture,
+got tea for him, and when she had completely won him over by these
+kindly actions, and made him beg her pardon for ever having spoken
+harshly to her, she broached the subject all the while uppermost in
+her mind--the subject of Hamar and Gladys.
+
+"He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her," she said. "All he
+wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
+the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He
+is tremendously taken with her of course--her physical beauty, which
+he had the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he
+had seen, appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't
+give in to him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time."
+
+"I don't understand you," Shiel said feebly; "why in six months'
+time?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.
+
+"So you see," she added, "that if the final stage is reached no woman
+will be safe--the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
+mercy."
+
+"How inconceivably awful!" Shiel exclaimed. "Surely there is some way
+of stopping them."
+
+"There is only one way," Lilian said slowly, "the union between the
+three must be broken--they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership."
+
+"You may be sure they will take good care not to do that."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Matthew Kelson is very
+fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked."
+
+"Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
+Hamar!" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"I might!"
+
+"And you will--you will save Gladys Martin after all!"
+
+Lilian did not reply at once.
+
+"Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty," she
+said, evasively, "poverty like this!" and she glanced round the room.
+
+"I won't ask her to!" Shiel exclaimed. "Whilst I have been lying in
+bed, ill, I have thought of many things--and have come to the
+conclusion I have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult
+for me to earn enough to keep one person in comfort--and I've lost all
+hope of ever earning enough to keep two."
+
+"Well, if you don't ask her," Lilian Rosenberg said, "there's one
+thing, she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out
+of it. If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit--a girl that
+would be a real 'pal' to you--a girl that would help you to win fame!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+
+Had Lilian Rosenberg been able to see the effect of her conversation
+upon Shiel after she had left him, she would have been disappointed.
+He had, prior to this interview with Lilian Rosenberg, as he told her,
+made up his mind to abandon all idea of marrying Gladys Martin; and
+there is a possibility that had her name not been mentioned, had she
+not been recalled so vividly to his mind, he would have adhered to
+that resolution--at all events so long as he refrained from seeing
+her. But such is human nature--or at least man's nature--that directly
+Lilian Rosenberg had left him, Shiel's love for Gladys burst out with
+such wild, invigorated force that it swept reason and everything else
+before it. Gladys! He could think of nothing else! Every detail in her
+appearance, every word she had spoken, came back to him with
+exaggerated intensity. Her beauty was sublime. There was no one like
+her, no one that could inspire him with such a sense of ideality, no
+one that could lead him on to such dizzy heights of greatness. It was
+all nonsense to say, as Lilian Rosenberg had said, there were just as
+many good fish in the sea as had ever come out of it--there was only
+one Gladys. Hamar should never marry her--he would marry her himself.
+She must be told at once of Hamar's infamous designs. A mad desire to
+see her came over him, and disregardful of the doctor's orders that he
+should remain in bed several more days, he got up, and dressing as
+fast as his weak condition would allow him, took a taxi and drove to
+Waterloo.
+
+On reaching the Cottage, at Kew, he found Gladys at home, and to his
+great joy, alone.
+
+There is nothing that appeals to a woman more than a sick man, and
+Shiel, in coming to Gladys in his present condition, had unwittingly
+played a trump card. Had he appeared well and strong she would
+probably have received him none too cordially--for she was very tired
+of men just then; but the moment her eyes alighted on his thin cheeks
+and she saw the dark rings under his eyes, pity conquered. This man at
+least was not to blame--he was not of the same pattern as other men,
+he was not like so many men whose adulations had grown fulsome to her,
+and--he was totally unlike Hamar.
+
+In very sympathetic tones she inquired how he was, and on learning
+that he had been sufficiently ill to be kept in bed, asked why he had
+not told her.
+
+"Aunty and I would have called to see you," she said, "and brought you
+jelly and other nice things. Who waited on you, had you no nurse?"
+
+Fearful lest he should give her the impression he was speaking for
+effect, or trying to trade on her feelings (Shiel was one of those
+people who are painfully exact), he told her as simply as he could
+just how he had been placed.
+
+"But why come here," Gladys demanded, "when you were told to stay in
+bed till the end of the week. It is frightfully risky."
+
+Shiel then explained to her the purport of his visit.
+
+"Then it was to warn me, to put me on my guard against Hamar, that you
+disobeyed the doctor's orders," she said.
+
+Shiel nodded. "You are not displeased, are you?" he asked nervously.
+
+"I am displeased with you for thinking so little of yourself," Gladys
+said, "and more than obliged to you for thinking so much of me. You
+know I only consented to marry Mr. Hamar to save my father--and you
+say he no longer has the power to work spells?"
+
+"I believe that to be a fact," Shiel replied.
+
+"Then he lied to me!" Gladys observed. "He threatened that unless I
+saw him as often as he wished, and went with him wherever he wanted,
+and a good many more things, he would inflict my father with every
+conceivable disease. You are quite sure your information is correct?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Then, thank God!" Gladys said with a great sigh of relief. "I shall
+know how to act now."
+
+"You will break off your engagement?" Shiel inquired eagerly.
+
+"No! I can't do that!" Gladys said sadly. "I've promised to marry Mr.
+Hamar, and, therefore, marry him I must."
+
+"Promises made under such conditions are mere extortions, they don't
+count."
+
+"I fear they do," Gladys replied. "I've never yet broken my word."
+
+"Then there's no hope for me," Shiel gasped. "I must go--it maddens me
+to see you the affianced bride of that devil."
+
+He rose to go, but had hardly gained his feet, when his strength
+utterly failed and he collapsed. Gladys helped him into a chair, and
+then flew for some brandy. In the hall, she met her aunt, who had just
+returned from an afternoon call. In a few words she explained what had
+happened.
+
+"Poor young man," Miss Templeton said. "I thought he looked very ill
+the last time I saw him. And he came here solely to benefit you! Well,
+you have a good deal to answer for, and your face is not only your own
+misfortune, but other people's too. But it will never do for your
+father to see Mr. Davenport. He went off in a very bad temper this
+morning, and if he comes back and finds him here, there'll be a
+scene."
+
+Miss Templeton and Gladys consulted together for some minutes, and
+then decided to send for a taxi and have Shiel conveyed back to his
+rooms, Miss Templeton accompanying him.
+
+Miss Templeton knew that Shiel was poor, but like most people who have
+lived in comfortable surroundings all their lives, she had no idea of
+what poverty was like--the poverty of a seven-and-sixpenny a week room
+in a back street; and when she saw it she nearly swooned.
+
+"Why this is a slum!" she ejaculated as the taxi stopped next door to
+a fried fish shop in a narrow street swarming with children sucking
+bread and jam, and rolling each other over in the gutters.
+
+"I don't wonder the man is ill here!" she said to herself, as the door
+of the house they stopped at opened and she snuffed the atmosphere.
+"The place reeks--and--oh! gracious! is this the landlady?"
+
+Yet the woman was ordinary enough--the type of landlady one sees in
+all back streets--greasy face, straggling hair, dirty blouse, black
+hands, bitten fingernails, short skirts, prodigious feet, a grubby
+child clinging on to her dress and every indication of the speedy
+arrival of another.
+
+"I suppose you're 'is mother hain't you, mum?" she said, gaping at
+Miss Templeton's rather fashionable clothes in open-mouthed wonder. "I
+told 'im 'ee ought not to go out, but 'ee never 'eeds what I says."
+
+Miss Templeton, though not particularly flattered at being taken for
+Shiel's mother--since, like most ladies of mature age, she wished to
+be regarded as much younger--nevertheless, thought it better not to
+disillusion the woman. The poor, she told herself, often have very
+decided views on propriety. With the woman's aid she got Shiel
+upstairs, and, as he was too feeble to undress himself, despite his
+protestations, helped to disrobe him. She had thought, when she first
+saw the slum, of returning to Kew at once, but she did no such thing.
+She stayed with Shiel; persuaded the landlady to make him some gruel
+(which proved to be a sorry mess, but had at least the advantage of
+being hot), and bribed one of the children to fetch the doctor. Shiel
+nearly died. Had it not been for the careful nursing and good food
+provided by Miss Templeton, who visited him every day, he would never
+have turned the corner.
+
+"The poor boy is terribly fond of you," Miss Templeton said to Gladys.
+"In his delirium he talked of nothing but saving you from Leon
+Hamar--from that devil Leon Hamar--and if one can place any reliance
+at all, on the ravings of a sick man, a devil, Leon Hamar undoubtedly
+is. What a pity it is Shiel hasn't money."
+
+These remarks were naturally not without effect on Gladys, and she
+could not help growing more and more interested in the man, whose love
+for her had proved so deep-rooted and ideal, that he had practically
+sacrificed his life, in an attempt to serve her. Finally, she found
+herself awaiting her aunt's daily report of his illness with an
+anxiety that was almost acute.
+
+In the meanwhile, John Martin came home one evening in a rare state of
+excitement.
+
+"What do you think!" he exclaimed, throwing a bundle of letters on the
+table, "one of Dick's speculations has turned out trumps, after all.
+He had invested several thousands of pounds--in Shiel's name--in
+enamel-ivorine, the new stuff for stopping teeth, which looks exactly
+like part of the teeth. I remember I thought it an absurd venture at
+the time, but for once in a way I was wrong--"
+
+"Ahem!" interrupted Gladys.
+
+"There has been a sudden boom in the patent, every dentist is using
+it, and, as a consequence, the shares have risen enormously. I've
+heard from Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand
+pounds!"
+
+"Good heavens!" Miss Templeton ejaculated, "and Gladys has bound
+herself to Hamar! I suppose," she said afterwards, when John Martin
+and she were alone together, "that you would not have any objection to
+Shiel now, if Gladys were free to marry him."
+
+"Certainly not!" John Martin said, "certainly not, I always liked
+Shiel. A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one
+usually meets nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!"
+
+"You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?"
+
+"None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an
+impossibility. Gladys is stubbornness itself--when once she has made
+up her mind to do a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do
+it."
+
+"Wait," Miss Templeton said, "wait and see. I think I can see a
+possible way out of it."
+
+She had learned much from Shiel in his "wanderings." He had constantly
+alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson--and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
+compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact--namely
+through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
+the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
+greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg--and it was from these
+statements that she finally received an inspiration.
+
+Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel--it had always been her custom to
+read between the lines. "Now," she argued, "if Kelson were so easily
+influenced by Lilian Rosenberg, who was young and attractive, it was
+almost a _sine quâ non_ that he was in love with her," and as marriage
+was one of the eventualities strictly forbidden to the trio in the
+compact--"they must neither quarrel nor marry," Shiel had
+exclaimed--here was their chance. Kelson must marry Lilian Rosenberg,
+and by so doing, break the compact and overwhelm the trio in some
+sudden and dire catastrophe. But the marriage must take place within
+six months' time. How could that be arranged? Could Lilian Rosenberg
+be bribed or persuaded into it? for of course Miss Templeton being a
+woman--albeit an old maid--had at once divined that Lilian Rosenberg
+was in love with Shiel--that she did not care a straw for Kelson, and
+that to marry the latter she would need some very strong inducement.
+And the only inducement she could think of was Lilian's genuine love
+for Shiel.
+
+"Yes, it is upon this one weakness of Lilian's that I must work," she
+said to herself. "It is the only way I can see of saving Gladys."
+
+Resolved at any rate to experiment upon these lines, she lost no time
+in seeking out Lilian Rosenberg, who received her very coldly and was
+distinctly rude.
+
+"What have my affairs to do with you? Who sent you here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Humanity!" Miss Templeton replied. "I have come entirely of my own
+accord to plead the cause of one who is seriously ill--possibly
+dying!"
+
+"Seriously ill!--possibly dying!" Lilian Rosenberg said incredulously,
+nevertheless, turning pale. "Mr. Davenport is surely not as bad as all
+that!"
+
+"When did you see him last?" Miss Templeton asked.
+
+"A fortnight ago," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I have been inundated
+with work the past two weeks."
+
+"Then you've not heard that he's had a relapse," Miss Templeton said,
+"and is now in a most critical condition! He has something on his
+mind, and the doctor assures me that whilst he is still worrying over
+that something, there is no chance of his recovery."
+
+"Do you know what it is--the something?" Lilian Rosenberg asked, the
+white on her cheeks intensifying.
+
+"Yes!" Miss Templeton said slowly, and trying to appear calm. "He is
+very worried about Miss Martin's engagement to Mr. Hamar."
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because he knows all about Mr. Hamar--and the compact."
+
+"He has told you?"
+
+"I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium."
+
+"Has he been as ill as that?"
+
+"Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day
+before yesterday."
+
+For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, "Can
+you believe what a man says in delirium?"
+
+"In this instance I feel sure you can," Miss Templeton replied.
+
+"Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
+Davenport?"
+
+Miss Templeton thought for a moment. "Because," she said at last, "he
+is in love with her."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?" and she
+snapped her fingers.
+
+"I think she may care for him a very great deal some day--she has
+begun to care for him already!"
+
+"But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
+Davenport. He is practically starving."
+
+"He was--but he's not now. He's come into money." And she explained
+about the fifty thousand pounds.
+
+"I see!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, "that accounts
+for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some
+one who had been fond of him all along--in the days when he hadn't a
+halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!"
+
+"I should feel very sorry for that person," Miss Templeton said, "but
+setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness--it would be wrong for
+him to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere."
+
+"Which you say it is."
+
+"Which I am sure it is!"
+
+"Well, supposing it is--what does it concern me? Why tell me all
+this?"
+
+"Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
+about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened."
+
+"I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
+can accomplish all this?"
+
+"But I do," Miss Templeton said, briskly. "I believe I am right in
+saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you--that you can make him do pretty
+well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on
+to propose and insist on his marrying you at once--or at all events
+before the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the
+Compact will be broken!"
+
+"That may be," Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, "but where, pray, should I
+come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?"
+
+"Why!" Miss Templeton replied, slowly, "why, because by marrying a man
+you don't care a snap for, you would save the life of a man--I am
+quite sure, you care a very great deal for."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE END AND "THE BEYOND"
+
+
+It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.
+
+"It's extraordinary," she said to herself, "how fond I am of Shiel. I
+used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of
+anyone.... The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with
+him, to give him up to that soft little cat--Gladys Martin! If it
+weren't for this illness--if I could only persuade myself that he
+isn't as ill as Miss Whatever-her-name-is--said, I shouldn't think
+twice--I should let things be--but as I feel sure he is really
+ill--dangerously ill--and the only chance of his recovery lies in the
+possibility of his marrying Martin--I must deliberate. Shall I or
+shall I not? If it were any other woman I shouldn't so much
+mind--but--Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is one hope,
+however, namely--that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
+her--and--and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would
+be! But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because--because--well there--just
+like my infernal luck--I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even
+if there were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could.
+But what is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
+Martin--and--I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to
+settle is--Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can
+marry Shiel?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
+and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another.
+In the end--very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she
+had ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have
+tea with her.
+
+Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large
+mushroom hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that
+face belonged to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had
+a colossal weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.
+
+"Have tea with you? Of course I will," he said. "But we must be
+careful. Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow
+in a taxi, and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance."
+
+"I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever," Lilian Rosenberg
+laughed. "I'm not! I've found him out--he's all talk. But do as you
+will--get your taxi and I'll walk on--we'll have tea in my new flat."
+
+Kelson was so delighted he hardly knew if he stood on his head or his
+heels. "You are prettier than ever," he said, as the taxi-door shut
+and they sped away. "I declare there seems no limit to your beauty."
+
+"Only because you're partial," she said. "I shall grow ugly one day.
+Perhaps--soon." With a savage energy, she set to work to completely
+overcome him. With a languishing expression in her eyes--eyes, which
+she made use of mercilessly, without giving him a moment's
+respite--she watched his whole being vibrate with love and adoration.
+
+They had hardly entered the drawing-room of her flat when he threw
+himself at her feet, and poured forth his worship of her in the most
+extravagant phrases.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Kelson," she said at length, withdrawing the hand it
+seemed as if he would never leave off kissing, "this is all very well;
+but I daresay you make love to countless other girls in this same
+fashion. How can I tell if you are really serious?"
+
+"Don't I look as if I am?" he cried.
+
+"One can never judge correctly by looks," she replied; "they are
+terribly deceptive. You are very emphatic in your avowals of love, but
+you say nothing about marriage."
+
+"Then you do care for me! Jerusalem! How happy I should be if only I
+thought that!"
+
+"Think it, then," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let us come to an
+understanding. Can you afford to keep a wife--keep her, as I should
+expect to be kept--plenty of new dresses, jewelry, theatres, balls,
+motors, Ascot, Henley, Cowes?"
+
+"I reckon I could do all that," Kelson replied. "I've just over a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank, and with this 'cure'
+business, I'm taking on an average ten thousand per week. I would
+settle a hundred thousand on you, and make you a handsome allowance--a
+thousand a week--more if you wanted it."
+
+"Well!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a slight pause, during which
+Kelson had again seized her hand and was kissing it convulsively, "to
+quote one of your Americanisms--I reckon I'll fix up with you. On one
+condition, however."
+
+"And that," Kelson murmured, still kissing her feverishly.
+
+"That we marry a week to-day!"
+
+Kelson dropped her hand as if he had been shot. "We can't!" he cried.
+"The Compact!"
+
+"Oh, damn the Compact!" Lilian Rosenberg said coolly. "You marry me
+then--or not at all!"
+
+"You are joking--you know what the Compact means!"
+
+"I know what you think it means. For my own part I don't see that you
+have the slightest reason to fear. The Unknown cannot really harm you.
+All you have to do is to turn religious. Anyhow you must risk it--that
+is to say, if you want me."
+
+"It will lead to a quarrel with Hamar," Kelson said desperately. "The
+Firm will dissolve--and I shan't get a cent more money."
+
+"I'll be content with what you have in the bank now. We can live on
+the interest of fifty thousand. The hundred thousand you will, of
+course, settle on me at once."
+
+He was silent. She taunted him, she ridiculed him; she at last lost
+her temper with him--whereupon he succumbed. The marriage should take
+place at a registry office within the week.
+
+"There'll be no time for a trousseau!" he said.
+
+"Oh, hang the trousseau!" she said. "I shall have the hundred thousand
+pounds. And now for a word of advice. Be sure that you do not let
+Hamar get any inkling of our approaching marriage, and be most careful
+to avoid doing anything that might arouse his suspicions. It isn't
+that I'm afraid of him--but I don't want rows--I'm sick to death of
+them!"
+
+"You can rely on me to be careful, darling!" Kelson said, kissing her
+on the lips. "I'll be discretion itself," and so he meant to be. All
+the same--as is the case with every lover--every lover worthy of the
+name of lover--who loves with all the full, ripe vigour of genuine
+passion, his heart played havoc with his head; and he was blind to
+everything save visions of his beloved. In other circumstances this
+would not have mattered very much, but with Hamar's lynx eyes
+continually watching him, it was certain to lead to disaster.
+
+"Ed!" Hamar said to Curtis one day. "Matt's been getting into
+mischief. I know the symptoms well. He can't look me in the face, and
+every now and then, when he fancies my attention is attracted
+elsewhere, I catch him peeping furtively at me as if he were
+frightened out of his life I should ferret out some secret. It would
+be deplorable if now that we have got so near the end of the Compact,
+we should be held up by some idiotic blunder--some nonsensical love
+affair of his. I wonder whether it's Rosenberg or some other girl.
+Will you find out?"
+
+"How can I?" Curtis growled. "I'm not his keeper."
+
+"I know that!" Hamar said. "Come be reasonable. You want to be a
+Croesus--so that you can eat and drink your head off--don't you!
+Well! You will! You will be one of the three wealthiest men in the
+world--you will have the world at your feet, if only you stick to me
+for the next seven months: till we have passed the seventh stage. If
+you don't--if either you or Matt deliberately quarrel with me, or
+marry--then, as I've dinned into your ears a thousand times, the
+Compact will be broken, and--not only that, but some frightful
+catastrophe will wipe us off. Now will you do what I ask? Come--a
+dinner with me every night this week, at the Piccadilly--champagne--and
+no vegetables!"
+
+"All right," Curtis said sulkily, "for the good of the cause I suppose
+I must, but I hate spying."
+
+Two nights later in a private room at the Piccadilly, after dinner,
+when the champagne and liqueurs had got into Curtis's head and he was
+leaning back in his chair, smiling and silly, Hamar suddenly said,
+"Ed! you remember what I told you--about watching Kelson. Have you
+discovered anything?"
+
+"Shupposing I have," Curtis replied, "shupposing I haven't--whatch
+then?"
+
+"Ah, but I know you have," Hamar said, striving to hide his eagerness.
+"Come, tell me, another liqueur--I'll square it with the Unknown--it
+won't hurt you!"
+
+"Won't it!" Curtis gurgled. "Wont'ch it! I'll tell you everything.
+No--nothingsh, I mean."
+
+But Hamar when once he had smelt a rat, was not easily put off. He
+coaxed, and coaxed, and eventually succeeded.
+
+"Leonsh!" Curtis said, with a sudden burst of drunken confidence.
+"Leonsh! it's worse than either you or I shuspected. I caught them
+alone this morning--in my offish."
+
+"Them! Rosenberg and Matt!"
+
+"Yesh, of course, shilly! I told Matt I was going out. He thought I
+had--so into the room I came--quite unshuspected, unobsherved. She was
+sitting on hish knees, cuddling--and he was putting a ring on her
+finger. 'Four more days, darling,' shays he, 'and we are married!
+Jerushalem! Damn the Compact and damnsh Hamar!' 'Hamar doesn't
+shuspect, does he?' Rosenberg shays. 'Not a bit--not in the
+slightest,' old Matt replieshes, 'why it is I who amsh brave now.'
+Then he kisshes her, and fearing they would detect my presence, I
+slipsh quietly out."
+
+"Will you swear this is true?" Leon said, his voice trembling with
+excitement.
+
+"I'll schwear it!" Curtis answered, "but you look crossh. Whatsh the
+matter, Leon? _God! What's the matter!_"
+
+An hour later, as Kelson was rising from his chair in front of the
+fire to gaze, for the hundredth time that evening, into the eyes of
+Lilian Rosenberg's portrait on the mantelshelf, the door of his room
+flew open and in staggered Curtis--white, wet and bloated.
+
+"Great heavens!" Kelson cried. "What the deuce have you been doing to
+yourself? You look a perfect devil!"
+
+"I am one!" Curtis groaned. "I am one, Matt! I've given your show
+away."
+
+"My show away! Why, what the deuce do you mean?"
+
+In a string of broken sentences Curtis explained what had happened.
+"I'm damned sorry, Matt, old man," he pleaded. "It was the drink that
+did it--I didn't know what I was saying till it was too late--till I
+saw Leon's face--and that cleared my brain--brought me to myself. It
+was hellish. I remember the moment I mentioned the word marriage--he
+sprang up from his chair, and as he hurried out, I heard him mutter,
+'I'll go to her straight--I'll--' Matt, old man, he meant mischief.
+I'm certain of it. Come with me to her flat--for God's sake--COME."
+And catching hold of Kelson, who leaned against the mantelshelf, dazed
+and stupefied, he dragged him into the street.
+
+To revert to Hamar. Curtis's information had transformed him. He was,
+now, another creature. Prior to his conversation with Curtis, he had
+suspected, at the most, that Kelson might be contemplating a secret
+engagement to Lilian Rosenberg--but a hasty marriage--a marriage in a
+few days' time--he had never dreamt that Kelson could be as mad as
+that. It was outrageous! It was abominable! It was sheer wholesale
+homicide! At all costs the marriage must be stopped. And mad with
+rage, Hamar dashed out of the hotel, and calling a taxi, drove direct
+to Lilian Rosenberg's flat.
+
+He found her alone--alone--and with a strange expression in her
+eyes--an expression he had never noticed in them before. She was in
+the act of examining a magnificent diamond ring.
+
+"You're quite out of breath," she said coolly, "didn't you come up by
+the lift?"
+
+"I've come to talk business," Hamar panted. "It's no use looking like
+that. I know your secret."
+
+"My secret!" Lilian Rosenberg replied, opening her eyes and simulating
+the greatest unconcern, "what secret? I don't understand."
+
+"Oh, yes, you do!" Hamar said, "you understand only too well--you
+deceitful minx. Had I only been smart--I should have given you the
+sack months ago. This marriage of yours with Kelson shall not come
+off."
+
+"My marriage with Mr. Kelson!" Lilian Rosenberg said, turning a trifle
+pale. "I really don't know what you are talking about."
+
+"You do!" Hamar shouted, his fury rising. "You do! You know all about
+it. You were seen sitting on his knee this morning, and all your
+conversation was overheard. I have found out everything. And I tell
+you, you shan't marry him."
+
+"I shan't marry him!" Lilian Rosenberg said with provoking coolness.
+"Whoever thinks I want to marry him?"
+
+"He does--I do!" Hamar shouted--his voice rising to a scream. "You've
+hoodwinked me long enough--you hoodwink me no longer. You've
+encouraged him from the first--made eyes at him every time you've seen
+him--taken advantage of my absence to prowl about the passages to
+waylay him--had him round to your rooms and visited him in his. You've
+no sense of shame or honour--you've broken your promises to me--you're
+a liar!"
+
+"Anything else Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, her eyes glittering.
+"When you've quite finished, perhaps--you'll kindly go and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"Go! Leave you in peace!" Hamar shouted. "Damn you, curse your
+impertinence! Go! I'll not budge an inch till I wring from you an
+oath--a solemn binding oath, that you'll break off your engagement
+with Kelson at once."
+
+"Really, Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, "I cannot put up with
+quite so much noise. Will you go, or shall I ring for the porter to
+turn you out?"
+
+She moved in the direction of the bell as she spoke, but before she
+could touch it Hamar had intercepted her.
+
+"Stop this foolery!" he said catching hold of her wrist, "I'm in grim
+earnest--the lives of all three of us are at stake--jeopardized
+through you--through your infernal greed and selfishness. Do you
+hear!"
+
+"Please let go my wrist," she said quietly.
+
+"I won't!" he shouted. "I'll squeeze, crush it, break it! Break you,
+too, unless you swear to break off your marriage!"
+
+"I'll swear nothing," Lilian Rosenberg said faintly. "You're a brute.
+Let me go or I'll cry for help."
+
+She screamed, but before she could repeat the scream, Hamar had her by
+the throat--and then blind with passion and before he fully realized
+what he was about, he had shaken her to and fro--like a terrier shakes
+a rat--and had dashed her on the floor.
+
+For some minutes he stood rocking with passion, and then, his eyes
+falling on the inanimate form at his feet, he gave a great gasping cry
+and bent over it.
+
+"God in Heaven!" he ejaculated, "she's dead! I've killed her!"
+
+He was still bending over her--still feeling her lifeless pulse, still
+trying to resuscitate her--feebly wondering how he had killed her,
+feverishly debating the best course to pursue--when Curtis and Kelson
+burst in on him.
+
+At the sight of Lilian Rosenberg's lifeless body both men started
+back. "Great God! Hamar!" Curtis gasped. "What have you done to her?"
+
+"Nothing!" Hamar said, turning a ghastly face to them. "I--I found her
+like this!"
+
+"Liar!" Kelson shouted beside himself with fury. "Liar! We heard her
+scream. Look at your hands--there's blood on them! You've killed her!"
+
+Before Curtis could stop him he sprang at Hamar, and the next moment
+both men were rolling on the floor.
+
+"Call for the police, Ed!" Kelson gasped, "the police--or--" But
+before he could utter another syllable, walls, floor and ceiling shook
+with loud, devilish laughter. There was then silence--enthralling,
+impressive, omnipotent silence--the electric light went out--and the
+room filled with luminous, striped figures.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14317 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14317 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sorcery Club, by Elliott O'Donnell</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="cs"><a name="ILLUSTRATION1" id="ILLUSTRATION1" /><img src="images/image1.jpg" width="446" height="750" alt="[Illustration: &quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED]" /><br />
+&quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1 style="font-size:2em;">THE SORCERY CLUB</h1>
+
+<h3 style="margin-top:3em;">BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ELLIOTT O'DONNELL</h2>
+
+<p class="cs">AUTHOR OF <i>BYWAYS OF GHOSTLAND</i>, <i>WERWOLVES</i>,<br />
+<i>DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS</i>, <i>SOME HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND<br />
+AND WALES</i>, <i>SCOTTISH GHOST TALES</i>, <i>HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON</i>, ETC., ETC.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6><i>London<br />
+William Rider &amp; Son, Limited<br />
+8 Paternoster Row, E.C.</i></h6>
+
+<p class="center">1912</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman;">
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">LEARNING TO SIN</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE TESTS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE INITIATION</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE FIRST POWER</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">TWO DREAMS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE GREAT CHALLENGE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE MODERN SORCERY CO. LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">SHIEL TO THE RESCUE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">STAGE THREE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE SELLING OF SPELLS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">LOVE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">THE SUBP&OElig;NA</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CURTIS IN A NEW R&Ocirc;LE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">WHOM WILL HE MARRY?</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">THE END AND 'THE BEYOND'</a><br /></li>
+</ol>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p>
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION1">&quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF,&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Frontispiece</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION2">THE INITIATION</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION3">THEY GAZED FASCINATED</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION4">THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES</a><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2 style="font-size:2em;"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />THE SORCERY CLUB</h2>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of
+vegetables&mdash;it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller, of
+man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that the
+French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not, Confucius
+alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the Chinese by
+the same factor.</p>
+
+<p>It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a
+second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion to any
+literature saving a financial gazette or the stock and shares column of
+a daily, that nothing would have induced him to get within touching
+distance of a book save the risk of a severe wetting. Now, to his
+unutterable disgust, he found himself surrounded by the things he
+loathed. Books ancient&mdash;very ancient, judging by their bindings&mdash;and
+modern&mdash;histories, biographies, novels and magazines&mdash;anything from ten
+dollars to five cents, and all arrayed with most laudable tact according
+to their bulk and condition. But Hamar was neither to be tempted nor
+mollified. He frowned at one and all alike, and the colossal edition of
+Miss Somebody or Other's poems&mdash;that by reason of its magnificent cover
+of crimson and gold occupied a most prominent position&mdash;met with the
+same vindictive reception as the tattered and torn volumes of Whittier
+stowed away in an obscure corner.</p>
+
+<p>Backing still further into the entrance of the store for a better
+protection from the rain, which, now falling heavier and heavier, was
+blown in by the wind, Hamar collided with a stand of books, with the
+result that one of them fell with a loud bang on the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>A man, evidently the owner of the store, and unmistakably a Jew,
+instantly appeared. Picking up the book, and wiping it with a dirty
+handkerchief, he thrust it at Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See!&quot; he said, &quot;you have damaged this property of mine. You must either
+buy it or give me adequate compensation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; Hamar cried, &quot;compensation for such rubbish as that? Why all
+your books together are not worth five dollars. Indeed I've seen twice
+as many sold at a sale for half that amount. You can't Jew me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men eyed each other quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; the owner of the store observed slowly, &quot;perhaps some of your
+ancestors were once Yiddish. In which case there ought to be a bond of
+sympathy between us. You may have that book for a nickel. What, no! Your
+cheeks are hollow, your fingers thin. A nickel is too much for you. I
+will take your chain in exchange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And leave me the watch!&quot; Hamar retorted, with a grim smile. &quot;You are a
+philanthropist&mdash;not a storekeeper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should leave you nothing!&quot; the Jew laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no watch there! See!&quot; and he pointed to the concave surface of
+the watch-pocket. &quot;I noticed its absence at once. It's been keeping you
+alive for some days past. I'll give you four dollars on the chain&mdash;and
+you may have the book!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The book's no good to me!&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;The money is. Here! hand me
+over the four dollars and you can have the chain. It's eighteen carat
+gold and worth at least ten dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why not take it to some one who will give you ten dollars!&quot;
+sneered the Jew. &quot;Because you know better. You're no greenhorn. That
+chain is fifteen carat at the most, and there's not a man in this city
+who would give you more than four dollars for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then!&quot; Hamar said sulkily. &quot;I agree. No! the money first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Jew dived deep down into his trouser pocket, and, after foraging
+about for some seconds, produced a handful of greasy coins, out of which
+he carefully selected the sum named.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, who had been watching him greedily, grabbed the coins, bit them
+with his teeth, and rang them on the counter. With an air of relief he
+then slipped his watch-chain into the outstretched palm before him,
+remarked upon the fact that the rain had suddenly ceased, and prepared
+to take his departure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's the book!&quot; the Jew ejaculated, whilst his face became suffused
+with a smirk. &quot;Don't go without it. Now! there's no knowing but what we
+may not have further dealings with one another. I'm a money-lender&mdash;I've
+a place down-stairs&mdash;I take all sorts of things&mdash;all sorts of things. On
+the strict Q.T. mind. Sabez!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In another moment Hamar found himself standing on the wet pavement,
+nursing the four dollars in his waistcoat pocket with one hand, and
+mechanically clutching the despised volume with the other. Had he ever
+acted upon impulse, he would most certainly have hurled the book into
+the gutter; but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion that it
+would be better to dispose of it less obstrusively.</p>
+
+<p>It was now evening, and having tasted nothing since mid-day, he
+realized, for at least the hundredth time that week, that he was hungry.
+The touch of the dollars, however, only made him smile. He could eat his
+full for twenty-five cents and yet live well for another four days. And,
+besides, he still had a tie-pin and a fur coat. He might get a dollar on
+the one and two, if not two and a half, on the other; which would carry
+him through till the end of the week when something else might turn
+up&mdash;something which would not involve too hard work and would just keep
+him clear of jail. He turned sharply down Montgomery Street, crossed
+Kearney Street, and slipped noiselessly through the side doorway of a
+restaurant, in a suspicious-looking alley, not a hundred yards distant
+from the gorgeously illuminated Palace Hotel. Here, within five minutes,
+he was served with as good a meal as one could get in San Francisco for
+the money&mdash;and if the table linen was not as clean as it might have
+been, the food was not a whit the less excellent for that. At least so
+Hamar thought; and it was not until there was nothing left to eat that
+he left off eating. When he thought no one was looking in his direction,
+he popped the despised book under his chair and rose to go. Before he
+had gone ten yards, however, one of the waiters came running after him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hi, sir, stop, sir!&quot; the fellow cried. &quot;You've left something behind!&quot;
+And in spite of Hamar's denials the officious menial persisted the book
+was his. In the end Hamar was obliged to submit. He took the book, and
+rewarded the waiter with curses.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar next tried to dispose of it down the area of a Chinese laundry;
+but a policeman saw him, and he only escaped being taken up on
+suspicion, by parting with a dollar. This was the climax. He did not
+dare make any further attempt to dispose of the book, but, with bitter
+hatred in his heart, tucked it savagely under his arm, and made direct
+for his room in 115th Street.</p>
+
+<p>To his annoyance&mdash;for under the circumstances he preferred to be
+alone&mdash;he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They were
+Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues at
+Meidler, Meidler &amp; Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had been
+thrown out of work when the firm had &quot;smashed.&quot; Since that affair Hamar
+had studiously avoided them. It was true he had once been as friendly
+with them as he deemed it politic to be friendly with any one; but
+now&mdash;they were out of employment, and in danger of starvation. That made
+all the difference. He did not believe in poverty encouraging poverty,
+any more than he believed in charity among beggars. He had nothing to
+share with them, not even a thought; and resolving to get rid of his
+quondam friends as soon as possible, he confined his welcome to a frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! what's the matter?&quot; Kelson exclaimed. &quot;When a man frowns like
+that, it usually means he is crossed in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or has an empty stomach, which amounts to the same thing,&quot; Curtis
+interposed. &quot;Come&mdash;let the sun loose, Leon! We've good news for
+you!&mdash;haven't we, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, then?&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;Have you both got cancer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! We've come to borrow from you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've come to the wrong shop! I'm about done, and unless
+something turns up mighty quick I shall clear out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For good?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't count on being a ghost nor yet an angel,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;when
+we've done here, I reckon we've done altogether!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have thought suicide was in your line,&quot; Curtis remarked.
+&quot;More Matt's. I should have credited you with something more original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Original!&quot; Hamar snarled. &quot;I defy any man to be original when he hasn't
+a cent, and his stomach contains nothing but air. Give me money, give me
+food&mdash;then, perhaps, I'll be original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean to say you're cleared out of grub!&quot; Kelson and Curtis
+cried in chorus. &quot;We've come to you as our last hope. We've neither of
+us tasted anything since yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you'll taste nothing again to-day&mdash;at least as far as I'm
+concerned,&quot; Hamar jeered. &quot;I tell you I'm broke&mdash;haven't as much as a
+crumb in the room; and I've pawned everything, save the clothes you see
+me in!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet you can buy books&mdash;unless&mdash;unless you stole it!&quot; Curtis said,
+eyeing with suspicion the volume Hamar had thrown on the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Buy it! Not much!&quot; Hamar cried quickly. &quot;It's one I've had all my life.
+Belonged to my grandfather. I took it with me to-night to see what I
+could raise on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And no one would have it? I should guess not,&quot; Kelson said, drawing it
+towards him. &quot;Why it's got a new label inside&mdash;S. Leipman! I know him.
+He's slick even for a Jew. This looks as if it belonged to your
+grandfather, Leon. If I'm not real mistaken you bought the book
+to-night. There's something in it you thought you could make capital of.
+Trust you for that. Now I wonder what it was!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're welcome to see!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;Perhaps you'd like some water!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Water! Why water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, instead of tea or whisky to help digest the book. Besides, it's
+the only thing I have to offer you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here, Leon,&quot; Curtis interrupted; &quot;what's the good of behaving like
+this? We are all in the same boat&mdash;starving&mdash;desperate. So let us lay
+our heads together and see if we can't think of something&mdash;some way out
+of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Burglary Company Limited, for instance!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;No! I'm not
+having any. I've neither tools nor experience. The San Francisco police
+handle one roughly, so I'm told, and hard labour isn't to my liking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are other things besides burglary!&quot; Curtis said in tones of
+annoyance. &quot;We might work a fake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I work anything of that sort,&quot; Hamar said hastily, &quot;I work alone.
+Think of something else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you Matt and I are pretty well desperate,&quot; Curtis cried, &quot;and if
+we don't think of something soon, we shan't be able to think at all.
+We've tried our level best to get work&mdash;we've answered every likely and
+unlikely advertisement in the papers&mdash;and all to no purpose. So if
+Providence won't help us we must help ourselves. Robbery, burglary,
+fakes, anything short of murder&mdash;it's all the same to us now&mdash;we're
+tired of starving&mdash;dead sick of it. We would do anything, sell our very
+souls for a meal. My God! I never imagined how terrible it is to feel so
+hungry. You appear to be interested, Matt. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, look here, you fellows!&quot; Kelson said slowly. &quot;This book is all
+about a place called Atlantis that is said to have existed in the
+Atlantic Ocean between America and Ireland, and to have been deluged by
+an earthquake owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants. They practised
+sorcery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Practised foolery,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It's tosh&mdash;all tosh! Wickedness is
+only a matter of climate&mdash;and there's no such thing as sorcery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I thought,&quot; Kelson replied; &quot;but I'm not so sure now. The author of
+this book writes darned sensibly, and is apparently at no loss for
+corroborative testimony. He was a professor too. See! Thomas Henry
+Maitland, at one time Professor of English at the University of Basle in
+Switzerland. There's an asterisk against his name and a footnote in very
+old-fashioned handwriting&mdash;the 's's' are all 'f's,' and half the letters
+capitals. Listen&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;'Thomas Maitland, despite the remonstrances of his friends, visited
+     Spain. By order of the Holy Inquisition he was arrested, May 5,
+     1693, on a charge of practising sorcery, and burned alive at the
+     Auto da F&eacute;, in the Grand Market Square, Madrid; having in the
+     interim been subjected to such tortures as only the subtle brains
+     of the hellish inquisitors could devise. On receipt of a message
+     from him, delivered in his supernatural body, we attended his
+     execution, and can readily testify that he suffered no pain,
+     although the torments endured by those around him were pitiable to
+     behold.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;(Signed) <span class="smcap">George Richard Pool</span>, Physician; and <span class="smcap">Robert James Fox</span>,
+     Merchant.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts; August 1, 1693.'&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot!&quot; Hamar said savagely; &quot;don't waste time reading such bunkum.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be bunkum, but if it takes away his mind from his stomach let
+him go on,&quot; Curtis interposed. &quot;It's very obvious you haven't arrived at
+our pitch of starvation yet, Leon, or you would welcome anything that
+would make you forget it even for a moment. Let's hear some more, Matt!
+Go on, tell us something. How to make coyottes out of paraffin paint, or
+convert a Sunday pair of pants into a glistening harem skirt! Anything
+that won't remind us of food.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged Kelson slowly turned over the pages of the book. &quot;I see
+it was printed and published for&mdash;I presume that means by&mdash;A.
+Bettesworth and J. Batley in Pater-noster-Row, London, England, in 1690.
+Basle, London, Boston, Madrid! The author seems to have had wandering on
+the brain. By the bye, Leon, with your features you could easily work
+off a fake as 'the Wandering Jew.' There's money in it&mdash;people will
+swallow anything in that line now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how it would profit you anyhow,&quot; Hamar snarled. &quot;Leave my
+features alone and go on with your reading.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson chuckled&mdash;here was one way at least in which he could
+occasionally get even with Hamar. Hamar's features were Yiddish, and the
+Yids were none too popular in California.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, all right!&quot; he said; &quot;if the subject is so painful I'll try and
+avoid it in future; but it's odd how some things&mdash;for instance, murder
+and noses&mdash;will out. Let me see, what have we here? 'Discovery of
+ancient books, manuscripts, etc., relating to Atlantis.' Apparently,
+Thomas Maitland, when shipwrecked on an island, called Inisturk, off
+Mayo, in Ireland, found a wooden chest of rare workmanship&mdash;he had seen,
+he says, similar ones in Egypt and Yucatan&mdash;containing some very ancient
+books&mdash;curiously bound, and some vellum manuscripts, which, after an
+infinite amount of labour, he managed to translate. The books, he says,
+were standard histories, biographies, and scientific works on
+occultism&mdash;all published in Banchicheisi, the capital of Atlantis&mdash;and
+the manuscripts, he affirms, had been transcribed by one Coulmenes, who
+believed himself to be the only survivor of a tremendous submarine
+earthquake that had destroyed the whole of Atlantis. The manuscripts
+included a diary of the events leading up to the catastrophe&mdash;even to
+the meals! How about this?&mdash;'Sunrise on the day of Thottirnanoge in the
+month of Finn-ra. Breakfasted on cornsop, fish (Semona, corresponding to
+salmon), fruit, and much sweet milk.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For God's sake, don't!&quot; Curtis groaned. &quot;Skip over that part. The very
+mention of grub makes the gnawing pain in my stomach ten times worse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're different to me then!&quot; Hamar grinned; &quot;I love to think of it.
+My word, what wouldn't I give to be in Sadler's now. Roast beef&mdash;done to
+a turn, eh! As only Sadler knows how! Potatoes nice and brown and crisp!
+Horseradish! Greens! Boiled celery! Pudding under the meat! Beer!&mdash;What,
+going?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis had risen from the table with his fingers crammed in his ears.
+&quot;There's a fat splice of the devil in you to-night, Leon!&quot; he panted.
+&quot;I've had enough of it. I'm off. Come on, Matt. If you want us, you know
+where to find us&mdash;only if we don't get something to eat soon&mdash;you'll
+find us dead.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>For some time after Kelson and Curtis had left him, Hamar lolled back in
+his seat, lost in thought. Thought, as he told himself repeatedly,
+should be the poor man's chief recreation&mdash;it costs nothing: and if one
+wants a little variety, and the walls of one's rooms are tolerably
+thick, one can think aloud. Hamar often did, and derived much enjoyment
+from it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm convinced of one thing,&quot; he suddenly broke out; &quot;I'd rather be
+hungry than cold. One can, in a measure, cheat one's stomach by chewing
+leather or sucking pebbles, but I'll be hanged if one can kid one's
+liver. It's cold that does me! A touch of cold on the liver! I could jog
+along comfortably on few dollars for food&mdash;but it's a fire, a fire I
+want! The temperature of this room is infernally low after sunset: and
+half a dozen coats and three pairs of pants don't make up for half a
+grateful of fuel. Hunger only makes me think of suicide&mdash;but cold&mdash;cold
+and a chilled liver&mdash;makes me think of crime. Yes, it's cold! Cold that
+would make me a criminal. I would steal&mdash;burgle&mdash;housebreak&mdash;cut the
+sweetest lady's throat in Christendom&mdash;for a fire!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There! that little outbreak has relieved me. Now let me have a look at
+the book.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He dragged the volume towards him, and despite the feeling of antagonism
+with which it had inspired him, and despite the cynical attitude he
+had, up to the present, adopted towards the supernatural, he speedily
+became engrossed. On a few leaves, somewhat clumsily inserted between
+the cover and first page of the book, Hamar read an account, presumably
+in the author's own penmanship, of how he, Thomas Maitland, after being
+shipwrecked, had remained on Inisturk Island for a fortnight before
+being rescued, and had spent the greater portion of that time in
+examining the books, etc., in the chest he had found&mdash;his only
+food&mdash;shell-fish and a keg of mildewy ship's biscuits.</p>
+
+<p>He was taken, so the account ran, by his rescuers, on the barque
+<i>Hannah</i>, to London, where he lived for five years. His lodgings were in
+Cheapside, and it was there that he compiled his work on Atlantis,
+having obtained his subject matter from the Atlantean books he had
+managed to bring with him, and which, after an enormous amount of
+perseverance and labour, he had translated into English. Though these
+books were subsequently destroyed in a big fire that demolished the
+entire street, luckily for him, he had sent his MS. to the publishers,
+Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley, a week or so before the conflagration
+broke out; so that he was, at any rate, spared the loss of his own
+arduous and invaluable work.</p>
+
+<p>The publishers did not accept the MS. at once. At that time there were
+very severe laws in operation against anything savouring of witchcraft
+and magic, and as the manuscript dealt at length with these subjects,
+and in a manner that left no doubt whatever that he, Thomas Maitland,
+had practised sorcery extensively, Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were
+forced to consider whether it would be injurious to them to publish it.
+Mrs. Bettesworth was eventually consulted&mdash;as indeed she always was, on
+extraordinary occasions&mdash;and her interest in the MS. being roused, she
+decided in its favour. Within a week of its publication, however, it was
+suppressed by law; all the copies saving three presentation ones to the
+author, which he successfully concealed, were destroyed; Messrs.
+Bettesworth and Batley were put in the stocks on Ludgate Hill and fined
+heavily, and he, Thomas Maitland, was ordered to be arrested, flogged
+and imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; wrote Maitland, &quot;I was not to be caught napping. My previous
+adventures and hairbreadth escapes had rendered me unusually wary, and
+perceiving a number of people, among whom were two or three sheriff's
+officers, approaching my house, I at once interpreted their mission, and
+climbing through a trap-door leading on to the roof of the building,
+nimbly made my way to the end of the row, and slipping down a waterpipe
+easily eluded my enemies. London, however, being now too hot to hold me,
+I booked passage on board the <i>Peterkin</i>, a Thames trading vessel of
+some eighty tons, and sailed for Boston. My flight had been so hasty
+that I brought very little with me&mdash;nothing in fact except the clothes I
+stood in&mdash;a stout winter suit of home-spun brown cloth, a cloak, and a
+pair of good, strong leather leggings&mdash;a purse of fifty sovereigns (all
+I had), a knife, pistol and two copies of my precious book, the third
+copy, alas! I had left behind in my hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After giving a few unimportant details as to his life on board ship,
+Maitland went on to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Owing to a succession of storms the <i>Peterkin</i> was driven out of her
+course, and after narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces on the
+Florida reefs, Lat. 24&frac12;&deg; N., Long. 82&deg; W., we ran ashore with the loss
+of only two lives&mdash;the second mate and cabin boy&mdash;on the Isthmus of
+Yucatan, close to the estuary of a river.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Here we were forced to
+spend nearly a year, during which time I made several journeys of
+exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one of
+my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found
+myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once
+recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity,
+elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set to
+work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other
+vegetable growth adhering to it, discovered a superscription in
+Atlantean dialect to the effect that the image had been set up there by
+one Hullir&mdash;to commemorate the destruction of Atlantis, of which
+catastrophe Hullir believed himself and his family, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> his wife
+Ozilmeave and daughters, Taramoo and Nik&eacute;toth, and the crew of his
+yacht, the <i>Chaac-molr&eacute;</i> (ten in number), the sole survivors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here, then, to my unutterable joy, was strong corroborative evidence of
+the great disaster narrated in detail in the manuscripts I had found in
+Inisturk Island. The existence of Atlantis was now thoroughly
+substantiated. On all sides of me I stumbled across further evidences of
+these early settlers. Here, standing in bold outline on a slight
+eminence, was a stone edifice adorned with symbolical carvings of eggs,
+harps, mastodons, triangles, and numerous other objects, all of which
+were capable of interpretation, and indicated that the building was a
+temple to some god.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity in many of the things
+I saw&mdash;notably in the sphinx, idols and symbols&mdash;to many I had seen in
+Egypt, and to some extent in Ireland, and I at once set to work to draw
+up a careful analogy between the languages of those countries.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The word Banchicheisi<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> I found to contain the Celtic ban, a barrow;
+and Coptic isi, plenty; whilst I recognized in the words Coulmenes,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+the Celtic Coul, a man's name, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Finn, son of Coul; in
+Thottirnanoge, the Coptic Thoth, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> name of ancient Egyptian deity,
+and Erse Tirnanoge, the name of the wife of Oisin, the last of the Feni;
+in Chaac-molr&eacute;e<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> the Coptic deity, r&eacute;; in Ozilmeave,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> the Celtic
+Meave, a girl's name; in Taramoo,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> the Celtic Tara, a girl's name; and
+in Nik&eacute;toth,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> toth, the Erse technical form of feminine gender; and
+comparing the alphabets I traced a very striking likeness between the
+Atlantean&mdash;</p>
+
+<table class="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="Table for visual layout/alignment of Atlantean character comparisons.">
+<tr><td>&quot;<img src="images/atl-a.png" alt="[Atlantean: a]" width="19" height="18" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (a)</td><td align="left"> and the Gaelic or Erse <img src="images/ers-a.png" alt="[Erse: a]" width="15" height="16" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-b.png" alt="[Atlantean: B]" width="22" height="22" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (B)</td><td align="left"> and the Coptic <img src="images/cop-b.png" alt="[Coptic: B]" width="18" height="17" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-d.png" alt="[Atlantean: d]" width="20" height="16" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (d)</td><td align="left"> and Erse <img src="images/ers-d.png" alt="[Erse: d]" width="15" height="16" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-g.png" alt="[Atlantean: g]" width="17" height="17" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (g)</td><td align="left"> and Erse <img src="images/ers-g.png" alt="[Erse: g]" width="14" height="18" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-t.png" alt="[Atlantean: T]" width="23" height="16" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (T)</td><td align="left"> and Coptic <img src="images/cop-t.png" alt="[Coptic: T]" width="15" height="12" /></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&quot;and many of the other letters. To the Atlantean </p>
+
+<p class="center">&quot;
+<img src="images/atl-c.png" alt="[Atlantean: C]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (C) <img src="images/atl-o.png" alt="[Atlantean: O]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (O) <img src="images/atl-e.png" alt="[Atlantean: E]" width="17" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (E) <img src="images/atl-z.png" alt="[Atlantean: Z]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (Z)<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could, however, find no likeness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From all these similarities, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> in architecture, symbols, letters,
+and words, I could come to no other conclusion than that there was some
+strong connecting link between Atlantis and ancient Ireland and Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Assuredly this great link could not have been merely due to stray
+survivors of the great catastrophe! Was it not much more probable that
+the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Egypt had originally migrated
+from Atlantis, carrying its language, and ways and customs with them?
+Moreover, since the Atlanteans were so deeply versed in magic and
+everything appertaining to the occult, this migration would account for
+the mysticism that has always been so closely associated with Egypt and
+Ireland, and for the psychic faculty so strongly observable in the
+inhabitants of these two countries.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was highly satisfied&mdash;I had proved much and my discoveries had upset
+many of the theories advanced by the modern sages. I could now
+positively assert that the wisdom of the world came not from the East
+but from the West. It was to the golden West&mdash;to Banchicheisi, capital
+of Atlantis, that humanity owed its knowledge of the sciences and arts,
+and of all things good and evil. Eden, if Eden existed at all, was not
+in Asia, it was in Atlantis; and the Deluge, that is recorded in the
+Hebrew Bible, and is traditional in the histories of nearly every tribe
+and nation, was none other than the mighty inrush of the ocean over
+Atlantis, due to some abnormal submarine earthquake.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what eventually became of the Atlanteans whose relics I had so
+opportunely alighted upon, I could only surmise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The last record I found was on a tablet set up by Nik&eacute;toth. On this she
+spoke of the death of Hullir and Ozilmeave, of the inter-marriage of the
+crew of the <i>Chaac-molr&eacute;</i> with native women; of the consequent growth of
+the colony; and of her determination to leave it, and, accompanied by a
+chosen few, to push her way further inland.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;The anxiety of my comrades to leave the continent, perforce put an end
+to my explorations, and in the beginning of the year 1692&mdash;exactly ten
+months after our landing&mdash;the <i>Peterkin</i> was refloated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This time nothing happened to impede our progress, and in April of the
+same year, we sighted Boston. Here I remained for some months, making
+many new friends, and studying magic and sorcery. But the love of travel
+had laid so strong a hold on me that I again took to a roving life. I
+set sail for Spain in November 1692; landed at Corunna, and made my way
+to Madrid, where I arrived on January 1, 1693.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, Hamar had to turn to Messrs. Fox and Pool's addendum,
+<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the footnote that Matt Kelson had read aloud.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was now inclined to regard the book in a very different light.
+What he had read seemed to him to be set down in too simple,
+straightforward, and, at the same time, detailed a manner to be other
+than true. Up to the present he had not believed in ghosts and witches,
+for the very simple reason that&mdash;like all sceptics&mdash;he had never
+inquired into the testimony respecting them. He had pooh-poohed the
+subject, because every one he knew pooh-poohed it, and also because it
+had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But provided he
+thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in anything&mdash;in
+Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or any other creed;
+and granted the book he had in his hands was really written by Maitland,
+and Maitland was <i>bona fide</i> (which Hamar saw no reason to doubt), and
+granted, also, that Maitland was sane and logical&mdash;which from his
+writing he certainly appeared to be&mdash;then there was a certain amount in
+the volume that in Hamar's opinion was &quot;a find.&quot; Needless to say, he
+referred to the magic of the Atlanteans&mdash;the art through the practice of
+which they had got in touch with the Powers that could endow them with
+riches. The actual history of Atlantis&mdash;once he was satisfied there had
+been such a place&mdash;did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly,
+and I append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent
+and disinterested readers.</p>
+
+<p>The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world&mdash;they
+existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their mariners
+and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom their novelists
+wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore Cooper and Mayne
+Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful stories about the
+Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they believed that, in
+the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that some of these
+Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst others&mdash;neither
+benevolent nor malevolent&mdash;were merely neutral. To the benevolent
+creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in the world
+(<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals, insects, and
+pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and agreeable in the
+human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the arts and
+sciences&mdash;in a word all that in any degree affected the welfare of
+mankind; and to the malevolent creative Powers they attributed all that
+was noxious in creation; all that was harmful to man, and detrimental to
+his moral and physical progress (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> diseases, and all savage and
+filthy passions); all races of low intelligence, viz. Paleolithic and
+Neolithic man&mdash;and all those born with black or red skins (those colours
+being particularly significant of the malignant Occult Elements); all
+destructive animals; (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> reptiles such as the teleosaurus,
+steneosaurus, etc.; birds, such as the ptereodactyl, vulture, eagle,
+etc.; mammals, such as the cave lion, cave tiger, etc.; fish, such as
+the shark, octopus, etc.); and all ugly and venomous insects.</p>
+
+<p>These earliest records show that at one time the physical and
+superphysical world were in close touch; all kinds of spirits&mdash;trolls,
+pixies, nymphs, satyrs, imps, Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.&mdash;mixing
+freely with living human beings; but that as the population increased
+and civilization evolved, superphysical manifestations became more and
+more rare, until finally they became restricted to certain conditions
+dependent on time and locality.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Up to this period there had been no state religion&mdash;no temples in
+Atlantis. If any one wished for a particular favour from the Occult
+Powers&mdash;for example, from the Rabs&eacute;s, the Occult Powers of music; the
+Brakvos, the Occult Powers of medicine; or the Derinas, the Occult
+Powers of love, they retired to some secluded spot and held direct
+intercourse with these Powers. The idea of praying to an invisible
+being&mdash;who might or might not hear them&mdash;never entered their minds; they
+were far too matter of fact for that&mdash;and it was not until superphysical
+manifestations had become confined to a very select few, that the plan
+of erecting public buildings in spots frequented by the spirits, so that
+all who wished could assemble there and communicate with them, was
+proposed and put into operation. In these buildings, however, the
+spirits did not choose always, to appear to order&mdash;sometimes they
+quitted the spot where the edifice had been erected; sometimes they
+would only appear there periodically; and sometimes, out of perversity,
+they would appear when least expected. But whether occult manifestations
+really took place in these buildings or not, those assembled to see them
+were persuaded by those in charge of the building, who saw thereby an
+opportunity of making money, that the spirits were actually there; and
+in due time these buildings became known as temples, and their showmen
+as priests. Every temple was dedicated to an individual spirit&mdash;one to
+the Spirit Bara-boo; another to the Spirit Karaboro, and so on; whilst
+in the absence of genuine spirit manifestations, prayers, incantations
+and rituals, invented by the priests, always attracted a large concourse
+of people to these temples, and finally proved a greater source of
+attraction than the spirits themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was to gain favours from the Occult Powers that donations from the
+public were at first invited, then demanded; and the priests in this
+manner accumulated vast fortunes. Later on, too, there sprang up, in
+connection with these temples, colleges for the training of young
+men&mdash;invariably selected from the wealthy classes&mdash;to the priesthood;
+and from the parents of these youthful aspirants large fees, which in
+course of time became exorbitant, were extracted, thereby furnishing
+another source of revenue to the priests. The most famous colleges for
+the training of priests in Atlantis were those of Bara-boo-rek<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> at
+Keisionwo, Karaboro-rek at Diniangek, and Ballygarap-rek at Tijimin.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the reign of Barrahneil,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> fifty-first sovereign of the
+Dynasty of Shaotak, that the evocation of spirits (from which modern
+spiritualism takes its origin) commenced. Barrahneil was most eager to
+see a superphysical manifestation. Being of a somewhat poetical turn of
+mind he was particularly enamoured of fairies, and in the hope of seeing
+one, constantly frequented their favourite haunts, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> woods, caves,
+and lonely isolated habitations. But all to no purpose&mdash;they never would
+manifest themselves to him. At last, he lost patience. Against the
+advice of his oldest and most trusty counsellors, and accompanied by one
+or two of his favourite courtiers, he went to an excessively lonely spot
+in the heart of a desert, and besought spirits&mdash;spirits of any sort&mdash;he
+did not care what&mdash;to manifest themselves. To his surprise&mdash;for he had
+grown extremely sceptical&mdash;an Occult form, half man and half beast,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>
+materialized. It informed them that it was Daramara, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> in Atlantis,
+the Unknown&mdash;that it had no beginning and no end, and that it would
+remain an impenetrable mystery to them during their existence in the
+physical sphere, but would be fully revealed to them when they passed
+over into Malanok&mdash;one of the superphysical planes. On this, and on
+several subsequent occasions, when it manifested itself to them, it gave
+them instructions with regard to evocation, and described to them the
+tests they must undergo before they could acquire the great powers the
+Unknown was able to bestow on them, namely, (1) second sight; (2)
+divining other people's thoughts and detecting the presence of waters
+and metals; (3) thought transference, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> being able to transmit
+messages, irrespective of distance, from one brain to another without
+any physical medium; (4) hypnotism; (5) the power to hold converse with
+animals; (6) invisibility, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> dematerializing at will; (7) walking
+on, and breathing under, water; (8) inflicting all manner of diseases
+and torments; (9) curing all kinds of diseases; (10) converting people
+into beasts and minerals; (11) foretelling the future by palmistry,
+pyromancy, hydromancy, astrology, etc.; (12) conjuring up all manner of
+spirits antagonistic to men's moral progress, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Vice
+Elementals&mdash;Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Taking every care to observe the greatest secrecy, Barrahneil caused a
+full account of these interviews with Daramara, together with all the
+instructions the latter had given him, to be transcribed in a book,
+which he called <i>Brahnapotek</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>&mdash;or the <i>Book of Mysteries</i>; and
+which he kept sealed and guarded in a room in his palace.</p>
+
+<p>During his lifetime no one held communication with Daramara saving
+himself and his friends, but after his death the secret of black magic
+leaked out; countless people sought to acquire it, and ultimately the
+practice of it became universal. But the Atlanteans little knew the
+danger they were incurring. The spirits they conjured up&mdash;though at
+first subservient, that is to say, mere instruments&mdash;at length obtained
+complete dominion over them&mdash;the whole race became steeped in crime and
+vice of every kind&mdash;and so horrible were the enormities perpetrated
+that, fearful lest Man should be entirely obliterated the benevolent
+Occult Powers, after a desperate struggle with the malevolent Occult
+Powers, succeeded, by means of a vast earthquake, in submerging the
+Continent and hurling it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where,
+what remains of it, now lies. This catastrophe took place in the reign
+of Aboonirin, twentieth sovereign of the Dynasty of Molonekin&mdash;three
+thousand years after the reign of Barrahneil.</p>
+
+<p>So ran the history of Atlantis, or at least all of it that need be
+quoted for the elucidation of this story. That Black Magic&mdash;the Black
+Art of the Atlanteans was by no means dead&mdash;Hamar felt convinced, and if
+Maitland could resuscitate it&mdash;why could not he? At any rate he might
+try. He could lose nothing by giving it a trial&mdash;at least nothing to
+speak of&mdash;the outlay on chemicals would be a mere song&mdash;whereas, on the
+other hand, what might he not gain! He eagerly perused the tests&mdash;the
+test he must impose upon himself before he could get in touch with the
+Unknown, and acquire the magic powers&mdash;which, according to Thomas
+Maitland, were copied from the original Brahnapotek, and including a
+preface, ran as follows: (<i>Preface</i>) &quot;It is essential that the person
+desirous of being initiated into the Black Art&mdash;the Art of communicating
+with the Unknown (Daramara) in order to acquire certain great powers,
+should dismiss from his mind all ideas of moral progress, and wholly
+concentrate on the bettering of his material self&mdash;on acquiring riches
+and fame in the physical sphere. His aspirations must be entirely
+earthly, and all his affections subordinate to his main desire for
+wealth and carnal pleasures. Having acquired this preliminary
+psychological stage, for one clear week he must give himself up entirely
+to the breaking of all the conventionalities of morality with which
+society is hedged in. He must practice every kind of deception&mdash;lie,
+cheat and steal, and go out of his way to seek an opportunity to avenge
+any personal injury; and if his mind is earnestly and wholly
+concentrated on acquiring knowledge of the Black Art no bodily mishap
+will befall him. During this time of probation he must will himself to
+dream, at night, of all the deeds he had it in his mind to do, during
+the day; when he will know, by his visions, to what extent he is
+progressing. At the end of the week he must apply the tests to see if he
+is in a ripe state to proceed.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The tests&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 1. At midnight, when the moon is full, place a mirror, set in a
+     wooden frame, in a tub of water, so that it will float on the
+     surface with its face uppermost. Put in the water fifteen grains
+     of bicarbonate of potash, and sprinkle it with three drops of
+     blood, not necessarily human. If the reflection of the moon in the
+     mirror then appear crimson, the test is satisfactorily
+     accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 2. At midnight, when the moon is full, take a black cat, place
+     it where the moonbeams are thickest, sprinkle it with three drops
+     of blood, not necessarily human, and rub its coat with the palm of
+     the hand. Sparks will then be given out, and if those sparks appear
+     crimson the test is satisfactorily done.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 3. Take a human skull&mdash;preferably that of some person who has
+     met with an unnatural end, pour on it a single drop of fresh, human
+     blood&mdash;place it on a couch, and go to sleep with the back part of
+     the head resting on it. If you are awakened, at the second hour
+     after midnight, by hearing a great commotion close at hand, and the
+     room is then discovered to be full of crimson light, the test is
+     satisfactorily fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 4. Take half a score of the berries of enchanter's
+     nightshade,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> two ounces of hemlock leaves in powder, and one
+     ounce of red sorrel leaves. Heat them in an oven for two hours,
+     pound them together, in a mortar, and at midnight boil them in
+     water. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, remove them from
+     the fire and stand them in a dark place; and if the experiment is
+     to prove satisfactory, three bubbles of luminous green light will
+     rise simultaneously from the water and burst.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 5. In the above preparation after the test described, soak a
+     hazel twig, fashioned in the shape of a fork. On meeting a child
+     hold the fork with the V downwards in front of its face, and if the
+     child exhibits violence and signs of terror, and falls down, the
+     experiment is successful.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 6. Take a couple of handfuls of fine soil from over the spot
+     where some four-footed animal has recently been buried. Put it in a
+     tin vessel, mix with it three ounces of assaf&oelig;tida and one drachm
+     of quassia chips, to which add a death's-head moth (<i>Acherontia
+     atropos</i>). Heat the vessel over a wood fire for three hours. Then
+     remove it and place it on the hearth, rake out the fire and make
+     the room absolutely dark. Keep watch beside the vessel, and if, at
+     the second hour after midnight, any strange phenomena occur, the
+     test will be known to have been satisfactorily executed. </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;(<i>Addendum</i>) If any of these tests fail the candidate must wait for six
+months before giving them a further trial, and he must occupy the
+interim by training his thoughts in the manner already prescribed. But
+if, on the other hand, the tests have been successfully performed, he
+can proceed with the rites appertaining to the Black Art.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar had read so far when, with a gesture of impatience, he closed the
+book. &quot;What a fool I am!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;to waste my time with such
+stuff!... But Maitland writes in such a devilish convincing way!
+Jerusalem! Any straw is good enough for the drowning man, and if
+witchcraft and sorcery with motors dashing by every second and the whole
+air alive with wireless and telephones, is a bit beyond my
+comprehension, what then? All I care about is money&mdash;and I'll leave no
+stone unturned to get it. If it were possible for man to get in touch
+with Daramara&mdash;the Unknown&mdash;Devil, or whatever else it chooses to call
+itself&mdash;I'll call it an angel if it only gives me money&mdash;twenty thousand
+years ago&mdash;why shouldn't it be possible to get in touch with it now?
+Anyhow as I said before, I'll have a try. As far as the preliminary
+stage is concerned, I fancy I'm pretty well fixed. My mind is occupied
+right enough with things of this world&mdash;I don't give a cent for anything
+belonging to another&mdash;and if only I had half a dozen souls, I'd sell
+them right away now, for less than twenty thousand dollars&mdash;a damned
+sight less. As for these tests&mdash;foolish isn't the word for them&mdash;but it
+won't cost much just to try them.... Now, according to Thomas Maitland,
+the ceremony of calling up the Unknown stands a far greater chance of
+success if there are three human beings present ... but, of course, if
+there is any truth in this business, I'd rather keep the secret of it to
+myself. However, if I try alone, the Unknown may not come to me, and
+then I shall have had all the trouble of going through the tests for
+nothing!... Ah! now I see! If the other two get more of the profits than
+I think necessary&mdash;I can make use of my newly acquired Occult Power
+to&mdash;to dissolve partnership! Ha! ha! I could&mdash;I could trick the Unknown
+if it comes to that. Trust a Jew to outwit the Devil! I'll just look up
+Kelson and&mdash;Curtis.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The river referred to by Maitland is the river Lagartos,
+which was then (1691) unnamed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> For chiche compare the ancient Maya or Yucatan word
+Chicken-Itza (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> name of town in Yucatan where excavations are now
+taking place&mdash;1912).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For Menes compare Mayan Menes, wise men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Compare Mayan Chaac-mol, a leopard.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Compare Ozil, Mayan for well-beloved.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Moo, Mayan for Macaw.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Nik&eacute;, woman's name in Mayan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Recent (1912) discoveries of statues in Easter Island still
+further corroborate the sinking of Atlantis.
+</p>
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin-left: 0px;" summary="Table for visual layout/alignment of Atlantean character comparisons.">
+<tr><td>The&nbsp;</td><td>Atlantean&nbsp;</td><td>character&nbsp;</td><td><img src="images/atl-cs.png" alt="[Atlantean: C]" width="19" height="16" />&nbsp;</td><td>resembles&nbsp;</td><td>the&nbsp;</td><td>Easter Island </td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-cs.png" alt="[Easter Island: C]" width="19" height="15" />&nbsp;</td><td>(C)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-os.png" alt="[Atlantean: O]" width="19" height="24" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-os.png" alt="[Easter Island: O]" width="19" height="23" />&nbsp;</td><td>(O)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-es.png" alt="[Atlantean: E]" width="19" height="15" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-es.png" alt="[Easter Island: E]" width="19" height="18" />&nbsp;</td><td>(E)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-zs.png" alt="[Atlantean: Z]" width="19" height="13" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-zs.png" alt="[Easter Island: Z]" width="19" height="11" />&nbsp;</td><td>(Z)</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+It will be noticed that all the Atlantean characters are distinguished
+by additional curling strokes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In all probability she was the founder of Chicken-Itza, the
+capital of Yucatan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Types of Elementals still to be met with in certain
+localities (vide <i>Byeways of Ghostland</i>, published by Rider &amp; Son).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Compare Egyptian r&eacute;.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil was
+the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is every
+possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to Ireland,
+carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic&mdash;to which might be
+traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Probably a Vice Elemental.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were founded
+on it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in botany
+as <i>Circ&aelig;a</i>. It is found in damp, shady places and was used to a very
+large extent in medi&aelig;val sorcery.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>LEARNING TO SIN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the Popes
+hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are wont to
+entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there were no
+massive granite steps flanked with equally massive pillars&mdash;such as
+herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare glass bow-windows
+looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast betiled hall, with
+rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak staircases; no frescoed
+ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk draperies; and no sweet
+perfumery&mdash;only the smell, if one may so suddenly sink to a third-class
+expression&mdash;only the smell of rank tobacco and equally rank lager beer.
+No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis resided within a stone's throw of the five
+cent baths in Rutter Street&mdash;and that was the nearest they ever got to
+bathing. Their suite of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by
+eight feet, which served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir,
+kitchen, bedroom, and&mdash;from sheer force of habit, I was about to add
+bathroom; but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs
+and chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
+furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
+reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
+six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes&mdash;a pair of discarded
+overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck wrap, a
+yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round and rather
+rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited number of
+culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most important. Its
+handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for frying, roasting
+and boiling, did duty for a teapot and a slop-basin. They had no
+crockery. They had only one thing in abundance&mdash;namely, air; for the
+lower frame of the window having long lacked glass in it, a couple of
+pages of the <i>Examiner</i>, fixed in it, flapped dismally every time the
+wind came blowing down 216th Street.</p>
+
+<p>They had not lived there always. In the palmy days of work, before the
+firm smashed, they had aspired to what might properly be called
+diggings; and, moreover, had &quot;digged&quot; in respectable surroundings. It
+was the usual thing&mdash;the thing that is happening always, every hour of
+the day, in all the great cities of the world&mdash;starvation, through lack
+of employment. Civilization still shuts its eyes to everyday poverty.
+Who knows? Who cares? Who is responsible? No one. Is there a remedy? Ah!
+that is a question that requires time. Time&mdash;always time! Time for the
+politician, and time for the starving ones! Half the world thinks,
+whilst half the world dies; and the cause of it all is time&mdash;too much, a
+damned sight too much&mdash;time!</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson and Curtis could not grumble. They had their room&mdash;bare,
+dirty and well-ventilated&mdash;for next to nothing. Fifty cents a week! And
+they could furnish it as they pleased. Fancy that! What a privilege!
+They were glad of it all the same&mdash;glad of it in preference to the
+streets; and probably, when asleep, they thought of it as home. But on
+leaving Hamar's, that evening, they had fully resolved to convert their
+little room into a cemetery. What else could they do? What can any one
+do who has no money and no prospect of getting any, and who has reached
+the pitch of acute hunger? He has passed the stage of wanting work,
+because, if work were offered to him, he would not be in a fit state to
+do it&mdash;he would be too weak. Too weak to work! What a phenomenon!
+Yes&mdash;to all those who have never missed a day's meals. To others&mdash;no!
+They can understand&mdash;and understand only too well&mdash;the really poor who
+have long ceased to eat, cannot work&mdash;they are beyond it.</p>
+
+<p>When Curtis and Kelson staggered down the stairs of the house where
+Hamar lodged, they realized that unless something turned up pretty soon,
+it would be too late&mdash;they would be past the stage of caring for
+anything&mdash;too feeble to do anything but lie on the ground and pray that
+death would come quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Home?&quot; Kelson inquired, as they emerged on to the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hell!&quot; Curtis answered, and Kelson, taking it for granted that the
+terms were synonymous, at once headed for their garret.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't walk so confoundedly fast,&quot; Curtis gasped; &quot;this pain in my side
+is like a hundred stitches rolled in one. It fairly doubles me up. Ease
+down a bit, for heaven's sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson obeyed, and presently came to a dead halt before a dingy-looking
+restaurant. Both men leaned against the window and gazed wolfishly at
+the food. A warm, f&oelig;tid rush of air from under the grating at their
+feet tickled their nostrils and mocked their hunger with a mockery past
+endurance. Arranged on the window-sill was a miscellaneous collection of
+very smeary plates and dishes, containing an even more miscellaneous
+collection of food. A half-consumed ham, with more than a mere suspicion
+of dirt on its yellowish-white fat; some concoction in a bowl that might
+have been brawn made from some peculiarly liverish pig, or&mdash;from one of
+the many homeless mongrels that roam the streets at night; a pile of
+noxious-looking mussels, side by side with a glistening mass of
+particularly yellow whelks; a round of what purported to be beef&mdash;very
+fat and very underdone; some black shiny sausages, and a score or so of
+luridly red polonies. A similar assortment was to be seen on the counter
+behind which lolled an an&aelig;mic girl, in a dirty cotton blouse, and a much
+soiled sky-blue skirt.</p>
+
+<p>A month ago such an exhibition would have been an offence in the
+fastidious eyes of Messrs. Kelson and Curtis; but now it was otherwise.
+Their stomachs would have refused nothing short of garbage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Curtis's hands had left off clutching at his belt and were now
+hanging by his side; the fingers twitching to and fro in a manner that
+fascinated Kelson. &quot;Matt! Is there any logic in our starving?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, excepting that we haven't a cent between us!&quot; Kelson rejoined.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that,&quot; Curtis went on slowly, &quot;but&mdash;I mean&mdash;why should we starve
+when all this grub is within two inches of us! It's unreasonable&mdash;it's
+intolerable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doesn't the smell of it satisfy you?&quot; Kelson replied, attempting to
+force a smile, and failing dismally.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D&mdash;n the smell!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;It's the ham I want. I'd give my soul
+for a good munch at it. And just look at that tea, too! Don't you see it
+steaming over there? What wouldn't I give for just one cup! Ten minutes
+more and it may be too late. The pain will come on again&mdash;and it will be
+very doubtful if I shall ever get home. I'm close on the stage when one
+begins to digest one's own stomach. Curse it! I won't starve any longer!
+Matt! she's in there all by herself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I've been thinking,&quot; Kelson murmured, glancing uneasily up and down
+the street. &quot;Still she's a girl, Ed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's just it!&quot; Curtis whispered; &quot;it is because she is a girl. If she
+were a man, in our present condition we shouldn't stand a chance. Come!
+It's this or dying in the gutters. It's our one and only chance. Let's
+go in&mdash;have a feed&mdash;take what we can and make a bolt for it. If she
+tries to stop us we can settle her right enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without being too rough! There's no need to be too rough with her, Ed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't stick at much!&quot; Curtis answered. &quot;Occasions like these
+don't admit of chivalry. Come along! It's the ham I'm after.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis shuffled forward as he spoke, and the next moment Kelson and he
+were standing in front of the counter.</p>
+
+<p>The girl eyed Curtis very dubiously and it is more than likely would
+have refused to serve him had he been alone. But her expression changed
+on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who seldom
+fail to meet with the approval of women&mdash;there was a something in him
+they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined that
+something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you want?&quot; she inquired shortly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ham! Give me some of that ham over there, miss, and a cup of tea! Bread
+too!&quot; Curtis cried eagerly. &quot;Do you know what it is to have a twist on,
+miss? I have one on now&mdash;so please give us a full twenty-five cents'
+worth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson said nothing, but his eyes glistened, and the girl wondered as
+she passed him the polonies.</p>
+
+<p>Both men ate as they had never eaten before, and as they would not have
+eaten now had they paid any attention to the advice of hunger experts.
+However, they survived, and when they could eat no more they leaned back
+in their chairs to enjoy the sensation of returning&mdash;albeit, slowly
+returning&mdash;strength.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was the first to make a move. &quot;Matt,&quot; he murmured, &quot;we've about
+sat our sit. We'd better be off. You go and say a few nice words to the
+girl and make pretence of paying. I'll secure the ham&mdash;there's still a
+good bit left&mdash;and anything else I can grab. The moment I do this, throw
+these chairs on the ground so that the girl will fall over them when she
+makes a dash for me, which she is certain to do. We will then head
+straight away for 216th Street. Don't look so scared or she will think
+there is something up. She has never taken her eyes off you since we sat
+down!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's rather a nice girl!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I wish I didn't look quite
+such a blackguard&mdash;and&mdash;I wish I hadn't to be quite such a blackguard.
+Who'll pay for all this? Will she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't, anyway,&quot; Curtis sneered. &quot;Come, this is no time to be
+sentimental. It was a question of life and death with us, and we've only
+done what any one else would do in our circumstances. The girl won't
+lose much! Are you ready?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose, and Kelson, who was accustomed to obey him, reluctantly
+followed suit. A look almost suggestive of fear came into the girl's
+eyes as they encountered those of Curtis, and she shot a swift glance at
+an inner door. Then Kelson spoke, and as she turned her head towards
+him, her lips parted in a sort of smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nice night, miss, isn't it?&quot; Kelson said, halting half-way between the
+counter and the chairs. &quot;Aren't you a bit lonely here all by yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes,&quot; the girl laughed. &quot;But my mother's in the room there,&quot; and
+she nodded in the direction of the closed door. &quot;And one can't be dull
+when she's about. She's that there active as a rule, there's no keeping
+her quiet&mdash;only just at present&quot;&mdash;here she glanced apprehensively at
+Curtis&mdash;&quot;she's recovering from ague. Gets it every year about this time.
+Your friend seems to have kind of taken a fancy to our ham!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson looked at Curtis and his heart thumped. Curtis's right hand was
+getting ready to spring at the ham, whilst his left was creeping
+stealthily along the counter in the direction of a loaf of bread. Kelson
+slowly realized that an acute crisis in both their lives was at hand,
+and that it depended on him how it would end. He had never thought it
+possible to feel as mean as he felt now. Besides, his natural sympathy
+with women tempted him to stand by the girl and prevent Curtis from
+robbing her. He was still deliberating, when he saw two long dark
+objects, with lightning rapidity, swoop down on the plates and dishes.
+There was a loud clatter, and the next moment the whole place seemed
+alive with movement.</p>
+
+<p>A voice which in his confusion he did not recognize at once shouted&mdash;and
+seemingly from far away&mdash;&quot;Quick, you fool, quick! Fling down the chairs
+and grab those sausages!&quot; Whilst from close beside him&mdash;almost, he
+fancied, in his ears&mdash;came a wild shriek of &quot;Mother! Mother! We are
+being robbed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had the girl appealed to him to help her it is more than likely that
+Kelson, who was even yet undecided what course to adopt, would have
+offered her his aid; but the instant she acted on the defensive his mind
+was made up; a mad spirit of self-preservation swept over him&mdash;and
+dashing the chairs on the ground at her feet, he seized the sausages,
+and flew after Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, Curtis and Kelson, their arms full of spoil,
+clambered up the staircase of their lodgings, and reeled into their
+room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look!&quot; Curtis gasped, sinking into the chair. &quot;Look and see if we are
+followed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no one about!&quot; Kelson whispered, peering cautiously out of the
+window. &quot;Not a soul! I don't believe after that first rush across Rutter
+Street, any one noticed us. To leave off running was far the best thing
+to do. You are a perfect genius, Ed. I wonder if this sort of
+thing&mdash;er&mdash;thieving&mdash;is dormant in most of us? I say, old fellow, I wish
+I hadn't looked at that book of Hamar's. Do you know, directly I took it
+up, an extraordinary sensation of cunning came over me; and I declare,
+when I put it down, I felt it would take very little to make me a
+criminal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're both criminals now&mdash;in the eyes of the law&mdash;anyway!&quot; Curtis
+said. &quot;And now we've got so far there's no alternative but to go on!
+It's easier for a hundred camels to pass through the eye of a needle
+than for a clerk to get work, that's a fact. The markets are hopelessly
+overstocked&mdash;no one wants us! No one helps us! No one even thinks about
+us. The labouring man gets pity and cents galore&mdash;we get
+nothing!&mdash;nothing but rotten pay whilst we work, and when we're out of
+work, dosshouses or kerbstones. D&mdash;n clerks, I say. D&mdash;n everything!
+There's no justice in creation&mdash;there's no justice in anything&mdash;and the
+only people who prate of it are those who have never known what it is to
+want. Say, when shall we take the next lot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When we're obliged, not before!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;Or rather, you do as you
+like&mdash;and I'll do the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'm not going to commit suicide anyhow,&quot; Curtis sneered. &quot;We
+haven't the money to buy poison&mdash;and I've no mind to drown myself or cut
+my throat&mdash;they're too painful! If we don't go on doing what we've done
+to-night, what are we going to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust to luck,&quot; Kelson sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right&mdash;you trust to luck&mdash;but I won't trust any more in Providence,
+and that's a fact,&quot; Curtis retorted. &quot;We've been done enough. Now I'm
+for doing other people. Good-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He tumbled into the makeshift bed as he spoke; and in a few minutes,
+worn out after the unwonted exertions of the evening, both men were fast
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>They were at breakfast next morning&mdash;real <i>d&eacute;jeuner &agrave; la
+carte</i>&mdash;sausages, bread, water&mdash;and they were doing ample justice to it,
+when some one rapped at the door. For a few seconds there was silence.
+Their hearts stood still. Had they been followed, after all? Was it the
+police? Some one spoke&mdash;and they breathed again. It was Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This looks like starving, I must say!&quot; Hamar exclaimed, as he sniffed
+his way into the room and sat on the bed. &quot;Why, from what you fellows
+told me last night I thought you were cleared out. And here you are,
+stuffing like roosters! You look a bit surprised to see me, but you'll
+look more surprised, I reckon, when I tell you what brings me here. You
+remember that book?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson and Curtis nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;I read it after you left last night, and I've
+come to the conclusion that there's something in it that may be of use
+to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Us!&quot; Curtis ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! Us!&quot; Hamar mimicked. &quot;It contains full particulars of how we can
+get in touch with certain Occult Powers&mdash;that can give us money or
+anything else we want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot, of course!&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say that now. But, listen to me,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;Since I've read
+that book, I believe there's a lot more in Occultism than people
+imagine. You may recollect the name of the author of the book&mdash;Thomas
+Maitland? Well! to begin with, he impresses me as being truthful; and he
+not only believed in Magic but he practised it. If he hadn't gone into
+details I shouldn't think anything of it, but he's so darned thorough,
+and tells you exactly what you've got to do to get in touch with the
+Occult Powers and to practise sorcery. He learned it all from that old
+MS. he found, written by an Atlantean; and the Atlanteans, he says, were
+adepts in every form of Occultism. I tell you, this chap himself
+scoffed at it at first; and it was more out of curiosity, he says, than
+because he was convinced, that he began to experiment. He afterwards
+came to the conclusion that the Atlanteans were no fools. What they had
+written about the Occult was absolutely correct&mdash;there was another
+world, and it was possible to get in touch with it. Now, if Thomas
+Maitland was able to practise sorcery, why can't we? There was a gap of
+close on twenty thousand years between his time and that of Atlantis,
+and there's not much more than two hundred years between his day and
+ours. But, of course, if you're going to pooh-pooh the whole thing I
+won't trouble to tell you any more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Leon,&quot; Kelson ejaculated, &quot;magic and sorcery do seem a trifle out
+of date, don't they? Could any one look out of the window at what is
+going on in the streets below, and at the same time believe in fairies
+and hobgoblins? Still the book made a bit of an impression on me, so
+that I'm inclined to agree with you. Anyway, go ahead! Ed is agreeable,
+aren't you, Ed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis gave a sulky nod. &quot;I'm not averse to anything that may put us in
+the way of a livelihood,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, somewhat appeased, briefly informed them of the tests and other
+preliminaries necessary for the acquirement of the Black Art, and
+without more ado proposed that they&mdash;the three of them&mdash;should form a
+Syndicate and call it the Sorcery Company Limited. &quot;To begin with,&quot; he
+said, &quot;we might sell tricks and spells, and later on tackle something
+more subtle. Why, we could soon knock all the jugglers and doctors on
+the head&mdash;and make a huge fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is to say if it isn't all humbug!&quot; Curtis observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well&mdash;do you or don't you think it worth trying?&quot; Hamar cut in. &quot;You
+call me a Jew&mdash;but Jews, you know, have a tolerably cool head, and a
+keen faculty for business. They don't touch anything unless it is pretty
+certain to bring them in money. Will you try?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Y-e-s!&quot; Curtis said slowly; &quot;I'll try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you, Matt?&quot; Hamar queried. &quot;We must have three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mind trying,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I expect it will be only a try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That settles it, then!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Now, we'll get to business. To
+begin with we're all wholly occupied with things of this world&mdash;money
+chiefly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes music!&quot; Curtis said sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And sometimes girls,&quot; Kelson joined in. &quot;Music's a pose on Ed's part. I
+don't believe he really cares a bit for it. He's far too material.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what I want him to be!&quot; Hamar laughed. &quot;Girls are material enough
+too&mdash;especially when you take them out to supper. Anyhow, money is our
+first consideration, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To this there was general assent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The preliminary requirement is fixed then,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Now for the
+week of wild oats! Lying, stealing, cheating&mdash;anything to counteract the
+code of Moses! Let's take them in turn. Lying won't trouble us much.
+Every one lies. Lying is the stock-in-trade of doctors, lawyers, sky
+pilots, storekeepers&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And dentists!&quot; Curtis chimed in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And shop girls!&quot; Kelson added.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All women&mdash;rich as well as poor!&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;Lying is woman's
+birthright. She lies about her age, her looks, her clothes&mdash;everything.
+With a lie she sends callers away, and when she is in the mood,
+entertains them with lies. Women are born liars, but they are not the
+only liars. In these days of keen competition every one lies&mdash;every
+editor, publisher, undertaker, piano-tuner, dustman&mdash;they couldn't live
+if they didn't. Moreover lying is natural to us all. Every child lies as
+soon as it can speak; and education merely teaches him to lie the more
+effectually. Lying comes just as natural as sweating&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or kissing,&quot; Kelson interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or any of the other so-called vices,&quot; Hamar continued. &quot;So we can
+manage that all right. As to cheating&mdash;having nothing to cheat
+with&mdash;according to instructions we've got to keep in with each other, so
+present company is excepted&mdash;we must pass over that. Now&mdash;how about
+thieving!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never done any yet, so can't say,&quot; Curtis exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I either,&quot; Kelson put in rather hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I didn't suppose you had!&quot; Hamar laughed; &quot;though, after all,
+more than half the world does thieve&mdash;all employers steal labour from
+their employ&eacute;s, all tradesmen steal a profit&mdash;the wholesale man from the
+middleman&mdash;the middleman from the retailer. Every Government thieves.
+Look at England&mdash;righteous England! At one time or another she has
+stolen land in every part of the world. But theft is an ugly word. When
+statesmen steal it's called diplomacy, when the rich steal it's called
+kleptomania or business, and it's only when the poor steal that stealing
+is termed theft. We who have every excuse&mdash;we who are starving&mdash;will be
+content with&mdash;that is to say&mdash;we will only take&mdash;just enough to keep us
+alive&mdash;a few lumps of sugar, a handful of raisins, or a loaf of bread.
+How about that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might manage that,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;I might&mdash;but I don't want to get
+caught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mind stealing food so much,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;In the face of so
+much wealth&mdash;and waste too&mdash;it seems a bigger sin to starve than to
+steal a loaf of bread.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The lying and stealing are fixed then,&quot; Hamar laughed. &quot;What you have
+to do, too, is to make the most of every opportunity you can find of
+doing people&mdash;present company excepted&mdash;bad turns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how&mdash;in our present condition&mdash;we can do any one much
+harm,&quot; Curtis remarked. &quot;We haven't even the means to buy a tin sword,
+let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
+instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Possibly&mdash;but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!&quot; Hamar
+said. &quot;Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given you, and
+we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TESTS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door and
+walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see we are all right so far,&quot; he said. &quot;I wondered whether I should
+find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death. Have
+you experimented?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;We've done our best. In what way, we prefer not
+to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps there is no need,&quot; Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf which
+bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's feet
+which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A handsome
+overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his attention; but
+that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been there on the
+occasion of his last visit.) &quot;But you had better dry up now, Ed,&quot; he
+continued somewhat caustically, &quot;or there'll be no chance of forming the
+Sorcery Society; it will be dissolved before it's started. There's no
+need to ask if you've tried to carry out instructions as to thoughts, I
+see it&mdash;in your faces. I could never have believed one experimental week
+in badness would have made such a difference to your looks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You told us to try hard!&quot; Kelson murmured, &quot;and naturally we did. I
+reckon you've done the same by your expression. I should hardly have
+known you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It shows pretty clearly,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;what a lot of bad is latent in
+most people; and that the right circumstances only are needed to bring
+it out. Starvation, for instance, is calculated to bring out the evil in
+any one&mdash;no matter whom. But what puzzles me, is how we have escaped
+being caught!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a good sign,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It bears out what is written in the
+book. If you give your whole mind to doing wrong during this trial week
+you'll meet with no mishap. But you must be heart and soul in it. Hunger
+made us&mdash;hunger has been our friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;if we hadn't been well-nigh starving we shouldn't
+have been able to carry out the instructions quite so thoroughly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you, too, stolen?&quot; Curtis queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have certainly appropriated a few necessaries,&quot; Hamar said shortly,
+&quot;but I mean to stop now. We have higher game to fly at. Now, with regard
+to the tests. I have not been idle I can assure you. I have secured all
+the requisites. The mirror and black cat I&mdash;well, er&mdash;to use a
+conventionalism that comes in rather handy&mdash;the mirror and cat&mdash;I picked
+up. The skull I borrowed from a medical I know&mdash;the moth&mdash;er&mdash;from some
+one's private collection&mdash;and the elderberries, hemlock and chemicals I
+obtained from a drug store man in Battery Street with whom I used to
+deal. The moon will be full to-night so that we may as well begin. Will
+you come round to my room at eleven-thirty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They promised; and Hamar, as he took his departure, again glanced at
+the handsome fur coat hanging on the door.</p>
+
+<p>He was hardly out of hearing when Curtis looked across at Kelson. &quot;Do
+you think he recognised it!&quot; he whispered. &quot;You may bet he did, and he
+had only just stolen it himself! However, it's his own fault. He told us
+to lie and steal, and we've done his bidding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have indeed!&quot; Kelson sighed; &quot;at least you have. For my part I'd
+rather be content with food!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I needed clothes just as much as food!&quot; Curtis snarled. &quot;If I
+went about naked I should only be sent to prison&mdash;that's the law. It
+punishes you for taking clothes, and it punishes you for going without
+them. There's logic for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis and Kelson spent the rest of the day indoors; and at night
+sallied forth to Hamar's.</p>
+
+<p>The solitary attic&mdash;if one could thus designate a space of about three
+square feet&mdash;which comprised Hamar's lodging&mdash;had the advantage of being
+situated in the top storey of a skyscraper&mdash;at least a skyscraper for
+that part of the city. From its window could be seen, high above the
+serried ranks of chimney-pots on the opposite side of the street, those
+two newly erected buildings: William Carman's chewing gum factory in
+Hearnes Street, and Mark Goddard's eight-storied private residence in
+Van Ness Avenue; and, as if this were not enough architectural grace for
+the eye to dwell on, glimmering away to the right was the needle-like
+spire of Moss Bates's devil-dodging establishment in Branman Street;
+whilst, just behind it, in saucy mocking impudence, peeped out the
+gilded roof of the Knee Brothers' recently erected Cinematograph Palace.</p>
+
+<p>All this and more&mdash;much more&mdash;was to be seen from Hamar's outlook, and
+all for the sum of one dollar and a half per week. When Curtis and
+Kelson entered, the room was aglow with moonlight, and Hamar and the
+black cat were stealthily regarding one another from opposite corners of
+the room. From far away&mdash;from somewhere in the very base of the
+building, came the dull echo of a shout, succeeded by the violent
+slamming of a door; whilst from outside, from one of the many deserted
+thoroughfares below, rose the frightened cry of a fugitive woman.
+Otherwise all was comparatively still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a bit early!&quot; was Hamar's greeting, &quot;but better that than late.
+Everything is ready, and all we've got to do is to wait till twelve. Sit
+down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They did as they were bid. Presently the cat, forsaking its sanctuary,
+and ignoring Curtis's solicitations, glided across the floor, and
+climbing on to Kelson's knee, refused to budge. The trio sat in silence
+till a few minutes before midnight, when Hamar rose, and, selecting a
+spot where the moonbeams lay thickest, placed thereon the tub of water,
+in which&mdash;with its face uppermost&mdash;he proceeded to float a small mirror,
+set in a cheap wooden frame. He then calmly produced a pocket knife.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that for?&quot; Kelson inquired nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blood!&quot; Hamar responded. &quot;One of us must spare three drops. The
+conditions demand it&mdash;and after all the ham and sausages you two have
+eaten I think one of you can spare it best. Which of you shall it be?
+Come, there's no time to lose!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt has more blood than I have!&quot; Curtis growled; &quot;but why not the
+cat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would spoil our chances with it for the other experiment,&quot; Hamar
+said. &quot;It's a sulky, cross-grained brute, and would give us no end of
+trouble. Besides it can bite. Look here, let's draw lots!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis and Kelson were inclined to demur; but the proposed method was so
+in accordance with custom that there really did not seem any feasible
+objection to raise to it. Accordingly lots were drawn&mdash;and Hamar himself
+was the victim. Curtis laughed coarsely, and Kelson hid his smiles in
+the cat's coat. A neighbouring clock now began to strike twelve.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look alive, Leon!&quot; Curtis cried, nudging Kelson's elbow. &quot;Look alive or
+it will be too late. The Unknown is mighty particular to a few seconds.
+Let me operate on you. I've always fancied I was born to use the
+knife&mdash;that I've really missed my vocation. You needn't be
+afraid&mdash;there's no artery in the palm of your hand&mdash;you won't bleed to
+death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus goaded, Hamar pricked away nervously at his hand, and, after sundry
+efforts, at last succeeded in drawing blood; three drops of which he
+very carefully let fall in the tub.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish it was light so that we could see it,&quot; Curtis whispered in
+Kelson's ear. &quot;I believe Jews have different coloured blood to other
+people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though Kelson was apprehensive, Hamar did not appear to have heard; his
+whole attention was riveted on the mirror, on the face of which was a
+reflection of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew nothing would happen,&quot; Curtis cried, &quot;you had better wipe your
+knife or you'll be arrested for severing some one's jugular. Hulloa!
+what's up with the cat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was about to tell him to be quiet when Kelson caught his arm.
+&quot;Look, Leon! Look! What's the brute doing? Is it mad?&quot; Kelson gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar turned his head&mdash;and there crouching on the floor, in the
+moonlight, was the cat, its hair bristling on end and its green eyes
+ablaze with an expression which held all three men speechless. When they
+were at last able to avert their eyes a fresh surprise awaited them; the
+reflection of the moon in the mirror was red&mdash;not an ordinary red&mdash;not
+merely a colour&mdash;but red with a lurid luminosity that vibrated with
+life&mdash;with a life that all three men at once recognized as emanating
+from nothing physical&mdash;from nothing good.</p>
+
+<p>It vanished suddenly, quite as suddenly as it had come; and the
+reflection of the moon was once again only a reflection&mdash;a white, placid
+sphere.</p>
+
+<p>For some seconds no one spoke. Hamar was the first to break the silence.
+&quot;Well!&quot; he exclaimed, drawing a long breath; &quot;what do you think of
+that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you sure you weren't faking?&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear I wasn't,&quot; Hamar replied; &quot;besides could any one produce a
+thing like THAT? The cat didn't think it was a fake&mdash;it knew what it was
+right enough. Besides, why are your teeth chattering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are yours?&quot; Curtis retorted; &quot;why are Matt's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall we try the second?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Kelson and Curtis said in chorus. &quot;No! We've had enough for one
+night. We'll be off!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I'll come with you,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;after what has happened I
+don't quite relish sleeping here alone&mdash;or rather with that cat.
+Hi&mdash;Satan, where are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Satan was not visible. It had probably hidden under the bed, but as no
+one cared to look, its whereabouts remained undiscovered.</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of the sun, the terrors of the night wore off, and the
+trio separated. Hamar would on no account accept his friends' invitation
+to breakfast on the sausages and ham they had run such risks in
+procuring; he made hasty tracks for a snug restaurant in Bolter's
+Street, where he had a sumptuous repast for a dollar; and then slunk
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight all three met again, and at once commenced
+preparations for the second test. The question arose as to who should
+hold Satan. They all had vivid recollections of the cat's behaviour the
+previous night; consequently no one was anxious to officiate. Finally
+they drew lots, and fate settled on Curtis. An exciting chase now began.
+Satan, demonstrating his resentment of their treatment of him, at every
+turn, knocked over a water bottle, ripped the skin of Kelson's knuckles,
+and made his teeth meet in the fleshy part of Curtis's thumb.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! what are you up to?&quot; Curtis savagely demanded, as Hamar thrust
+a cup at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold your hand over it!&quot; Hamar said sharply. &quot;Don't suck it! We want
+blood for this test and for the next.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish the brute had bitten you!&quot; Curtis snarled; &quot;then, perhaps, you
+wouldn't be so precious keen on economics. You did right to name it
+Satan! and if it doesn't attract devils nothing will. I'm not going to
+touch it again. See if you can hold the beast by yourself, Matt! It
+seems to be less afraid of you than of either of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson called out: &quot;Puss!&quot;, and the cat at once came to him.</p>
+
+<p>As it was now striking twelve, Hamar carefully shook three drops of
+Curtis's blood from the cup on to Satan's back, while he instructed
+Kelson to rub the animal's coat with the palm of the hand. Kelson
+cautiously obeyed. There was a loud crackling and a shower of sparks, of
+the same lurid red colour as the reflection in the mirror on the
+previous night, flew out into the enveloping darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do!&quot; Hamar observed quietly. &quot;Test two is satisfactorily
+accomplished. We must be riper for Hell than we imagined. There is no
+need for you fellows to stay any longer. I can manage the third test
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as his colleagues had gone and he felt assured they were no
+longer within hearing, Hamar took a saucer from the mantelshelf, filled
+it half full of milk, and poured into it some colourless liquid out of a
+tiny phial labelled poison.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here pussy,&quot; he called out, softly. &quot;Pretty pussy, come and have your
+supper! Pussy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Satan, unable to resist the tempting sight of the milk, crept out of
+his hiding-place and quite unsuspiciously dipped his tongue into the
+saucer and lapped. Hamar, in the meanwhile went to a box at the foot of
+the bed and produced a sack. Then he slipped on his boots and coat, and
+opening the door of a cupboard near the head of the bed fetched out a
+small spade.</p>
+
+<p>He was now ready; and&mdash;so was pussy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That paves the way for test six,&quot; Hamar observed; &quot;no one can say I am
+a waster&mdash;I make use of everything&mdash;and every one;&quot; and so saying he
+tumbled the cat into the sack and hurried out.</p>
+
+<p>Some half-hour later he had returned to his room, and was busily engaged
+making preparations for test three. Letting a drop of Curtis's blood
+fall on the skull, he put the latter under his pillow, and retired to
+rest. He had slept for little over an hour, when he awoke with a start.
+The muffled sound of hammering&mdash;as of nails in a coffin&mdash;was going on
+all around him, and occasionally it seemed to him that something big and
+heavy stalked across the floor; but in spite of the fact that the room
+was illuminated with a red glow&mdash;the same lurid red as had appeared in
+tests one and two&mdash;nothing was to be seen. The phenomena lasted five or
+six minutes and then everything was again normal. Hamar was so terrified
+that he lay with his head under the bedclothes till morning, and vowed
+nothing on earth would persuade him to sleep in that room again. But
+sunlight soon restored his courage, and by the evening he was quite
+eager to go on with the next test. He had some difficulty in persuading
+any one to allow him the use of an oven for so pernicious a mixture as
+nightshade and hemlock; but at last he over-ruled the objections of some
+good-natured woman&mdash;the mother of one of the office boys at his former
+employer's&mdash;and test four proved as successful as the previous three.
+The preliminary part of test five was also successfully accomplished;
+but in carrying out the second part of it, Hamar all but met with
+disaster. He was walking along Kearney Street with the specially
+prepared hazel twig carefully concealed beneath his coat, when just
+opposite Saddler's jewelry store, he came across a child standing by
+itself. The nearest person being some fifty yards away, and no policeman
+within sight, Hamar concluded this was too good an opportunity to be
+lost. He whipped out the twig, and held it, in the manner prescribed, in
+front of the child. The effect was instantaneous. The child turned
+white as death, its eyes bulged with terror, and opening its mouth to
+its full extent it commenced to shriek and yell. Then it fell on the
+pavement; and clutching and clawing the air, and foaming at the mouth
+rolled over and over. People from every quarter flocked to the spot, and
+judging Hamar, from his proximity to the child, to be responsible for
+its condition, shouted for the police. The latter, however, arrived too
+late. Hamar, whose presence of mind had only left him for the moment
+seeing a bicycle leaning against a store door, jumped on it and soon put
+a respectable distance between himself and the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>That night the trio met once more in Hamar's room for test six. There
+was a wood fire in the grate, and on it a tin vessel containing the
+prescribed ingredients. Somewhat unpleasantly conspicuous amongst these
+ingredients were the death's-head moth, and the soil from Satan's grave.
+As soon as the mixture had been heated three hours, the vessel was
+removed, the fire extinguished, and the room made absolutely dark. Then
+the three sat close together and waited.</p>
+
+<p>On the stroke of two every article in the room began to rattle, whilst
+out of the tin vessel flew a blood red moth. After circling three times
+round each of the sitter's heads, the moth flew back again into the
+vessel, and the silence that ensued was followed by a soft tapping at
+the window, and the appearance of something, that resembled a big tube
+filled with a thick, pale blue fluid, made up of a mass of distinct
+veins. This tube floated into the room, and passing close to the three
+sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared in the wall,
+behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had broken,
+terminated the phenomena&mdash;the room again becoming pitch dark. But the
+three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
+manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
+huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INITIATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>San Francisco possesses one great advantage&mdash;you can easily get out of
+it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
+turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair as
+any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to one
+side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs can be
+traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of vines and
+weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and climbing to its
+heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the Coast Range&mdash;like
+a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay, sparkling and dancing
+in the sunlight&mdash;steamers flashing their path on its bosom; and tiny
+white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the city, its houses,
+small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas boxes; whilst the
+slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here and there are thick
+clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is partly hidden from view
+by a peak, which rises directly to the west, and is separated from that
+on which one is standing by a deep and thickly wooded valley.
+Descending, by means of a narrow winding path, one passes through dense
+clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash, and walnut trees, whose
+strong lateral branches afford ample protection from the sun, and at the
+same time furnish playgrounds to innumerable bright-eyed squirrels.
+Further down one comes upon gentle elms, succeeded by sassafras and
+locust&mdash;these, in their turn, succeeded by the softer linden, red bud,
+catalpa, and maple; and at the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom
+of the valley, wild shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and
+white poplars. Still following the path down the vale, in a southerly
+direction, one, at length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on
+all sides by trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and
+there, a gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip
+tree of some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and
+profuse blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and
+splendour; there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall
+and slender silver birch. The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most
+part, grass&mdash;soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green. The silence is
+such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San
+Francisco can be little over six miles distant. Though one may strain
+one's ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional
+tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of
+birds. It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so
+impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot
+essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.</p>
+
+<p>The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen&mdash;and the
+conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be a
+new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in
+opposition to Jupiter,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> Hamar and his confederates had to wait
+exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests,
+before they could proceed.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis
+and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and
+bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in
+hiding, they commenced operations.</p>
+
+<p>On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was
+clearly defined. This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner
+circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next
+drawn. In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the
+first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the
+seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven most
+malignant diseases. Within the second circle, and using the same centre,
+was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each part of
+the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and third circles,
+were written the names of the seven types of spirits most antagonistic
+to man's moral progress.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Hamar had brought with him a sack&mdash;the same he had used to transport
+Satan's corpse&mdash;and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby,
+that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was
+tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a good thing there is no member of the Society for the Prevention
+of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near,&quot; Kelson exclaimed, eyeing Hamar
+resentfully. &quot;Wouldn't a mouse or a rat have done as well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the ground;
+&quot;the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat. I got the
+poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just as much as
+you do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How are you going to do it?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar pointed to a chopper. &quot;The conditions say with steel,&quot; he said;
+&quot;only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
+other way. Now help me with the fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
+well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
+tin saucepan.</p>
+
+<p>With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle; and
+the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then poured
+into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic acid, 1
+ounce of verdigris, 1&frac12; ounces of hemlock leaves, &frac12; ounce of
+henbane, &frac34; ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of opium, 1
+ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of poppy-seed,
+&frac12; ounce of assaf&oelig;tida, and &frac12; ounce of parsley. As soon as the
+saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar threw into it
+two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where on earth did you get all those horrors?&quot; Curtis asked, shrinking
+away from the bag which had held them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here,&quot; Hamar said laconically. &quot;It's extraordinary what a lot of nasty
+things there are amid so much apparent beauty. I say apparent, because
+Nature is a champion faker. You have only to rake about in these bushes
+and you'll find snakes galore, whilst under pretty nearly every stone
+are centipedes. Like both of you, who never by any chance poke your
+noses outside the city, I fancied snakes and centipedes were confined to
+the prairies. But I know better now. Besides, where do you think I found
+the toads? Why, in the cellars under Meidlers'!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, our late governor's?&quot; Kelson cried.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar nodded. &quot;Yes!&quot; he said; &quot;under the very spot where we used to sit.
+The water's a foot deep in that cellar, and if there are as many toads
+in the cellars of the other houses in the block, then Sacramento Street
+has a corner in them. I'm going to be executioner now, so look the other
+way, Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson needed no second bidding; and sticking his fingers in his ears,
+walked to some little distance. When Hamar called him back, the deed was
+accomplished&mdash;the conditions prescribed in the rites had been
+observed&mdash;the tabby was in the saucepan on the fire, and its blood had
+been besprinkled on each of the seven sectors of the circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must now take our seats on the ground,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;I'd better be
+in the centre&mdash;you, Matt, on the right, and you, Ed, on the
+left&mdash;allowing three clear feet between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar showed them how to sit&mdash;with legs crossed and arms folded.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes no one spoke. The wind rustled through the bushes and
+an owl hooted. Kelson, feeling the night air cold, drew his overcoat
+tightly around and the others followed suit. Then Curtis said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you really think there's anything in it, Leon? Aren't we fools to go
+on wasting our time like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To which Hamar replied: &quot;Shut up! You were frightened enough doing the
+tests!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From afar off, away on the shimmering bosom of the bay came the faint
+hooting of a steamer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the <i>Oleander</i>!&quot; Kelson murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot!&quot; Curtis snapped. &quot;How do you know? You can't tell from this
+distance. It might be the <i>Daisy</i>, or the <i>San Marie</i>, or any other
+ship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson made no reply; Hamar blew his nose, and once again there was
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the moonlight had now become weird. From the trees and
+bushes crept legions of tall, gaunt shadows, and whilst some of these
+were explicable, there were others that certainly had no apparent
+counterparts in any of the natural objects around them. Even Curtis, in
+spite of his scoffing, showed no inclination to examine them too
+closely; but kept his face resolutely turned to the more cheery light of
+the fire. The soft, cool, sweet-scented air gradually acted as an
+an&aelig;sthetic, and Kelson and Curtis were almost asleep, when Hamar's voice
+recalled them sharply to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's just two!&quot; he said. &quot;Sit tight and listen while I repeat the
+incantation, and for goodness' sake keep cool if anything happens.
+Remember we are here with an object&mdash;namely&mdash;to get everything we can
+out of the Other World.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust you for that!&quot; Curtis sneered; &quot;but all the same nothing's going
+to happen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not sure of that,&quot; Hamar said, and after a brief pause began to
+repeat these words<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" /><a href="#Footnote_18_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Morbas from the mountains,<br /></span>
+<span>Where flow malignant fountains.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Vampires from the passes,<br /></span>
+<span>Where grow blood-sucking grasses,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Vice Elementals pretty<br /></span>
+<span>Give ear unto our ditty<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Planetians, forms so fearful,<br /></span>
+<span>We inform you, eager, tearful,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Clanogrians, things of sorrow.<br /></span>
+<span>Postpone not till to-morrow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Barrowvians, shades seclusive,<br /></span>
+<span>Be not to us exclusive,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Earthbound spirits of the Dead<br /></span>
+<span>Approach with grim and noiseless tread&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He then got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six
+drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux
+vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former
+position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground,
+the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a long
+pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson and
+Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar then cried: &quot;Creastie havoonen balababoo!&quot;; which Hamar explained
+was Atlantean for &quot;devil of the damned appear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He won't!&quot; Curtis muttered, &quot;because he doesn't exist. There are
+devils&mdash;Meidler Brothers were devils&mdash;but there is no one devil! It's
+all&mdash;&mdash;&quot; He suddenly stopped and an intense hush fell upon them all.</p>
+
+<p>A cloud obscured the moon, the fire burned dim, and the gloom of the
+amphitheatre thickened till the men lost sight of each other. A cold air
+then rose from the ground and fanned their nostrils. Something flew past
+their heads with an ominous wail; whilst from the direction of the fire
+came a hollow groan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The advent of the Unknown,&quot; Hamar murmured, &quot;shall be heralded in by
+the shrieking of an owl, the groaning of the mandrake&mdash;there is mandrake
+in the saucepan&mdash;the croaking of a toad&mdash;we haven't had that yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, there it is!&quot; Kelson whispered&mdash;and whilst he was speaking there
+came a dismal croak, croak, and the swaying and crying of an
+ash&mdash;&quot;Hush!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They listened&mdash;and all three distinctly heard the swishing of a slender
+tree trunk as it hissed backwards and forwards. Then, a cry so horrid,
+harsh and piercing that even the sceptical, sneering Curtis gave vent to
+an expression of fear. Again a hush, and increasing darkness and cold.
+Kelson called out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't do that, Leon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not doing anything,&quot; Hamar said testily. &quot;Pull yourself together.&quot;
+A moment later he said to Curtis, &quot;It's you, Curtis. Shut up. This is no
+time for monkeying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are both either mad or dreaming,&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;I haven't
+stirred from my seat. Hulloa! What's that? What's that, Leon?
+There&mdash;over there! Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Curtis spoke they all three became conscious of living things around
+them&mdash;things that moved about, silently and surreptitiously and conveyed
+the impression of mockery. The hills, the valley, the trees were full of
+it&mdash;the whole place teemed with it&mdash;teemed with silent, subtle, stealthy
+mockery. The senses of the three men were now keenly alive, but a dead
+weight hung upon their limbs and rendered them useless. And as they
+stared into the gloom, in sickly fear, the firelight flickered and they
+saw shadows, such as the moon, when low in the heaven, might fashion
+from the figure of a man; but yet they were shadows neither of man, nor
+God, nor of any familiar thing. They were dark, vague, formless and
+indefinite, and they quivered&mdash;quivered with a quivering that suggested
+mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the shadows disappeared; the flickering of the flames ceased;
+and in the place of the fire appeared a seething, writhing mass of what
+looked like white luminous snakes. And in the midst of this mass sprang
+up a cylindrical form, which grew and grew until it attained a height of
+ten or twelve feet, when it remained stationary and threw out branches.
+And the three men now saw it was a tree&mdash;a tree with a sleek, pulpy,
+semi-transparent, perspiring trunk full of a thick, white, vibrating,
+luminous fluid; and that it was laden with a fruit, in shape resembling
+an apple, but of the same hue and material as the trunk. Spread out on
+the ground around it, were its roots, twitching and palpitating with
+repulsive life, and bare with a bareness that shocked the senses. It was
+so utterly and inconceivably unlike what Hamar, Curtis and Kelson had
+imagined the Unknown&mdash;and yet, withal, so monstrous (not merely in its
+shape but in its suggestions), and so vividly real and livid, that they
+were not merely terrified&mdash;they were stricken with a terror that
+rendered them dumb and helpless. And as they looked at it, from out the
+trunk, shot an enormous thing&mdash;white and glistening, and fashioned like
+a human tongue. And after pointing derisively at them, it withdrew;
+whereupon all the fruit shook, as if convulsed with unseemly laughter.
+They then saw between the foremost branches of the tree a big eye. The
+white of it was thick and pasty, the iris spongy in texture, and the
+pupil bulging with a lurid light. It stared at them with a steady
+stare&mdash;insolent and quizzical. Hamar and his friends stared back at it
+in fascinated horror, and would have continued staring at it
+indefinitely, had not Hamar's mercenary instincts come to their rescue.
+He recollected that time was pressing, and that unless he got into
+communication with the strange thing at once, according to the book, it
+would vanish&mdash;and he might never be able to get in touch with it again.
+Thus egged on, he made a great effort to regain his courage, and at
+length succeeded in forcing himself to speak. Though his voice was weak
+and shaking he managed to pronounce the prescribed mode of address,
+viz.:&mdash;&quot;Bara phonen etek mo,&quot; which being interpreted is, &quot;Spirit from
+the Unknown, give ear to me.&quot; He then explained their earnest desire to
+pay homage to the Supernatural, and to be initiated into the mysteries
+of the Black Art. When Hamar had concluded his address, the
+anticipations of the three as to how it would be answered, or whether it
+would be answered at all&mdash;were such that they were forced to hold their
+breath almost to the point of suffocation. If the Thing <i>could</i> speak
+what would its voice be like? The seconds passed, and they were
+beginning to prepare themselves for disappointment, when suddenly across
+the intervening space separating them from the Unknown, the reply
+came&mdash;came in soft, silky, lisping tones&mdash;human and yet not human, novel
+and yet in some way&mdash;a way that defied analysis&mdash;familiar. Strange to
+say, they all three felt that this familiarity belonged to a far back
+period of their existence, no less than to a more modern one&mdash;to a
+period, in fact, to which they could affix no date. And, although a
+perfect unity of expression suggested that the utterance of the Thing
+was the utterance of one being only, a certain variation in its tones, a
+rising and falling from syllable to syllable, led them to infer that the
+voice was not the voice of one but of many.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are anxious to acquire knowledge of the Secrets associated with the
+Great Atlantean Magic?&quot; the voice lisped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are!&quot; Hamar stammered, &quot;and we are willing to give our souls in
+exchange for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Souls!&quot; the voice lisped, whilst trunk and branches swayed lightly, and
+the air was full of silent merriment. &quot;Souls! you speak in terms you do
+not understand. To acquire the secrets of Black Magic, all you have to
+do is to agree that during a brief period&mdash;a period of a few months, you
+will live together in harmony; that you will make use of the powers you
+acquire to the detriment of all save yourselves; that you will never
+allow your minds to revert to anything spiritual; and&mdash;that you will
+abstain from&mdash;marrying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we succeed in carrying out the conditions?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p class="cs" style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;"><a name="ILLUSTRATION2" id="ILLUSTRATION2" /><img src="images/image2.jpg" width="434" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THE INITIATION]" /><br />
+THE INITIATION</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then,&quot; the voice replied, &quot;you will retain free, untrammelled
+possession of your knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For how long?&quot; Curtis queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the natural term of your lives&mdash;that is to say, for as long as you
+would have lived had you never been initiated into the secrets of
+magic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we fail?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will pass into the permanent possession of the Unknown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does that mean we shall die the moment we fail?&quot; Kelson inquired
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Die!&quot; the voice lisped. &quot;Again you speak in terms you do not
+understand. You may be sent for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say&mdash;in perfect harmony.&quot; Hamar put in. &quot;Does that mean without a
+quarrel, however slight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It means without a quarrel that would lead to separation. The moment
+you disunite the compact is broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What advantages will the secrets bring us?&quot; Hamar inquired. &quot;Can we
+gain unlimited wealth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; the voice replied. &quot;Unlimited wealth and influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And health?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
+perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am ready if you fellows are,&quot; Hamar whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;Anything is better than the life we are living at
+present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, too,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I agree with Ed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well then,&quot; the voice once more lisped. &quot;Each of you take a fruit
+and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot back out
+of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't be
+afraid, step up here and help yourselves&mdash;one apiece&mdash;mind, no more.&quot;
+And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree and
+everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on!&quot; Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. &quot;Don't waste time. You've
+decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps. I'll go
+first,&quot; and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and began to eat
+it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad,&quot; Curtis muttered, with a
+retch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, too,&quot; Kelson whispered. &quot;It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I am,
+will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
+them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it repelled
+but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as the voice&mdash;as
+enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their former positions
+on the ground, and the voice once again addressed them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use of
+the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
+sorcery&mdash;you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
+practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period of
+your compact, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> twenty-one months, and at the end of every three
+months&mdash;when a fresh stage is reached&mdash;you will receive fresh powers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
+receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
+presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the second stage&mdash;exactly three months from to-day&mdash;you will receive
+the gift of second-sight; the power of separating your immaterial from
+your material body and projecting it, anywhere you will, on the physical
+plane; and, to a large extent, you will be enabled to circumvent
+gravity. Thus you will be able to perform all manner of jugglery
+tricks&mdash;tricks that will set the whole world gaping. Profit by them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the third stage you will possess the secrets of invisibility; of
+walking on the water; of breathing under the water; of taming wild
+beasts; and of understanding their language.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the fourth stage you will understand how to inflict all manner of
+diseases, and work all sorts of spells; such, for instance, as
+bewitching milk, causing people to have fits, bad dreams, etc. You will
+also know how to create plagues&mdash;plagues of insects, or of any other
+noxious thing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the fifth stage you will possess absolute knowledge of the art of
+medicine and be able to cure every ailment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the sixth stage you will acquire the power of producing vampires and
+werwolves from the human being, and of transforming people from the
+human to any animal guise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the seventh and final stage you will be given the complete mastery
+of every art and science&mdash;including astrology, astronomy, necromancy,
+etc.; and for this stage is reserved the greatest power of all&mdash;namely,
+the complete dominion over woman's will and affections. The powers of
+creating life, and of extending life beyond the now natural limit, and
+of avoiding accidents, will never be conferred on you. Neither shall you
+learn, not at least during your physical existence&mdash;who or what we are,
+or the secrets of creation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Each successive stage will cancel the preceding one&mdash;that is to say,
+the powers you have acquired in the first stage will be annulled on your
+arriving at the second stage, and so on. But if you carry out your
+compact faithfully&mdash;that is to say, if at the end of the twenty-one
+months you are still united&mdash;all the powers you have held hitherto, in
+the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and remain in your
+possession permanently. Have you anything to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Hamar answered; &quot;I fully understand all you have explained to us
+and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
+serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
+much&mdash;but I must say, it seems very remote&mdash;the prospect of gaining such
+tremendous powers&mdash;powers that will give us practically everything we
+want&mdash;save youth&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Youth you will never regain,&quot; lisped the voice. &quot;And elixirs of life,
+surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
+planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn the
+most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people youthful in
+appearance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?&quot; Kelson nerved himself to
+ask.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will be revealed to you in various ways&mdash;sometimes when asleep.
+You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
+time to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money,&quot; Curtis remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; the voice replied, &quot;you will not be in want of money. Have you
+anything more to ask?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
+rustling of the wind. The darkness then lifted; but nothing was to be
+seen&mdash;nothing save the trees and bushes, moon and stars.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This is a very sinister sign in astrology, denoting the
+presence of evil influences of all kinds.&mdash;(<i>Author's note.</i>)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> According to Atlantean ideas these spirits were:&mdash;Vice
+Elementals; Morbas (or Disease Elementals); Clanogrians (or malicious
+family ghosts, such as Banshees, etc.); Vampires; Barrowvians, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> a
+grotesque kind of phantasm that frequents places where prehistoric man
+or beast has been interred; Planetians, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> spirits inimical to
+dwellers on this earth that inhabit various of the other planets; and
+earthbound spirits of such dead human beings as were mad, imbecile,
+cruel and vicious, together with the phantasms of vicious and mad
+beasts, and beasts of prey.&mdash;(<i>Author's note</i>.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> They are a literal translation of the Atlantean by Thos.
+Maitland, and are very nearly identified with forms of spirit invocation
+used in Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and among the Red Indians of North
+and South America.&mdash;(<i>Author's note</i>.)</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST POWER</h3>
+
+
+<p>After their rencontre with the Unknown, Hamar and his companions did not
+get back to their respective quarters till the sun was high in the
+heavens, and the streets of the city were beginning to vibrate with the
+rattle and clatter of traffic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's all very well&mdash;this wonderful compact of ours,&quot; Curtis grumbled,
+&quot;but I'm deuced hungry, and Matt and I haven't a cent between us. As we
+went all that way last night to oblige you, Leon, I think it is only
+fair you should stand us treat. I'll bet you have some nickels stowed
+away, somewhere, in those pockets of yours&mdash;it wouldn't be you if you
+hadn't! What do you say, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think as you do,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;We've stood by Leon, he should
+stand by us. How much have you, Leon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How much have you?&quot; Curtis echoed, &quot;come, out with it&mdash;no jew-jewing
+pals for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might manage a dollar,&quot; Hamar said ruefully, as the prospect of a
+good meal all to himself, at his favourite restaurant, faded away.
+&quot;Where shall we go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of
+prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.
+He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty
+woman, and something&mdash;a kind of intuition he had never had before&mdash;told
+him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented with her present
+situation; that she was engaged to be married to a pen driver at
+Hastings &amp; Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she had a mother, of
+over seventy, whom she kept. All this came to Kelson like a flash of
+lightning.</p>
+
+<p>Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped
+Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm,
+and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by
+two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas. It
+still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the good of coming to a place like this?&quot; Hamar demanded, as
+soon as he had freed himself from Kelson's clutches. &quot;We can't get
+breakfast here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt's mad, that's what's the matter with him,&quot; Curtis added in
+disgust. &quot;Let's get out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned to go&mdash;then, halted&mdash;and stood still. He appeared to be
+listening. &quot;What's up with you?&quot; Hamar asked. &quot;Both you fellows are
+behaving like lunatics this morning&mdash;there's not a pin to choose between
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're playing cards, that's all,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;Can't you hear them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar shook his head. &quot;Not a sound,&quot; he said. &quot;Just look at Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the
+bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner that
+was peculiar to him&mdash;a manner seldom without effect upon girls of his
+class&mdash;&quot;I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?
+Jerusalem! Haven't I met you somewhere before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled. &quot;As like as
+not,&quot; she said. &quot;I go pretty near everywhere! What do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Kelson soliloquized; &quot;breakfast is what we are particularly
+anxious for&mdash;but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why did you come here?&quot; the girl queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because of you! Simply because of you,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;You hypnotized
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast,&quot; the girl
+laughed, &quot;though we don't provide them as a rule before nine. Indeed,
+the management have only just decided&mdash;this morning&mdash;on providing them
+at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How odd!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why odd?&quot; the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her
+curls before a mirror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment! Had I come
+here yesterday it would have been useless. As I said, you hypnotized me.
+Evidently fate intended us to meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe in fate?&quot; the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders. &quot;I
+believe in nothing&mdash;least of all in men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say so!&quot; Kelson observed, before he knew what he was saying. &quot;And
+yet you have just got engaged to one. But you've got a bad attack of the
+pip this morning, you have had enough of it here&mdash;you want to get
+another post.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl ceased doing her hair and eyed him in amazement. &quot;Well!&quot; she
+said. &quot;Of all the queer men I've ever met you are the queerest. Are you
+a seer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar observed, suddenly joining in. &quot;He's only very hungry, miss.
+Hungry body and soul! hungry all over. And so are we.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, then, go into the room over there,&quot; the girl cried, pointing in
+the direction of a half-open door, &quot;and breakfast will be brought you in
+half a jiffy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's that playing cards?&quot; Curtis asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you know any one is playing cards?&quot; the girl queried with an
+incredulous stare. &quot;You can't see through walls, can you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! and I'm hanged if I can explain,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;I seem to hear
+them. There are two&mdash;one is called Arnold, and the other Lemon, or some
+such name, and they are rehearsing certain card tricks they mean to play
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's right,&quot; the girl said, &quot;two men named Arnold and Lemon are here.
+They were playing all last night with two of the clerks in Willows Bank,
+in Sacramento Street, and they cleared them out of every cent. You knew
+it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I didn't,&quot; Curtis growled, &quot;I don't lie for fun, and I'm just as
+much in a fog, as to how I know, as you are. Let's have breakfast now,
+and we'll look up these two gents afterwards, if they haven't gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your friend's a brute, I don't like him,&quot; the girl whispered to Kelson.
+&quot;Let him lose all he's got&mdash;you stay out here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing I should like better,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;it's a bargain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
+bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
+Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
+directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
+building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
+drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a funny thing,&quot; one of them exclaimed, &quot;we can't be allowed to sit
+here in peace&mdash;when there's so much spare space in the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We beg your pardon for intruding,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;but my friend and I
+came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri way,
+and don't often get the chance to run up to town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Farmers, are you!&quot; the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
+both closely. &quot;You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were also
+wanting to have a game&mdash;would you care to join us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means,&quot; Curtis at once exclaimed. &quot;What do you play?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poker!&quot; the man said, &quot;Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
+which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen before,
+though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute.&quot; He then
+proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick, the
+secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wouldn't give you a cent for it!&quot; Curtis snapped. &quot;Any one can see
+how it is done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't!&quot; the man retorted, turning red. &quot;I'll wager twenty dollars
+you can't.&quot; Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He had
+seen through it at a glance&mdash;there appeared no difficulty in it at all;
+and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the day
+before, he would have utterly failed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;give me the money,&quot;&mdash;and the man complied with an oath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any more tricks?&quot; Curtis asked complacently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know heaps,&quot; the man rejoined. &quot;There's one you won't guess&mdash;the
+seven card trick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He did it. And so did Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well I'm&mdash;&mdash;&quot; the man called Lemon ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
+Prince and Slipper, Arnold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&quot; he said, &quot;that's the simplest of all! See!&quot; And it was done. &quot;You
+two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not shine
+to-night. How about a game of Don?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
+out, &quot;It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve. You've
+some up yours, too, Arnold&mdash;the deuce of clubs and the deuce of hearts.
+Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears on the
+backs. I'll show you how.&quot; He told the cards correctly&mdash;there was no
+gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you, anyway?&quot; Lemon asked; &quot;tecs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind what we are!&quot; Curtis said savagely. &quot;We know what you
+are&mdash;and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay us
+to hold our tongues?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pay you!&quot; Lemon hissed. &quot;Why, damn you&mdash;nothing. We're not bankers. All
+we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That might not be so easy as you imagine,&quot; Hamar interposed. &quot;We would
+make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to terms?
+We'll not be over exorbitant&mdash;and consider the convenience of not having
+to shift your quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,&quot; Lemon
+said. &quot;Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these. Farmers,
+indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
+dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
+means dissatisfied with their bargain.</p>
+
+<p>They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
+engaged in a desperate <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with the young lady at the bar,
+who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the room
+her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
+o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
+such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
+rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
+allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.</p>
+
+<p>On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first of
+all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
+themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took rooms
+at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's boot
+store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob Hill
+dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde&mdash;of the bonanza
+and railroad set&mdash;and making eyes at all the pretty wives and daughters
+they met, cogitated fresh devices for making money. As they sauntered
+across Pacific Avenue, in the direction of Californian Street, Kelson
+suddenly gave vent to a whistle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the deuce is wrong with you?&quot; Hamar exclaimed. &quot;Seen your
+grandmother's ghost?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! but I've seen the inner readings of that lady yonder,&quot; Kelson
+replied, indicating with a jerk of his finger a fashionably dressed
+woman walking towards them on the other side of the road. &quot;The deuce
+knows how it all comes to me, but I know everything about her, just the
+same as I did with the girl in the dive&mdash;though I've never seen her
+before. She is the wife of D.D. Belton, the cotton magnate, who lives
+in a big, white house at the corner of Powell Street&mdash;and a beauty, I
+can assure you. Supposed to be most devoted to her husband, she is now
+on her way to keep an appointment with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe of
+Sancta Maria's Church in Appleyard Street, with whom she has been
+holding clandestine meetings for the past six months.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whew!&quot; Hamar ejaculated. &quot;You speak as if it was all being pumped into
+you by some external agency&mdash;automatically.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's just about what I feel!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I feel as if it were some
+one else saying all this&mdash;some one else speaking through me. Yet I know
+all about that woman, just as much as if I had been acquainted with her
+all my life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the first power,&quot; Hamar said excitedly, &quot;the power of divination.
+It takes that form with you, and the form of card tricks with Ed&mdash;with
+me nothing so far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what shall I do?&quot; Kelson cried. &quot;How can I benefit by it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can't you?&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;Why, blackmail her! If it is true,
+she will pay you anything to keep your mouth shut. If once you can tell
+a woman's secret, your future's made. All San Francisco will be at your
+mercy&mdash;God knows who'll escape! After her at once, you idiot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now?&quot; Kelson gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! Now! Follow her to Calthorpe's and waylay her as she comes out.
+You can refer to us as witnesses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel a bit of a blackguard,&quot; Kelson pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You look it, anyway,&quot; Curtis grinned. &quot;But cheer up&mdash;it's the clothes.
+Clothes are responsible for everything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a little persuasion Kelson gave in, but he had to make haste as
+the lady was nearly out of sight. She took a taxi from the stand
+opposite Kitson's hotel, and Kelson took one, too. Two hours later,
+raising his hat, he accosted her as she stood tapping the pavement of
+Battery Street with a daintily shod foot, waiting to cross. &quot;Mrs.
+Belton, I think,&quot; he said. The lady eyed him coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; she said, &quot;what do you want? Who are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name can scarcely matter to you,&quot; Kelson responded, &quot;though my
+business may. I have been engaged to watch you, and am fully posted as
+to your meetings and correspondence with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; the lady said, her cheeks flaming. &quot;You have
+made a mistake&mdash;a very serious mistake for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Kelson's heart failed. He was still a clerk, with all the
+humility of an office stool and shining trousers' seat thick on him,
+whilst she was a <i>grande dame</i> accustomed to the bows and scrapes of
+employers as well as employed.</p>
+
+<p>Several people passed by and stared at him&mdash;as he thought&mdash;suspiciously,
+and he felt that this was the most critical time in his life, and unless
+he pulled through, smartly in fact, he would be done once and for all.
+If he didn't make haste, too, the woman would undoubtedly call a
+policeman. It was this thought as well as&mdash;though, perhaps, hardly as
+much as&mdash;the look of her that stimulated Kelson to action. He hated
+behaving badly to women; but was this thing, dressed in a skirt that
+fitted like a glove and showed up every detail of her figure&mdash;this thing
+with the paint on her cheeks, and eyebrows, and lips&mdash;artistically done,
+perhaps, but done all the same&mdash;this thing all loaded with jewellery and
+buttons&mdash;this thing&mdash;a woman! No! She was not&mdash;she was only a
+millionaire's plaything&mdash;brainless, heartless&mdash;a hobby that cost
+thousands, whilst countless men such as he&mdash;starved. He
+detested&mdash;abominated such luxuries! And thus nerved he retorted,
+borrowing some of her imperiousness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you deny, madam, that for the past two hours you've been sitting on
+the sofa of the end room of the third floor of No. 216, Market Street,
+flirting with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe, whom you call 'Mickey-moo'; that
+you gave him a photo you had taken at Bell's Studio in Clay Street,
+specially for him; that you gave him five greenbacks to the value of one
+hundred and fifty dollars, and that you've planned a moonlight promenade
+with him to-morrow, when your husband will be in Denver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't talk so loud,&quot; the lady said in a low voice. &quot;Walk along with me
+a little and then we shan't be noticed. I see you do know a good
+deal&mdash;how, I can't imagine, unless you were hidden somewhere in the
+room. Who has employed you to watch me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That, madam, I can't say,&quot; Kelson truthfully responded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I can't think,&quot; the lady said, &quot;unless it is some woman enemy. But,
+after all, you can't do much since you hold no proofs&mdash;your word alone
+will count for nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, but I have strong corroborative evidence,&quot; Kelson retorted. &quot;I have
+the testimony of at least two other people who know quite as much as I
+do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adventurers like yourself,&quot; the lady sneered. &quot;My husband would neither
+believe you nor your friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He would believe your letters, any way,&quot; said Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My letters!&quot; the lady laughed, &quot;You've no letters of mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, but I know where the correspondence that has passed between you and
+the Rev. J. T. Calthorpe is to be found. He has sixty-nine letters from
+you all tied up in pink ribbon, locked up in the bottom drawer of the
+bureau in his study at the Vicarage. Some of the letters begin with
+'Dearest, duckiest, handsomest Herby'&mdash;short for Herbert; and others,
+'Fondest, blondest, darlingest Micky-moo!' Some end with 'A thousand and
+one kisses from your loving and ever devoted Francesca,' and others with
+'Love and kisses ad infinitum, ever your loving, thirsting, adoring one,
+Toosie!' Nice letters from the wife of a respectable Nob Hill magnate to
+a married clergyman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone.
+&quot;I can't understand it,&quot; she panted; &quot;somebody has played me false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is on his way to Sacramento, where he has to
+remain till to-morrow,&quot; Kelson went on pitilessly, &quot;it will be the
+easiest thing in the world to get those letters. I have merely to call
+at the house and tell his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what good will that do you?&quot; the lady asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Revenge! I hate the rich,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I would do anything to injure
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a Socialist?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An Anarchist! But come, you see I know all about you and that I have
+you completely in my power. If once either your husband or Mrs.
+Calthorpe gets hold of those letters&mdash;you and your lover would have a
+very unpleasant time of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe I am&mdash;at all events I'm talking to one. But that's neither here
+nor there. I want money. Give me a thousand dollars and you'll never
+hear from me again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blackmail! I could have you arrested!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and I would tell the court the whole history of your intrigues!
+That wouldn't help you,&quot;&mdash;and Kelson laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could I count on you not molesting me again if I were to pay you?&quot; the
+lady said mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you ever speak the truth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You needn't judge every one by your own standard of morality&mdash;the
+standard set up by the millionaire's wife,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I swear that
+if you pay me a thousand dollars I will never trouble you again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady grew thoughtful, and for some minutes neither of them spoke.
+Then she suddenly jerked out: &quot;I think, after all, I'll accept your
+proposal. Wait outside here and you shall have what you want within an
+hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not good enough,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I prefer to come with you to your house
+and wait there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady protested, and Kelson consented to wait in the street outside
+her house, where, eventually, she delivered the money into his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've kept my word,&quot; she said, &quot;and if you're half a man you'll keep
+yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson reassured her, and more than pleased with himself, made for the
+hotel, where the three of them were now stopping.</p>
+
+<p>This was merely a beginning. Before the day was out he had secured two
+more victims. No woman whose character was not without blemish was safe
+from him&mdash;his wonderful newly acquired gift enabling him to detect any
+vice, no matter how snugly hidden. And this wonderful power of
+discernment brought with it an expression of mystery and penetration
+which, by enhancing the effect of the power, made the application of it
+comparatively easy. Kelson had only to glide after his victim, and with
+his eyes fixed searchingly on her, to say, &quot;Madam, may I have a word
+with you?&quot;&mdash;and the battle was more than half won&mdash;the women were too
+fascinated to think of resistance.</p>
+
+<p>For example, shortly after his initial adventure, he saw a very smartly
+dressed woman in Van Ness Avenue peep about furtively, and then stop and
+speak to a little child, who was walking with its nurse. Divination at
+once told him everything&mdash;the lady was the mother of the child, but its
+father was not her legitimate husband, W.S. Hobson, the millionaire
+mine owner.</p>
+
+<p>When Kelson courteously informed her he was in possession of her
+secret&mdash;a secret she had felt positively certain only one other person
+knew, she went the colour of her pea-green sunshade and attempted to
+remonstrate. But Kelson's appearance, no less than his marvellous
+knowledge of her life, and character dumbfounded her&mdash;she was simply
+paralysed into admission; and before he left her, Kelson had added
+another thousand dollars to his hoard.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, close to the Academy of Science in Market Street, he saw a
+lady get out of a taxi and quickly enter a pawnbroker's. Her whole life
+at once rose up before him. She was Ella Crockford, the wife of the
+Californian Street Sugar King, and, unknown to her husband, she spent
+her afternoons at a gambling saloon in Kearney Street, where she ran
+through thousands.</p>
+
+<p>She was now about to pledge her husband's latest present to her&mdash;a
+diamond tiara, one of the most notable pieces of jewellery in the
+country&mdash;in the hope that she would soon win back sufficient money at
+cards to redeem it.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson stopped her as she came out, and in a marvellously few words,
+proved to her that he knew everything. Her amazement was beyond
+description.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must be a magician,&quot; she said, &quot;because I'm certain no one saw me
+take my jewel-case out of the drawer&mdash;no one was in the room! And as I
+put it in my muff immediately, no one could have seen it as I left the
+house. Besides, I never told a soul I intended pawning it, so how is it
+possible you could know&mdash;and be able to repeat the whole of the
+conversation I had with Walter Le-Grand, to whom I lost so heavily last
+night? Tell me, how do you know all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson would tell her nothing&mdash;nothing beyond her own sins and
+misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have nothing to give you,&quot; she told him. &quot;I dare not ask my husband
+for more money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, nothing!&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;When the pawnbroker has just advanced
+you fifty thousand dollars. You call that nothing? Be pleased to give me
+one thousand, and congratulate yourself that I do not ask for all your
+'nothing.'&quot; And as neither tears nor prayers had any effect, she was
+obliged to pay him the sum he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Flushed and excited with victory, and thinking, perhaps, that he had
+done enough for one day, Kelson took his spoils to a bank near the
+Palace Hotel, and for the first time in his career opened a banking
+account. As he was leaving the building he ran into Hamar, bent on a
+similar errand. The two gleefully compared notes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;my turn would never come, and that I must have
+done something to get out of favour with the Unknown; but as I was
+sitting in the Pig and Whistle Saloon in Corn Street drinking a lager, I
+suddenly felt a peculiar throbbing sensation run up my left leg into my
+left hand, and the floor seemed to open up, and I saw deep below me, in
+a black pit, a skeleton clutching hold of a linen bag, full of coins. I
+could see the gold quite distinctly&mdash;Spanish doubles, none newer than
+the eighteenth century. I knew then that the Unknown had not forgotten
+me. 'Look here, boss,' I said to old man Moss&mdash;the proprietor, you
+know&mdash;'You're a bit of a juggins to go on working with so much money
+under here,'&mdash;and I pointed to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I'm surprised at you, Hamar,' Moss said, cocking an eye at me, 'and
+lager, too!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No, old man!' I said, 'I'm not drunk. I'm sober and serious. You've
+got a cellar below here, haven't you?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well, and what if I have!' Moss retorted, drawing a step closer and
+running his eyes carefully over me. 'What if I have! There's no harm in
+that, is there?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You keep all your stock down there,' I went on, 'and more beside. I
+can see a hat-pin with a gold nob, that's not your wife's, and a pair of
+shoes with dandy silver buckles, that's not intended for your wife,
+nohow.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At that Moss made a queer noise in his throat, and I thought he was
+going to have a fit. 'What&mdash;what the devil are you talking about?' he
+gurgled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I wish I had had you with me&mdash;then, Matt, for you could have doubtless
+summed up the woman to him&mdash;she was a blank to me&mdash;I only divined one
+had been there. 'Yes, Mr. Mossy,' I said, 'you're a gay deceiver and no
+mistake! I know all about it!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Do you,' he said, eyeing me excitedly. 'Do you know all about it? I'm
+not so sure, but in order to avoid running any risks, drop your voice a
+bit and have a cocktail with me!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He poured me out one, and I went on softly, 'Well, boss Moss,' I said,
+'we'll leave the female out of the question for the present. Underneath
+this cellar of yours, is a pit.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I'm damned if there is!' Moss snorted; 'leastways, it's the first I've
+ever heard of it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And in this pit,' I said, 'is the skeleton of a Spanish buccaneer
+called Don Guzman, who landed in this port on August 10, 1699, and after
+robbing and slicing up a family of the name of Hervada, who lived on the
+site of what is now the Copthorne Hotel, was hurrying off with all their
+money and jewels, when he fell into a pit, covered with brambles and
+briars, and broke his neck.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And you expect me to believe this cock and bull story,' Moss growled.
+'Being out of a job so long has made you balmy.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It hasn't made me too balmy not to see through the way you deceive
+your wife, Moss,' I said. 'I'll bet she would think me sane enough if I
+were to tell her all I know. But I'll spare you if you will take me into
+your cellar and help me to do a bit of excavation there. But promise,
+mind you, that we will go shares in what we find.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Oh, I'll promise right enough,' Moss replied. 'I'll promise
+anything&mdash;if only to keep you from talking such moonshine.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, in the end I prevailed upon him to accompany me, and we went into
+the cellar&mdash;just as I had depicted it&mdash;armed with a pick-axe and
+crowbar. Moss growling and jeering every step he took, and I, deadly in
+earnest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It's under here,' I said, halting over a flagstone in the corner of
+the vault. 'But before we do anything you had better hide that hat-pin
+and these shoes, or your missis will find them. She'll hear us scraping
+and come to see what's up.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moss, who was in a vile temper all the time, made a grab at the things,
+pricking his finger and swearing horribly. In the meanwhile I had set to
+work, and, with his aid, raised the stone. We dug for pretty nearly an
+hour, Moss calling upon me all the time to 'chuck it,' when I suddenly
+struck something hard&mdash;it was the skeleton and close beside it, was the
+bag. You should have seen Moss then. He was simply overcome&mdash;called me a
+wizard, a magician, and heaven alone knows what, and fairly stood on his
+head with delight when we opened the bag, and hundreds of gold coins and
+precious stones rolled out on the floor. He wanted to go back on his
+word then, and only give me a handful; but I was too smart for him, and
+swore I would tell his wife about the girl unless he gave me half. When
+we were leaving the cellar, of course, he wanted me to go first, so that
+he could follow with the pickaxe, but here again I was too sharp for
+him&mdash;and I got safely out of the place with my pockets bulging. I went
+right away to Prescott's in Clay Street, and let the lot go for three
+thousand dollars. I wonder how Curtis has got on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They walked together to the hotel, and found Curtis busily engaged
+eating. &quot;I've worked hard,&quot; he said, &quot;and now I'm in for enjoying
+myself. I've made them get out a special menu for me, and I'm going to
+eat till I can't hold another morsel. I've starved all my life and now I
+intend making up for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Been successful?&quot; Hamar asked, winking at Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pretty well! Nothing to grumble at,&quot; Curtis rejoined, pouring himself
+out a glass of champagne. &quot;First of all I went to Simpson's Dive in
+Sacramento Street, and started doing the tricks we discovered yesterday.
+Not a soul in the place could see through them, and I made about two
+hundred dollars before I left. I then had lunch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why you had lunch with us!&quot; Hamar laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, can't I have as many lunches as I like?&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;I had
+lunch, I say, at a place in Market Street, and there I read in a paper
+that Peters &amp; Pervis, the tin food people, were offering a prize of
+three thousand dollars for a solution to a puzzle contained on the
+inside cover of one of their tins. I immediately determined to enter for
+it. I bought a tin and saw through the puzzle at once. Bribing a
+policeman to go with me to see fair play, off I set to Peters &amp; Pervis'.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I want to see your boss,' I said to the first clerk I saw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Which of them?' the clerk grunted, his cheeks turning white at the
+sight of the policeman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Either will do,' I replied, 'Peters or Pervis. Trot 'em up, time is
+precious.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away he went, but in a couple of minutes was back again, looking
+scared, 'They're both engaged,' he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then they'll have to break it off,' I responded, 'and mighty quick.
+I'm here to talk with them, so get a move on you again and give that
+message.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it hadn't been for the policeman I don't think he would have gone,
+but the policeman backed me up, and the clerk hurried off again; and in
+the end the bosses decided they had better see me. They looked precious
+cross, I can assure you, but before I had done speaking they looked
+crosser still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You say you've done that puzzle,'&mdash;they shouted&mdash;'the puzzle that has
+stuck all the mathematical guns at Harvard and Yale&mdash;you&mdash;a nonentity
+like you&mdash;begone, sir, don't waste our time with such humbug as that.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'All right,' I said, 'give me some paper and a pen, and I'll prove it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That's very reasonable,' the policeman chipped in, 'do the thing fair
+and square&mdash;I'm here as a witness.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, with much grunting and grumbling they handed me paper and ink,
+and in a trice the puzzle was done; and it appeared so easy that the
+policeman clapped his hands and broke out into a loud guffaw. My eyes!
+you should have seen how the faces of Pervis and Peters fell, and have
+heard what they said. But it was no use swearing and cursing, the thing
+was done, and there was the policeman to prove it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'We'll give you five hundred dollars,' they said, 'to clear out and say
+no more about it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Five hundred dollars when you've advertised three thousand,' I cried.
+'What do you take me for? I'll have that three thousand or I'll show you
+both up.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A thousand, then?' they said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No!' I retorted; 'three! Three, and look sharp. And look here,' I
+added, as my glance rested on some of the samples of their pastes they
+had round them, 'I understand the secrets of all these so-called patents
+of yours&mdash;there isn't one of them I couldn't imitate. Take that
+&quot;Rabsidab,&quot; for instance. What is it? Why, a compound of horseflesh,
+turnips and popcorn, flavoured with Lazenby's sauce&mdash;for the
+infringement of which patent you are liable to prosecution&mdash;and coloured
+with cochineal. Then there's the stuff you label &quot;Ironcastor,&quot;'&mdash;but
+they shut me up. 'There, take your three thousand dollars, write us out
+a receipt for it, and clear.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nine thousand dollars in one day! We've done well,&quot; Kelson ejaculated.
+&quot;What's the programme for to-morrow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Same as to-day and plenty of it,&quot; Curtis said, pouring himself out
+another glass of champagne and making a vigorous attack on a chicken. &quot;I
+think I'll let you two fellows do all the work to-morrow, and content
+myself here. Waiter! What time's breakfast?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Curtis was as good as his word. The following day he remained indoors
+eating, and planning what he should eat, whilst Hamar and Kelson went
+out with the express purpose of adding to their banking accounts.</p>
+
+<p>In a garden in Bryant Street, Hamar saw a man resting on his spade and
+mopping the perspiration from his forehead. As he stopped mechanically
+to see what was being done, a cold sensation ran up his right leg into
+his right hand, the first and third fingers of which were drawn
+violently down. With a cry of horror he shrank back. Directly beneath
+where he had been standing, he saw, under a fifteen or sixteen feet
+layer of gravel soil&mdash;water; a huge caldron of water, black and silent;
+water, that gave him the impression of tremendous depth and coldness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! matey, what's the matter?&quot; the man with the spade called out.
+&quot;Are you looking for your skin, for I never saw any one so completely
+jump out of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So would you,&quot; Hamar said with a shudder, &quot;if you saw what I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that, then?&quot; the man said leering on the ground. &quot;Snakes! That's
+what I always see when I've got them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you don't see yourself, there's some chance for you!&quot; Hamar
+retorted. &quot;What makes you so hot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, digging!&quot; the man laughed; &quot;any one would get hot digging at such
+hard ground as this. As for a little whippersnapper like you, you'd melt
+right away and only your nose would remain. Nothing would ever melt
+that&mdash;there's too much of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar scowled. &quot;You needn't be insulting,&quot; he said, &quot;I asked you a civil
+question, and I repeat it. What makes you so hot&mdash;when you should be
+cold&mdash;or at least cool?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, should I!&quot; the man mimicked, &quot;I thought first you was merely drunk;
+I can see quite clearly now that you're mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet you have such defective sight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What makes you say that?&quot; the man said testily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why,&quot; Hamar responded, &quot;because you can't see what lies beneath your
+very nose. Shall I tell you what it is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, tell away,&quot; the man replied, &quot;tell me my old mother's got twins,
+and that Boss Croker is coming to lodge with us. I'd know you for a liar
+anywhere by those teeth of yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; said Hamar drawing himself up angrily, &quot;I have had enough
+of your abuse. If I have any more I'll tell your employers. It is
+evident you take me for a bummer, but see,&quot;&mdash;and plunging his hand in
+his pocket he pulled it out full of gold. &quot;Kindly understand I'm
+somebody,&quot; he went on, &quot;and that I'm staying at one of the biggest
+hotels in the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm damned if I know what to make of you,&quot; the man muttered, &quot;unless
+you're a hoptical delusion!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Underneath where I was standing&mdash;just here,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar indicated the
+spot&mdash;&quot;is water. Any amount of it, you have only to sink a shaft fifteen
+feet and you would come to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Water!&quot; the man laughed, &quot;yes, there is any amount of it&mdash;on your
+brain, that's the only water near here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't believe me?&quot; Hamar demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not likely!&quot; the man responded, &quot;I only believe what I see! And when I
+see a face like yours holding out a potful of dollars, I know as how
+you've stolen them. Git!&quot;&mdash;and Hamar flew.</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar was not so easily nonplussed; not at least when he saw a
+chance of making money. Entering the garden, and keeping well out of
+sight of the gardener, he arrived at the front door by a side path, and
+with much formality requested to see the owner of the establishment. The
+latter happening to be crossing the hall at the time, heard Hamar and
+asked what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar at once informed him he was a dowser, and that, chancing to pass
+by the garden on his way to his hotel, he had divined the presence of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I only wish there were,&quot; the gentleman exclaimed, &quot;but I fear you are
+mistaken. I have attempted several times to sink a well but never with
+the slightest degree of success. I have had all the ground carefully
+prospected by Figgins of Sacramento Street&mdash;he has a very big
+reputation&mdash;and he assures me there isn't a drop of water anywhere near
+here within two hundred feet of the surface.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know better,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Will you get your gardener&mdash;who by the
+way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him&mdash;to dig where I
+tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. assented, and several
+gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were soon
+digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was found, and,
+indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few minutes it had
+risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall send an account of it to the local papers,&quot; Mr. B. remarked.
+&quot;Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of my
+property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am&quot;&mdash;and he,
+then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque&mdash;rather in excess
+of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not
+have refrained from demanding much longer.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the
+incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was
+so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel
+deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but,
+nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed them
+with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to tell him
+to &quot;dry up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I began the morning,&quot; he commenced, &quot;by accosting a very fashionably
+dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.
+Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater, the
+Biscuit King of Nob Hill, and that she was carrying in her big seal-skin
+muff a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald butterfly, a silver-backed
+hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a porcelain jar, all of
+which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was looking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning,
+Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are you?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would be
+otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a favour,
+Mrs. Bater.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a very
+extraordinary individual.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your muff?
+I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid for&mdash;and
+I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first time such a
+thing has happened.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever do
+you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a
+pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them each
+minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a
+silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad&mdash;if
+you prefer to call it so&mdash;from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a
+tortoiseshell manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the
+same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver buttons, a
+glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cushion&mdash;you likewise helped yourself
+to&mdash;from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them to
+you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with them.
+You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco
+storekeepers.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Good God, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the
+innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and almost
+failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I didn't kiss
+her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping mouth and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks,&quot; Curtis
+interrupted, &quot;I've got a touch of indigestion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As I was saying,&quot; Kelson went on complacently, &quot;I could have kissed her
+and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing? Show
+me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will agree
+to say nothing about either this or any of your other&mdash;ahem!&mdash;thefts&mdash;if
+you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for a thousand
+dollars!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I assure you, Mrs.
+Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman
+and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other things
+about you.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What other things?' she stuttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate&mdash;er&mdash;for
+single men like me to mention, but I do know that&mdash;er&mdash;a lady&mdash;very
+like&mdash;remarkably like&mdash;you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle
+which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as,
+madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years&mdash;let me see&mdash;yes, two
+years yesterday&mdash;one can&mdash;!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will give
+you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a
+taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You got the money?&quot; Hamar queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; Kelson said with a smile, &quot;I got the money&mdash;in fact, everything I
+asked for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, &quot;What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What next!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;why I thought I had done a very good day's
+work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm
+dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming
+out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a
+lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest
+fashion costumes&mdash;a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high
+plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so
+admirably suited to pretty girls&mdash;because it attracts attention to
+them&mdash;should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to
+continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the much-pampered
+and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate; that she was in
+love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas, the manager of
+the Columbian Bank&mdash;a young, good-looking fellow, whom she had been
+trying to set against his fianc&eacute;e, Dora Roberts. Dora is only nineteen,
+very pretty and a trifle giddy&mdash;nothing more. But this failing of
+hers&mdash;if you can call it a failing, was just the very weapon Ella Barlow
+wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending Delmas a series of
+anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This resulted in a breach
+between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much elated, at once tried to
+step into her shoes. She has been going out a good deal with Delmas, who
+is in reality still very much in love with Dora, and consequently
+exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella, anxious to show off a
+magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her father, telephoned to
+Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where she has engaged a box
+for this evening&mdash;fondly hoping that the diamonds will bring him up to
+the scratch, and that he will propose to her. When I saw her she was on
+her way to a notorious quack doctor and beauty specialist in Californian
+Street. She suffers from some nasty skin disease, and is in mortal
+terror lest Delmas should get to know of it, and also of the fact that
+all her teeth are false, and that two of her toes are badly deformed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jupiter!&quot; Hamar ejaculated, &quot;this divination of yours beats mine
+into fits&mdash;nothing escapes you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Kelson laughed, &quot;nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical
+was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her
+with his dissecting knife. I saw everything&mdash;and what is more I said to
+myself&mdash;here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I
+didn't stop her&mdash;I let her go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let her go!&quot; Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.
+&quot;You squirrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only for a time,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I went to see Delmas!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delmas!&quot; Hamar interlocuted, &quot;why the deuce Delmas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impulse!&quot; Kelson explained, &quot;purely impulse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;it is
+essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against impulse.
+What did you get out of Delmas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing!&quot; Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, &quot;But the matter hasn't
+ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to eat.
+I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and
+Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the
+<i>Examiner</i>, when he joined them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Hamar said, looking up at him, &quot;what luck?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then
+lolled back in his seat and began:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure rose
+to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not Herbert!
+Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is
+engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated&mdash;and by
+Jove the diamonds did shine&mdash;she was simply a mass of them, hair, neck,
+arms and fingers&mdash;and she had been so well faked up for the occasion
+that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew about
+her&mdash;and shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this
+afternoon, did he not?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in time
+to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself, and he
+would join you as soon as possible.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and
+asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he
+would be here by the end of the first act.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow ejaculated, 'I don't know
+you&mdash;I've never seen you before!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I
+can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest you.
+Have I your permission?'&mdash;and without waiting for her reply I sat next
+to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen people,
+and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not full up, as
+the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her attention fixed on my
+face so that she was unaware what was taking place, immediately behind
+her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of
+any possible interest to me?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your character!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read
+hands?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head, and
+feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in one!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of
+all this?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those
+anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous
+letters to do with me?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their
+contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I recited
+every word in them and told her the hour, day and place&mdash;namely, when
+and where each was written, and I summed up by asking what she would pay
+me not to tell Delmas.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim and
+silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying with
+the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed&mdash;she did not know what
+course to pursue!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I don't
+deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through one of
+the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of
+consequence to you as much as to me&mdash;is the payment for hushing it up!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her
+excitement, 'pay <i>you</i>&mdash;you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You&mdash;' but I
+can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go on
+till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow, why
+all this fuss&mdash;why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We must
+come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely I shall
+tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at all!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two
+deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and that
+you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to be
+faked up. I must be brutal&mdash;it's no use being anything else to women of
+your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you flatter
+yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What have you
+got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted. When she came
+to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts and water&mdash;the
+effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to imagine&mdash;I again
+broached the subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your
+defects will&mdash;as far as I am concerned&mdash;always remain a secret. Refuse,
+and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be known at
+once.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her hands&mdash;shivering.
+Then she looked up at me&mdash;and Jerusalem! it was like looking at an old
+woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall never wear them again,
+anyhow. Take them&mdash;and leave me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one that
+was on her into my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm,
+'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I
+answered&mdash;but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had been
+concealed within and had heard everything that passed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low down,
+perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You
+thoroughly deserve those diamonds&mdash;will you accept an offer for them
+from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them to
+her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he
+'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with
+Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they
+are going to be married next month.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So out of evil good comes,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;the maxim for us, remember,
+is&mdash;out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day,
+you two?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rest!&quot; said Kelson, &quot;I'm tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eat!&quot; said Curtis, &quot;I'm hungry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now look here, this won't do,&quot; Hamar remarked, &quot;you've earned your
+rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't I?&quot; Curtis snapped, &quot;I'm not so sure of that, I've years to make
+up for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!&quot; Hamar
+expostulated, &quot;and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We
+have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank&mdash;that is to say,
+the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents that
+amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount&mdash;and to go on
+increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the
+world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live at
+the pace Ed is setting us&mdash;but there is no reason why we should remain
+here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme in my
+head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, out with it,&quot; Curtis grunted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is this,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;I suggest that we go to London&mdash;London in
+England&mdash;I guess it's the richest town in the world&mdash;and there set up as
+sorcerers&mdash;The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination and
+juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of course
+sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt but that
+we should make an enormous pile, with which we would gradually buy up,
+not merely London, but the whole of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's rather a tall order,&quot; Kelson murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A small one, you mean,&quot; Curtis sneered, &quot;you could put the whole of
+England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go
+much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it,&quot; Hamar laughed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, perhaps not,&quot; Curtis said rather dubiously. &quot;I guess we could buy
+the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always used
+to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high enough.
+They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the end of our week,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;that is to say on Wednesday&mdash;in
+three days' time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First class all the way, of course,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;I'll see to the
+arrangements for the catering and berths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right!&quot; Hamar laughed, as he filled three glasses with champagne.
+&quot;Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity&mdash;to Hamar,
+Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO DREAMS</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe in dreams?&quot; Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a
+stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the
+breakfast room at Pine Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe in fairies,&quot; Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently as
+she looked at the fair face beside her. &quot;What was the dream, dearie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys laughed a little mischievously. &quot;I don't quite know whether I
+ought to tell you,&quot; she said. &quot;It might shock you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine,&quot; Miss Templeton
+replied. &quot;What was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Gladys began, flinging both arms round her aunt's neck and
+playing with the pleats in her blouse, &quot;I dreamed that I was walking in
+the little wood at the end of the garden, and that the trees and flowers
+walked and talked with me. And we danced together&mdash;and, first of all, I
+had for my partner, a red rose&mdash;and then, an ash. They both made love to
+me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands. A poppy piped,
+a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew desperately jealous of
+me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing ceased, and I found
+myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their bells at me with loud
+trills of laughter. And out from among them, came a buttercup, pointing
+its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it cried, 'what Gladys is carrying
+behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees and flowers&mdash;everything around
+me&mdash;shook with laughter. Then I grew hot and cold all over, and did not
+know which way to look for my confusion, till a willow, having
+compassion on me said, 'Take no notice of them! They don't know any
+better.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew very
+embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered&mdash;oh! so funnily, 'Well if
+you really wish to know&mdash;it's a bud, a baby white rose, and it's
+clinging to your dress.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst its
+fellows, 'that your lover is coming&mdash;your lover with a
+troll-le-loll-la&mdash;and&mdash;well, if you want to know more ask the
+gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
+that grows in the bed,'&mdash;and at that all the flowers and trees shrieked
+with laughter&mdash;'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'&mdash;and with my ears full of the rude
+laughter of the wood I awoke. What do you think of it? Isn't it rather a
+quaint mixture of the&mdash;of the sacred&mdash;at least the artistic&mdash;and the
+profane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite so,&quot; said Miss Templeton with an amused chuckle, &quot;but I shouldn't
+ask for an interpretation of it if I were you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for an interpretation of the trees and flowers?&quot; Gladys asked
+innocently. &quot;I'm sure trees and flowers have a special significance in
+dreams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well then, my dear, ask Mrs. Sprat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! ask the Vicar's wife!&quot; Gladys ejaculated, &quot;when I never go to
+church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, laughing again, &quot;Mrs. Sprat will
+quite understand. And I've always been told she is very interested in
+anything to do with the Occult. But hush! Here's your father. You'd
+better not tell him your dream. He's tired to death, he says, of hearing
+about your lovers, and agrees with me&mdash;there's no end to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind what he says&mdash;his bark's worse then his bite,&quot; Gladys
+rejoined, &quot;he doesn't really care how many I have so long as they keep
+within bounds, and I like them! Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin, who entered the room at that moment, went straight to his
+daughter to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish you wouldn't always select that bald spot,&quot; he said testily, &quot;I
+don't want to be everlastingly reminded I'm losing my hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do you want me to kiss you, then?&quot; Gladys argued, &quot;on the tip of
+your nose? That's all very well for you, John Martin, but I prefer the
+top of your head. But the poor dear looks worried, what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't have a very good night,&quot; her father replied, &quot;I dreamed a
+lot!&quot; Gladys looked at Miss Templeton and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you?&quot; she said gently. &quot;What a shame! I never dream. What was it
+all about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Flowers!&quot; John Martin snapped, &quot;idiotic flowers! Roses, lilac, tulips!
+Bah! I do wish you would have some other hobby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys looked at her aunt again, this time with a half serious, half
+questioning expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I be a politician?&quot; she cooed, &quot;and fill the house with
+suffragettes? You bad man, I believe you would revel in it. Don't you
+think so, Auntie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, instead of teasing your father so unmercifully, you had
+better pour him out a cup of tea,&quot; Miss Templeton replied. &quot;Jack,
+there's a letter for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where? Under my plate! what a place to put it. That's you,&quot; and John
+Martin frowned, or rather, attempted to frown, at Gladys. &quot;Why it's
+about Davenport&mdash;Dick Davenport. He's very ill&mdash;had a stroke yesterday,
+and the doctor declares his condition critical. His nephew, Shiel, so
+Anne says, has been sent for, and arrived at Sydenham last night! If
+that's not bad news I don't know what is!&quot; John Martin said, thrusting
+his plate away from him and leaning back in his chair. &quot;It's true I can
+manage the business all right myself&mdash;and there's the possibility, of
+course, that this young Shiel may shape all right. I suppose if anything
+happens he will step into Dick's shoes. I've never heard Dick mention
+any one else. Poor old Dick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am so sorry, father!&quot; Gladys said, laying her hand on his. &quot;But cheer
+up! It may not be as bad as you expect. Shall you go and see how he is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so, my dear! I think so,&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;but don't worry
+me about it now. Talk to your aunt and leave me out of it, I'm a bit
+upset. My brain's in a regular whirl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly the news was something in the nature of a blow: for Dick
+Davenport, apart from being John Martin's partner&mdash;partner in the firm
+of Martin and Davenport, the world-renowned conjurors, whose hall in the
+Kingsway was one of the chief amusement places in London, was John
+Martin's oldest friend. They had been chums at Cheltenham College, had
+entered the Army and gone to India together, had quitted the Service
+together, and, on returning together to England, had started their
+conjuring business, first of all in Sloane Street, and subsequently in
+the Kingsway. From the very start their enterprise had met with success,
+and, had it not been for Davenport's wild extravagance, they would have
+been little short of millionaires. But Davenport, though a most lovable
+character in every respect, could not keep money&mdash;he no sooner had it
+than it was gone. His house in Sydenham was little short of a palace;
+whilst, it was said, he almost rivalled royalty, in magnificent display,
+whenever he entertained. The result of all this reckless expenditure was
+no uncommon one&mdash;he ran through considerably more than he earned and&mdash;as
+there was no one else to help him&mdash;he invariably came down on John
+Martin. It was &quot;Jack, old boy, I'm damned sorry, but I must have another
+thousand;&quot; or, &quot;Jack! these infernal scamps of creditors are worrying
+the life out of me, can you, will you, lend me a trifle&mdash;a couple of
+thousand will do it&quot;&mdash;and so on&mdash;so on, ad infinitum. John Martin never
+refused, and at the time of Davenport's illness, the latter owed him
+something like a hundred thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately John Martin, though far from parsimonious, was careful. He
+had an excellent business head, and, thanks to his sagacious share in
+the management, the business remained solvent. He knew Davenport's
+capacity&mdash;that nowhere could he have found another such a brilliant
+genius in conjuring&mdash;nor, apart from his thriftlessness, any one so
+thoroughly reliable. In Davenport's keeping all the great tricks they
+had invented&mdash;and great tricks they undoubtedly were&mdash;were absolutely
+safe.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the fact that they had repeatedly offered big sums of money to
+any one who could discover the secret of how they were done, every
+attempt to do so had utterly failed. The Mysteries of Martin and
+Davenport's Home of Wonder, in the Kingsway, baffled the world. Of
+course one thing had helped them enormously&mdash;namely, they had no rivals.
+So colossal was their reputation, that no one else had ever even thought
+of setting up in opposition.</p>
+
+<p>And now one of the two great master-minds, that had accomplished all
+these marvels and acquired such universal fame, was stricken down,
+checkmated by the still greater power of nature; and his colleague&mdash;the
+only other man in existence who shared his knowledge&mdash;was obliged to
+rack his brain as to what was now to be done&mdash;done for the continuance
+and prosperity of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>After finishing her breakfast Gladys joined her aunt in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To dream of flowers and trees evidently means bad news,&quot; she said. &quot;But
+as I feel in a mood for a walk, I shall call at the Vicarage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, now! At this hour!&quot; Miss Templeton cried aghast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; Gladys said imperturbably. &quot;I'm not going to pay a call. They
+haven't called on us. I shall say I've merely come to make an inquiry.
+Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
+surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
+conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
+ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
+Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
+presence of his wife, who received her very affably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, how very strange,&quot; she observed when Gladys had stated the object
+of her visit. &quot;I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A Miss
+Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream about
+trees and flowers&mdash;only it took the form of a poem, which she awoke
+repeating. There were several verses&mdash;quite doggerel it is true&mdash;but
+nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them down, and
+asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden meaning in
+them. Here they are,&quot; and she handed Gladys two pages of sermon paper on
+which was written&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;In the greenest of green valleys,<br /></span>
+<span>Aglow with summer sun,<br /></span>
+<span>Lived a maiden fair and radiant,<br /></span>
+<span>More radiant there was none.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The flowers gave her their friendship;<br /></span>
+<span>Her couch was on the ground.<br /></span>
+<span>A happier, gayer maiden,<br /></span>
+<span>Was nowhere to be found.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The air was filled with music<br /></span>
+<span>Sung by the babbling brook.<br /></span>
+<span>Sweet lullabies with chorus clear<br /></span>
+<span>In which the flowers partook.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;This maiden knew not sorrow,<br /></span>
+<span>Until an evil day;<br /></span>
+<span>When riding lone across the moors,<br /></span>
+<span>A hunter lost his way.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And chancing on this valley,<br /></span>
+<span>He met the maiden sweet.<br /></span>
+<span>Her beauty overwhelmed him;<br /></span>
+<span>He fell love-sick at her feet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Despite the fervent warnings<br /></span>
+<span>Of her friends the flowers and trees,<br /></span>
+<span>She listened to his courting;<br /></span>
+<span>And with him roamed the leas.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The leas, far from the valley,<br /></span>
+<span>They rode the livelong night;<br /></span>
+<span>Till a heavy mist descending<br /></span>
+<span>Hid the roadway from their sight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Uprose, then, forms of evil.<br /></span>
+<span>From out the mocking gloom;<br /></span>
+<span>And seizing horse and hunter scared,<br /></span>
+<span>Left the maiden to her doom.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Travellers now within those regions,<br /></span>
+<span>Through the nightly grey fog see<br /></span>
+<span>A woman's shade crawl slow along,<br /></span>
+<span>To a ghastly melody.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And those who linger&mdash;follow<br /></span>
+<span>The phantom pale and wan.<br /></span>
+<span>O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale<br /></span>
+<span>It slowly leads them on.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;On till they reach the valley,<br /></span>
+<span>A valley grim and drear,<br /></span>
+<span>Where lurid things with fibrous arms<br /></span>
+<span>Their course through darkness steer.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And on the travellers palsied<br /></span>
+<span>In frenzied crowd they pour.<br /></span>
+<span>And those who view their faces,<br /></span>
+<span>Are heard but seen no more.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?&quot; Gladys exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; the Vicar's wife said. &quot;She told me so and I have no reason to
+doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the least
+bit in the world poetical&mdash;on the contrary she is most practical and
+matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine, too!&quot; Gladys interrupted. &quot;Were you able to explain the verses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I am
+in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie Besant
+last night! She&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?&quot; Gladys asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things&mdash;to tell
+dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water, and so
+on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice about them
+in this morning's paper. I will get it for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She left the room and in a few moments returned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here it is,&quot; she said. And under the heading of &quot;Sorcery Revived&quot;
+Gladys read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
+to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
+Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
+Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
+S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess to
+interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve all
+manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
+wonders what next!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This paper evidently has its doubts,&quot; Gladys commented. &quot;They are
+frauds, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dare say they are,&quot; the Vicar's wife replied, &quot;though I believe in
+thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
+Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
+train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, thanks awfully,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;for telling me about these
+people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during the day and
+call at Cockspur Street. I must apologize again for calling at such an
+unearthly hour. Good-bye,&quot; and Gladys smilingly took her departure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Shortly after Gladys reached home after her visit to the Vicarage, a
+young man with a serious expression somewhat out of keeping with his
+jaunty walk, entered the gate of Pine Cottage, and came to an abrupt
+halt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he ejaculated, &quot;this is a pretty place, and what's more&mdash;for
+dozens of houses and gardens are pretty&mdash;it's artistic!&quot; In front of him
+stretched a miniature avenue of chestnut trees, which was rendered
+striking, even to the most casual observer, probably, not only on
+account of the irregular mounds of moss-covered stones that occupied its
+intervening spaces, but also, by reason of the masses of wild flowers
+(great clumps of which were springing up in the crevices of this
+impromptu wall) that lent to it an appearance half negligent, but wholly
+and entrancingly picturesque. Here, undoubtedly, was art. That did not
+astonish the young man. All avenues, in the ordinary sense, are works of
+art; and the mere excess of art he saw manifested did not surprise him;
+it was the character of the art that had brought him to a standstill and
+held him spellbound. And the longer he looked the more he became
+convinced, that whoever had superintended the arrangement of this
+scenery was an artist&mdash;an artist with a scrupulous eye for form.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest care had been taken to keep the balance between neatness
+and gracefulness on the one hand and picturesqueness on the other. There
+were few straight lines, and no long uninterrupted ones; whilst at no
+one point of view did the same effect of curvature or colour appear
+twice. Variety in uniformity was the keynote.</p>
+
+<p>At last tearing himself away from this one spot&mdash;where he felt he could
+have spent centuries&mdash;he turned to the right and then again to the
+left&mdash;for the path had now become serpentine, and at no moment could be
+traced for more than two or three paces in advance. Presently the sound
+of water fell gently on his ear, and in the shadiest of diminutive
+forests, amidst the interlacing branches of elm and beech, he caught the
+glimpse of a fountain. For an instant the wild thought of forcing his
+way through it, of plunging his burning forehead in its cooling spray,
+well-nigh mastered him. But his better sense conquered, and he kept to
+the path. Another turn, and he caught his first glimpse of a chimney;
+another&mdash;and the summit of a gable showed above the trees. The sun,
+which had been hitherto obscured, now came out, and suddenly&mdash;as if by
+the hand of magic&mdash;the whole scene was a brilliant blaze of colour. He
+had arrived at the end of the avenue, where the path forked; one branch
+turning sharply round in the direction of a side entrance to the house,
+whilst the other led with a gentle curvature to the front.</p>
+
+<p>Facing the building was a broad expanse of velvety turf, relieved
+occasionally, here and there, by such showy shrubs as the hydrangea,
+rhododendron, or lilac; but more frequently, and at closer intervals, by
+clumps of geraniums, or roses&mdash;roses of every variety. There was nothing
+pretentious in the garden, any more than there was in the adjoining
+edifice. Its unusually pleasing effect lay altogether in its artistic
+arrangement; and one could hardly help imagining that the whole scene
+had, in reality, been called into existence by the brush of some eminent
+landscape painter.</p>
+
+<p>The cottage itself was constructed of old-fashioned Dutch
+shingles&mdash;broad and with rounded corners&mdash;and painted a dull grey; a
+tint which, when contrasted with the vivid green of the tulip trees that
+overshadowed the entrance to the house, and reared themselves high above
+it on either side, afforded an artistic happiness perfectly intoxicating
+to its present visitor. The architecture of the cottage was&mdash;if not
+Early Tudor&mdash;something equally pleasing. Its roofs were divided into
+many gables; its windows were diamond paned and projecting, whilst oaken
+beams ran latitudinally and vertically over its grey shingle front.
+Encompassing the whole base of the exterior were masses of
+flowers&mdash;pinks, carnations, heliotrope, pansies, poppies, lilies,
+wallflowers, roses and jasmines; and besides the latter several other
+creepers had been planted beneath the walls, but had not yet attained to
+any height.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel Davenport, for it was he, could not resist the temptation of
+peeping in at the windows; and he saw that the interior of the cottage
+was artistry and simplicity itself. At the windows, curtains of heavy
+white jaconet muslin, not too full, hung in sharp parallel plaits to the
+floor&mdash;just to the floor. The walls were papered with French papers of
+rare delicacy&mdash;to match the seasons; (spring, summer, autumn and winter
+were all most effectively depicted), and the furniture though light, was
+at the same time costly. And here again was the same effect of
+arrangement&mdash;an arrangement obviously designed by the same brain that
+had planned the building and grounds. Shiel could not conceive anything
+more graceful. Flowers&mdash;flowers of every hue and odour were the chief
+decoration of the cottage. On almost every table were vases&mdash;in
+themselves beautiful enough&mdash;yet filled to overflowing with the finest
+roses. Ox-eye daisies, hollyhocks and forget-me-nots clustered about the
+open windows. And every puff of wind, every breath of air transmitted
+scent&mdash;the most delicious medley of scent imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>The young man drew in deep draughts of it; he threw back his head, and,
+opening his mouth, revelled in the joy of feeling it steal softly down
+his throat and permeate his lungs. He was thus engaged when the sound of
+a voice brought him sharply back to earth.</p>
+
+<p>In the open doorway of the house, an amused expression in her violet
+eyes, stood a girl&mdash;so wondrously pretty, that at the sight of her Shiel
+was again overcome, and could only gaze in helpless admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you want to see my father?&quot; she inquired. &quot;He is getting ready to go
+out, but I daresay he will see you first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;I am sure he will,&quot; the young man replied, &quot;I'm Shiel Davenport.
+I've come to tell him my uncle died at four o'clock this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, dear!&quot; the girl exclaimed, &quot;I am so sorry&mdash;sorry for you, and for
+my father. I'm sure he will be terribly upset. I'm Gladys Martin,
+perhaps you've heard of me&mdash;I knew your uncle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Often,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;And I think my uncle's description of you an
+excellent one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His description of me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! he always spoke of you as the Queen of Flowers, and said you had a
+mania for all things beautiful, which was not surprising, seeing how
+beautiful you were yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was very nice of him,&quot; Gladys said, looking amused again. &quot;Won't
+you come in? If you will wait here&quot;&mdash;she led him to the
+drawing-room&mdash;&quot;I'll tell my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She disappeared, and Shiel heard her run lightly up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jove,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;she's the loveliest girl I've ever seen.
+From being so much among flowers, she has become one herself. Violets,
+roses, and heliotrope have all had a share in her creation! What eyes,
+what a mouth! what teeth! what hands! Surely I have found here, not only
+the perfection of all things beautiful, but the perfection of all things
+natural, the perfection of natural grace in contradistinction from
+artificial grace. Moreover, she is a romanticist. There is an expression
+of romance, of unworldliness, in those deep-set eyes of hers, that sinks
+into my heart of hearts. 'Romance' and 'womanliness,' and the two terms
+appear to me to be convertible, are her distinguishing features. She is
+an artist, an idealist, and, over and above all&mdash;a woman! Hang it! I'm
+in love with her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>More he could not evolve, for his meditations were abruptly cut short by
+the entrance of a servant, who ushered him, straightway, into the
+presence of John Martin.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, though visibly affected by the news of his friend's death,
+was a man of the world, and, consequently, came to business at once.
+Much had to be discussed&mdash;arrangements for the funeral, the examination
+of correspondence relative to the firm, and plans for the immediate
+future.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know how my uncle's affairs stand, I suppose?&quot; Shiel asked
+somewhat nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; John Martin said, &quot;I do. May I ask if you have any private means
+at all&mdash;or are you solely dependent on what you earn? By the way, what
+is your calling?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am an artist,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;No, I've nothing beyond what my uncle was
+good enough to allow me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An artist!&quot; John Martin murmured, &quot;how like Dick! Have you entertained
+the idea of inheriting a fortune? Have you any reason to suppose that
+your uncle was well off and had made you his heir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered so, sir, from the manner in which he lived and his attitude
+towards me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! we won't talk it over now&mdash;leave it till after the funeral. Are
+you bent on continuing painting? There is very little remuneration in
+it, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not much,&quot; Shiel answered gloomily, &quot;but I shouldn't care to give it
+up&mdash;unless of course it is absolutely necessary for me to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Being an artist you wouldn't be much good in business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events, you are candid. Well! I don't see any good in our
+dallying here&mdash;I had best go back with you to Sydenham. I've got a
+letter to write first, but I shan't be long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was long enough, however, for Shiel to have another chat with Gladys.
+&quot;Do you believe in dreams?&quot; she asked him. &quot;I had such a queer one last
+night, about trees and flowers; and, oddly enough, my father also
+dreamed of trees and flowers, and of the very same ones too. I am going
+into Town to-day to consult a firm that has just set up, called the
+Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. They profess to interpret dreams, and I am
+anxious to see whether they can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Cockspur Street, aren't they?&quot; Shiel asked. &quot;I saw their
+advertisement in one of the papers. I presume you are not going there
+alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Gladys laughed, &quot;I shall go with a friend, though I often do go
+into Town alone. I can assure you I am quite capable of looking after
+myself. In that respect, at least, I am quite up to date. Probably you
+are more accustomed to French girls?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I have spent most of my life in Paris,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;But how could
+you tell that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I guessed you were an artist&mdash;and had probably spent some time in
+Paris&quot;&mdash;Gladys rejoined, &quot;by the way you looked at the house and garden.
+I could read appreciation in your eyes and gesture; such appreciation,
+as I knew, could only come from an artist. G.W. Barnett helped me in
+planning this cottage and the garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! Barnett the landscape painter! I am a great admirer of his work.
+Were you a pupil of his?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he was one of the visiting R.A.'s at the Beechcroft Studio in St.
+John's Wood, where I worked for three years. We were then living in
+Blackheath&mdash;St. John's Park&mdash;a hateful place. Mr. Barnett was awfully
+good, when I told him we were moving, and that I wanted to live in
+really artistic surroundings&mdash;he suggested that I should be my own
+architect, and promised to do everything he could to assist me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And your father hadn't a say in the matter,&quot; Shiel commented, with an
+amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not in that,&quot; Gladys said complacently, &quot;though there are one or two
+things in which he has a very decided say. Father can be very
+self-willed and obstinate, when he likes. But as I was remarking when
+you interrupted me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I beg pardon!&quot; Shiel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Barnett promised to assist me. He came over here with me, and we
+chose this site.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he an old man?&quot; Shiel inquired, a trifle anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not much more than middle aged&mdash;fifty perhaps!&quot; Gladys said, &quot;though he
+looks much younger. He is still very good-looking. Well! he came over
+here&mdash;we chose this site, and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he married?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! Really you seem very interested in him. Perhaps you will meet him
+some day: he comes here a good deal. As I was saying, we chose the site
+together, and he supervized the plans I drew up for the garden and
+cottage; I don't think, perhaps, I should have thought of that avenue if
+it hadn't been for him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events it does you both credit,&quot; Shiel remarked, &quot;for a more
+charming house and garden I have never seen. I should like to live here
+all my life. I should like&mdash;&quot; but he was interrupted by John Martin.
+&quot;Come, it's time we were off,&quot; the latter called out brusquely, &quot;time
+and trains wait for no man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A young ass!&quot; John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio passed
+through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform, &quot;not a
+bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Encourage him!&quot; Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who had
+his ticket to get, was out of hearing. &quot;Do I encourage any one? All the
+same,&quot; she added defiantly, &quot;I rather like him. It isn't every one's
+good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick&mdash;hurry up! That's
+your train&mdash;and the guard's about to blow his whistle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
+they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
+the station.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
+with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
+lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you an appointment, madam?&quot; the commissionaire, in a bright blue
+uniform, asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;Is it necessary?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The firm are unusually busy,&quot; the man explained, &quot;and unless you have
+made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
+whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into the
+waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I will
+take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to consult?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't the slightest idea,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;I want to have a dream
+interpreted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, that will be Mr. Kelson,&quot; the man observed &quot;he does all that kind
+of thing&mdash;tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts. Mr.
+Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar divines
+the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the waiting-room
+now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there nearly an hour.
+This way, madam!&quot;&mdash;and he escorted, rather than ushered, Gladys into a
+large, elaborately furnished room, in which a dozen or so well dressed
+people&mdash;of both sexes&mdash;were waiting, looking over the leaves of
+magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide their only too
+obvious excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the commissionaire,
+Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next to a strikingly
+handsome girl, she at once appropriated it.</p>
+
+<p>There was something about this showy girl that had attracted Gladys. She
+was one of those rare people that have a personality, and although this
+was a personality that Gladys was not at all sure she liked,
+nevertheless she felt anxious to become more closely acquainted with it.
+Both girls suddenly realized that they were staring hard at one another.
+The girl with the personality was the first to speak. With a smile that,
+while revealing a perfect set of white teeth, at the some time revealed
+exceedingly thin lips, she remarked, &quot;It's most wearisome work waiting.
+I've been here nearly an hour. I shouldn't stay any longer, only I've
+come from a distance. London is so hot and stuffy, I detest it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you?&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;I don't. I find it so full of human
+interest&mdash;indeed, of every kind of interest. Not that I should care to
+live in it, but I like being near enough to come up several times a
+week. I live at Kew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you're lucky!&quot; the girl said, &quot;I'd live at Kew if I could. But I
+can't&mdash;I'm one of those unfortunate creatures who have to earn their
+living.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I sometimes wish I had to,&quot; Gladys remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you! Then you don't know much about it. It isn't all jam by a long
+way. I loathe work. I've been spending my holiday at Kew. I've just come
+from there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you by any chance Miss Rosenberg?&quot; Gladys asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's my name,&quot; the girl replied with a look of astonishment. &quot;How do
+you know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys explained. &quot;I've just been to the Vicarage,&quot; she said, &quot;and Mrs.
+Sprat has told me about the verses. Did you really dream them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course! I shouldn't have said so if I hadn't,&quot; Miss Rosenberg
+replied angrily. &quot;I don't tell crams. Besides, I've never composed a
+line of poetry in my life. The verses were repeated to me in my sleep by
+some occult agency&mdash;of that I am quite certain. They were so vividly
+impressed on my mind that I had no difficulty at all in remembering
+them&mdash;every one of them, and I got up and wrote them down. Of course
+they must mean something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was about to make some observation, when the commissionaire,
+opening the door of the room, called out, &quot;Miss Rosenberg;&quot; whereupon,
+with a sigh of relief, Miss Rosenberg took her departure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Tell Miss Rosenberg I'll see her now,&quot; Matt Kelson said; and as he
+leaned back in his luxurious chair with that dignity of self-assurance
+only the man who is rich can maintain, it was hard to realise that he
+and the Matt Kelson of a year ago were the same. A year ago he had been
+a poor, underpaid, ill nourished pen-driver, with all the odious marks
+of a pen-driver's servility thick upon him. It was true he had been
+fastidious as to his appearance&mdash;that is to say, as fastidious as any
+one can be, who has to buy clothes ready made and can only afford to pay
+a few dollars for them; that he had sacrificed meals to wear white
+shirts&mdash;boiled shirts as one called them in San Francisco&mdash;and to get
+his things got up decently at a respectable laundry; but his teeth in
+those days did not receive the attention they ought to have received (he
+could not afford a dentist), the tobacco he smoked was often offensive;
+and there were to be found in him sundry other details that one usually
+finds in clerks, and in most other people who literally have to fight
+for a living.</p>
+
+<p>But now, all that was changed. Kelson was rich. He bought his suits at
+Poole's, his hats at Christie's, his boots in Regent Street. He
+patronized a dentist in Cavendish Square, and a manicurist in Bond
+Street. He belonged to a crack club in Pall Mall, and never smoked
+anything but the most expensive cigars. His ambition had been speedily
+realized. He had passionately longed to be a fop&mdash;he was one. The only
+thing that troubled him, was that he could not be an aristocrat at the
+same time. But, after all, what did that matter? The girls looked at him
+all the same, and that was all he wanted. He worshipped, he adored,
+pretty girls; and he was most anxious that they should adore him.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, his first thought, when he saw Lilian Rosenberg's name on
+the form the commissionaire presented him, was &quot;Is she pretty?&quot; And the
+first thing he said to himself directly the door opened to admit her
+was, &quot;By Jove! she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then he assumed an air more suited to a partner in a big London firm,
+and flourishing a richly bejewelled hand, said &quot;Pray take a seat, madam.
+What can I do for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to tell me the meaning of these verses,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+said, handing him two sheets of foolscap and then sitting down. &quot;They
+were suggested to me in my sleep&mdash;in other words, I dreamed them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dreamed them, did you!&quot; Kelson said, noticing with approval that
+the girl had well-kept white hands, and that her clothes, though not
+particularly expensive, were <i>chic</i>, and up-to-date. &quot;Do you want me
+only to interpret this poem, or shall I tell you something about
+yourself first?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means tell me something about myself first&mdash;if you can,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said. &quot;I want to get as much as I can out of you. Your fees
+are exorbitant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then,&quot; Kelson rejoined with a smile. &quot;Don't blame me if I
+tell you too much. You were born at sea. Being a troublesome girl at
+home, you were sent to a boarding-school, where you distinguished
+yourself in various ways, and last but not least, by making the
+headmistress&mdash;a married woman&mdash;desperately jealous. This led to your
+being removed. Removed is a more delicate term than 'expelled.' Am I
+right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I believe you are inspired by the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I go on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;I think so. Yes, go on, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came home. Your mother died. Your father married again. You
+disliked your stepmother&mdash;you considered she ill treated you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She did!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't dispute it. At all events you had your revenge. You pretended
+to commit suicide, and wrote several letters&mdash;to the police amongst
+others&mdash;declaring that you were about to drown yourself owing to the
+cruelty of your stepmother. And so cleverly did you manage it, that
+every one believed you were drowned, and blamed your stepmother
+accordingly. Changing your name to Lilian Rosenberg you came direct to
+London. For some time you worked in a milliner's shop in Beauchamp
+Gardens, and then you set up as a manicurist in Woodstock Street. Among
+your clients was the wife of the Vicar of St. Katherine's, Kew, who took
+a great liking to you&mdash;you have extraordinary personal magnetism.
+Unable, however, to do more than pay your way at legitimate manicuring
+you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg cried, a faint flow of colour
+pervading her cheeks. &quot;That will do! Explain the verses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you will!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;but mind, I don't insist on the necessity
+of your paying the slightest heed to my explanation. According to the
+usual method of interpreting dreams, the valley of flowers is symbolical
+of innocence and self-restraint&mdash;of that path in life with which the
+goody-goodies say every young lady should be satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The hunter is representative of the love of change and excitement; the
+horse&mdash;of self-indulgence. The misty moon means ruin, the metamorphosis
+into the crawling phantasm&mdash;death. Leave the path of virtue, and give
+way to self-indulgence and a craving for everlasting change and
+excitement, and a miserable ending will be your mead&mdash;and has been the
+mead of all others who have done the same thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then the dream is a warning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was about to reply, when the door opened, and Hamar, with an
+apology for intruding, beckoned to him.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with him for several moments relative to a matter of some
+consequence, and then, glancing at Miss Rosenberg, and drawing Kelson
+still further aside, whispered, &quot;Let me caution you again, Matt. On no
+account let your soft feelings with regard to the other sex get the
+better of you. Remember it is imperative for us to do evil not good&mdash;to
+lead our clients into temptation, not out of it. I am doing my best to
+follow the injunctions of the Unknown, but we must all work in
+harmony&mdash;that is the most vital point in our compact, and you know if
+we do not keep the compact something frightful will happen to us. I
+can't impress this fact on you too much. Only yesterday I had to pull
+you up for giving good advice to a lady. Damn your good advice, give
+bad&mdash;bad advice, I say; anything that will do people harm&mdash;no matter
+whether they are ugly or pretty&mdash;and if you are not jolly well careful,
+pretty girls will be your&mdash;and our&mdash;undoing. I see you have a pretty
+girl here now&mdash;and from what I can read in her face, she is not a saint.
+Rub it in to her&mdash;rub it into her well&mdash;persuade her to be a bigger
+sinner still. Now I can't wait to say more, I must go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I asked you,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, as Kelson resumed his seat, &quot;if
+the dream was a warning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I shouldn't take it as such. Despite the rather
+peculiar form it took, I am inclined to think it isn't a dream with any
+real significance&mdash;but merely a chance dream&mdash;a dream compounded of
+sayings and actions of the past that have come back to you all
+higgledy-piggledy, as they so often do in dreams. You learned a lot of
+poetry I suppose when you were at school?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but none like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I didn't suppose so, but the mere fact that your mind was at one
+time used to verses&mdash;acquainted with metre and rhythm, would account for
+the form adopted by your dream. I assure you it was purely chance&mdash;and
+that there is no significance in it! You are on the look out for work,
+is it not so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;Can you tell me where to go to get it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am just thinking,&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;I believe my partner, Mr. Hamar,
+wants a secretary. I can't, of course, say whether you would suit him.
+Do you type?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can type and do shorthand,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied eagerly, &quot;and I
+can correspond in German and French.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the salary? Would two hundred a year do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; after a slight pause, &quot;I could make it do. I should want one
+half-day holiday&mdash;from one o'clock&mdash;every week; and Sundays&mdash;and three
+weeks' holiday in the summer, and one at Christmas, and of course, the
+usual Bank Holidays.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see!&quot; Kelson said thoughtfully; &quot;you want plenty of time for
+amusement. Well! I will speak about it to Mr. Hamar, and if you leave me
+your address I will give it him. How nicely you keep your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I manicure them every day,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said; then looking up at
+him from under the long lashes which swept her cheeks, she added, &quot;You
+won't forget to tell Mr. Hamar about me, will you? I am very anxious to
+get a post. You don't know what it is to be hard up, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The earnest, pleading expression in her long, dark eyes appealed to
+Kelson as nothing else had ever appealed to him. Since his arrival in
+London, he had seen many pretty faces, many beautiful eyes, but
+assuredly none so lovely as these. And what features! what teeth! what
+lips! what a chin! what a figure! It seemed to him that she was not like
+an ordinary girl, that she was not of the same composition as any of the
+girls he had ever met; that she was something hardly human&mdash;something
+elfish, something generated by the beautiful English woods and glades,
+filled with the soft glamour of the moon and stars. And all the while he
+was thinking thus, his heart rising in rebellion against the words of
+Hamar, the girl continued gazing up at him, and toying with the rings on
+her slender, milk-white fingers.</p>
+
+<p>At last he dare look at her no longer, but stammering out his promise to
+do all he could to get her the vacant post, he pressed her hand gently,
+and bade her good morning.</p>
+
+<p>Then he returned to his chair, and, leaning back in it, was seeing once
+again in his mind's eye the fair face of the girl who had just left him,
+when there was a rap at the door, and the commissionaire announced Miss
+Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another of them,&quot; Kelson said to himself. &quot;And about as pretty in her
+way as the last. Now I wonder what she wants.&quot; He looked closely at her,
+but no past rose up before him&mdash;as far as this client was concerned his
+power of divination in that direction was nil&mdash;she was a blank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to ask you the meaning of a dream I had last night,&quot; she
+began, inwardly shuddering at the sight of so much pomade and jewellery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; he said with an encouraging smile, &quot;what was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of course she did not tell him all, but merely that she had dreamed of
+certain flowers and trees as, curiously enough, so had her father.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson looked at her thoughtfully. Once he opened his mouth to speak and
+then checked himself; and it was some seconds before he actually broke
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Taken separately,&quot; he said at last, &quot;the ash tree portends an
+unexpected visit; a poppy, a visit from a man; red roses, falling in
+love; lilac, a present; a willow, kisses&mdash;heaps of them; bluebells, a
+proposal; brambles, difficulties in the way&mdash;for example, tiresome
+relatives; buttercups, a marriage; an ash tree, a son and heir&mdash;a dear
+little&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you!&quot; Gladys remarked, rising frigidly. Thank you! I will go now.
+What is your fee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust, madam, you are pleased,&quot; Kelson said in great distress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you kindly take your fee and let me out,&quot; Gladys demanded, as he
+nervously placed himself in her way. &quot;Thank you. Good morning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as she swept regally past him and down the stone passage, Hamar came
+out of his room and passed by her on his way to Kelson's office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye gods!&quot; he exclaimed, eyeing the discomfited Kelson wrathfully. &quot;What
+in the world have you done to offend the lady? I never saw any one look
+so angry in my life. D&mdash;n it all! I hope you didn't insult her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was all your fault!&quot; Kelson wailed. &quot;She asked me to tell her the
+meaning of a dream which was brimful of warnings against us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Against us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, against us! I have never listened to such admonitions in a dream
+before. She must have some very friendly spirits watching over her.
+Well! what was I to do? I did my best. Mindful of what you said to me a
+short time ago, I put her entirely off the track; gave her an entirely
+misleading&mdash;and as I thought very pleasant&mdash;interpretation of the
+dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What did you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jackass!&quot; Hamar exclaimed. &quot;Jackass! You were far too broad. What
+pleases a San Francisco girl shocks a London lady. For goodness sake
+have more tact another time, we don't want to get into hot water. I feel
+quite convinced that if any harm befalls us&mdash;if that compact is in any
+way broken&mdash;it will be through you. I wish to heaven the Unknown had
+given you some other power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I,&quot; Kelson groaned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events,&quot; Hamar went on, &quot;the first three months is nearly at an
+end. Who was she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Miss Gladys Martin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where does she live?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. I could divine nothing about her. She can't have any
+vices.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't suppose she has,&quot; Hamar remarked dryly, &quot;Not from the look of
+her anyway. But there is time yet. Matt! I've taken a fancy to that girl
+and I mean to get hold of her somehow. I wonder if she is related to
+Martin&mdash;Davenport's partner! Jerusalem! What sport if she is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why? Why sport?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dolt! Don't you see! Martin is at our mercy. We are more than his
+rivals. We can drive him out of London any moment we like. His tricks
+indeed! Pshaw! Curtis can do them all right off the reel! And Curtis
+shall&mdash;we will show Martin up&mdash;make a laughing stock of him&mdash;ruin him!
+Unless&mdash;unless&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unless what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Scott! Don't look so alarmed! Unless&mdash;supposing that girl is his
+daughter&mdash;unless he gives me permission to pay my addresses to
+her!&quot;&mdash;and Hamar laughed coarsely.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Where's Gladys?&quot; John Martin asked as he rose with an effort, stiff and
+tired, from the remains of a meat tea.</p>
+
+<p>In reply Miss Templeton merely pointed a finger&mdash;and went on crocheting.</p>
+
+<p>Following the direction indicated, John Martin stepped out on to the
+lawn, and glancing round the garden, called &quot;Gladys!&quot; Then he listened,
+and there came to him snatches of a song, the words of which, full of
+arch sentiment, allied with (and to a large extent dependent on), a
+unique knowledge of and love of nature&mdash;would not have disgraced a
+Herrick or a Raleigh&mdash;the music&mdash;a Schubert, or a Sullivan. John Martin
+had spared no money in educating Gladys, and she did him credit. He
+thought so now, as exhausted from a hard day's poring over letters, he
+paused and leaned his back against a tree. A gentle breeze blew her
+notes to him, full of melody and mirth; fresh and young and tender&mdash;as
+tender as the rosebuds and violets that nestled at her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jove!&quot; John Martin murmured. &quot;Fancy my having a daughter like
+Gladys! I ought to be jolly well pleased. And so I am. The only thing I
+fear, is, that she'll marry some one who isn't half good enough for her!
+But who would be good enough for her! God alone knows! And God alone
+knows whether she or I ought to decide! Gladys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot;, and the next moment a vision in pink emerged from the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gladys, I want to confide in you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's wrong, Daddy, dear?&quot; Gladys said, thrusting an arm through his
+and walking him gently along with her through the glade. &quot;You weren't at
+all nice to me when we parted this morning, but you look so wearied that
+I'll be magnanimous and forgive you. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why it's like this!'&quot; John Martin said, putting his arm round her and
+holding her close to him, as he used to do when, a little girl, she came
+sidling up to him for sugar-plums. &quot;Poor Dick's affairs are in a
+terrible muddle. Unknown to me he speculated right and left, and he has
+not only muddled through everything he had, but he has left a number of
+debts, and unfortunately I have to meet them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You, Father! But why you?&quot; Gladys cried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because they were incurred in the name of the Firm. I can meet them all
+right, but it will be a big drain on my resources. That's worry number
+one. Worry number two is about young Davenport&mdash;Shiel. I don't know what
+to do about him. He was entirely dependent on Dick. His work as an
+artist doesn't bring him in enough to keep him in tobacco, and the worst
+of it is he doesn't seem capable of turning his hand to anything else; I
+can't see him starve, so I shall have to allow him something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He seemed to me very intelligent,&quot; Gladys observed, &quot;couldn't you take
+him into the Firm? Who are you going to have in his uncle's place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the trouble!&quot; John Martin replied. &quot;I do feel I want some one.
+I am getting on in years, my brain is not so vigorous as it used to be,
+and I can't go on inventing fresh tricks <i>ad infinitum</i>. Moreover, I
+need assistance in the purely business side of the concern. I want some
+one who is both business-like and inventive&mdash;some one young, brilliant
+and reliable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You couldn't sell out I suppose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not just at present. Thanks to poor old Dick the Firm is in rather
+a precarious condition! Another six months over, and we may be perfectly
+all right. No! I must stick on, and get another partner. And look here,
+Gladys, you know I let you do pretty nearly everything you like. But let
+me beg of you not to be too friendly with that young Davenport. I caught
+him looking very impressibly at you this morning, and I am quite sure,
+if he sees anything more of you, he will be falling head over ears in
+love. Which is the very last thing in the world I want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's making me out to be very attractive, Daddy,&quot; Gladys said,
+looking round at him mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so you are, dear!&quot; John Martin said. &quot;Wonderfully attractive! and
+none knows it better than yourself. But in this case you must think of
+consequences&mdash;consequences that might be disastrous to us all! Confound
+it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
+advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
+height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right ear
+standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest; his
+nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting and
+yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
+saturnine.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys shivered. &quot;What a horrible person!&quot; she whispered, &quot;there is
+something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how he
+stares!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;what is it?&quot; John Martin demanded. &quot;Do you want to see me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!&quot; the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
+characteristic of California. &quot;I've come to have a little talk with you
+on business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With me&mdash;on business!&quot; John Martin cried. &quot;I don't know you! I've never
+seen you before!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see me now anyway!&quot; the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes at
+Gladys. &quot;My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show of
+yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D&mdash;n your impudence!&quot; John Martin said, raising his stick
+threateningly. &quot;How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Calmly, calmly, sir!&quot; Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. &quot;I've come here
+with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
+programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
+rivals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry,&quot; Gladys broke in,
+meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar bowed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If,&quot; he said, &quot;you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what we
+profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no permission from me, sir,&quot; John Martin cried fiercely. &quot;Go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. &quot;You ought not to get so heated,&quot;
+he said, &quot;considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
+standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink a
+well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water. As
+you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer and
+purer. Also,&quot; he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin again
+raised his stick, &quot;in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a hollow
+about eight feet from the ground, and if you look inside it, you will
+discover an iron box full of curios and jewellery. Shall I&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; retorted John Martin. &quot;If you don't go instantly I'll send for the
+police,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar, coming to the conclusion that upon this occasion
+discretion was better than valour, hurriedly beat a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be sorry, John Martin!&quot; he shouted from a safe distance, &quot;and so
+will Miss Gladys, charming Miss Gladys. But remember you have only
+yourselves to blame. Ta-ta!&quot;, and the next moment he was lost to sight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Gladys ejaculated, &quot;of all the beastly cads I have ever seen he
+fairly takes the biscuit. What colossal cheek! The idea of his coming
+here and speaking to us like that! Can't we prosecute him, Father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hardly!&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;best leave him alone. I wish he hadn't
+come! He's upset me! My nerves are anyhow! Which was the tree he spoke
+about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This one,&quot; Gladys exclaimed, walking up to an elm, and patting it with
+her hand, &quot;but you surely don't believe what he said, do you? It was all
+rubbish from start to finish. Daddy, my dear old Daddy, I do believe you
+are worrying about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold my hat and stick a moment,&quot; John Martin said, and making a spring,
+which for one of his age and weight showed surprising agility, he
+succeeded in catching hold of one of the nearest lateral branches. The
+elm being old, the bark had become very gnarled and uneven, and thus the
+difficulty of ascension lay more in semblance, perhaps, than in reality.
+Embracing the huge trunk, as closely as possible, with his arms and
+knees, much to the detriment of his clothes, seizing with his hands some
+projections, and resting his feet upon others, John Martin, after one or
+two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled himself into the
+first great fork, and paused to wipe his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, do take care, Father!&quot; Gladys pleaded, &quot;you'll fall and break your
+neck. Do be sensible and come down now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But John Martin paid no attention, he went on groping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've found it,&quot; he suddenly shouted. &quot;That bounder was right, the trunk
+is hollow.&quot; He was silent then, for some minutes, and Gladys could only
+see his boots. Then there was a muffled oath, a sound of choking and
+gasping, which made Gladys's blood run cold, and then&mdash;a great cry.
+&quot;There's something here, something hard and heavy. It's a box, an iron
+box! Take it from me.&quot; And leaning as far down as he dared, he placed in
+Gladys's outstretched hands, a rusty iron box. Then there was the sound
+of scraping and tearing, and John Martin gradually lowered himself to
+the ground&mdash;his coat covered with green, and the knees of his trousers
+ripped to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys ran indoors for a hammer and chisel, and, the hinges of the box
+being worn with age and exposure, it was but the work of a few seconds
+to break it open. It was full of gold and silver coins and jewellery;
+there were only a few gold pieces, the greater number of the coins were
+silver&mdash;the bulk Georgian&mdash;and their dates ranged from 1697 to 1750. The
+jewellery consisted of several massive gold bracelets, (two or three of
+very fine workmanship); some dozen or so plain gold rings; two silver
+watches, and a varied assortment of silver trinkets. All were more or
+less antique, but none&mdash;apart from the gold bracelets&mdash;of any great
+value.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; John Martin exclaimed, as they concluded their examination of
+the articles, &quot;what do you make of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why that man put them there, of course,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;can't you see
+the whole thing is nothing but a dodge to intimidate you into forming a
+friendship with him. I daresay he has heard that Mr. Davenport is dead,
+and thinks he sees an opportunity to be taken into partnership. He had a
+horrid face&mdash;sly and cunning, and his way of looking at me was
+positively disgusting. It makes me feel sick and horrid even to think of
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall we do with these things?&quot; John Martin asked, picking up one
+of the watches and eyeing it with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are they ours?&quot; Gladys replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I certainly consider we've a right to keep them,&quot; her father said,
+&quot;since we've found them ourselves on our own property, but I suppose,
+legally, they are treasure trove and ought to be given up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then surely the Government would pay us something for them, wouldn't
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should think so, at least a decent Government would. Anyhow, I think
+to give them up will be our best course. I doubt if the whole lot is
+worth fifty pounds. Where was it he said there was water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good gracious!&quot; Gladys exclaimed, &quot;you don't mean to say you are going
+to bother about that now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was here, I think,&quot; John Martin went on, thrusting his stick in the
+ground, &quot;to the best of my knowledge&mdash;and I had experts' advice&mdash;there
+is no water any where near here. Had there been, I should not have gone
+to the expense of having pipes laid down to feed the pond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Father, how can you be so silly,&quot; Gladys cried, &quot;of course there
+isn't any water here. It's only a trick, a trick to frighten you&mdash;and
+I'm beginning to think it has succeeded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall try here anyway to-morrow,&quot; John Martin said grimly. &quot;Let us go
+in now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Gladys went into the garden on the following morning she beheld an
+extraordinary sight. Her father, the gardener, and a man whom she did
+not recognize at first, as his back was turned towards her, but who, to
+her utter astonishment, proved to be Shiel Davenport, were hard at work,
+digging a pit.</p>
+
+<p>Her father paused every now and then, and rested; but he did not allow
+the others a moment's respite. Every time they were about to slack, he
+urged them on. It was all very well for the gardener who was accustomed
+to it, but it was obviously killing work for Shiel Davenport, and
+Gladys&mdash;as soon as she had overcome a preliminary outburst of
+laughter&mdash;gave vent to her sympathies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a shame,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;Father how can you? Poor Mr. Davenport
+looks ready to drop. Take a rest, Mr. Davenport! Do&mdash;you have my
+permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Looking very hot and exhausted, Shiel Davenport threw down his spade and
+attempted to make himself presentable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His clothes will be ruined, Father,&quot; Gladys said, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're not his clothes&mdash;he's wearing an old suit of mine,&quot; John Martin
+explained, trying to appear unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel forced a laugh. &quot;I'm rather out of form, Miss Martin, I haven't
+had much exercise lately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're getting it now anyway,&quot; John Martin chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it's blistered your hands horribly!&quot; Gladys cried, pointing to
+several raw places. &quot;I will fetch you a pair of father's gloves&mdash;he's a
+brute!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please don't trouble,&quot; Shiel exclaimed, &quot;I'll use my handkerchief
+instead. Digging is even harder work than painting&mdash;in one way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not fit work for you,&quot; Gladys replied with another reproachful
+glance at her father. &quot;When did you arrive, I never heard you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I 'phoned to him last night,&quot; John Martin said, looking rather
+sheepish. &quot;I thought a day out here would do him good. He thought so
+too, and came on by the seven o'clock train. We've been digging ever
+since breakfast&mdash;but a bit of exercise won't hurt him, and I'll give him
+plenty of vaseline presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They resumed work again; and Gladys retired indoors. At eleven o'clock
+John Martin let Shiel go. &quot;You can amuse yourself till luncheon with
+books and papers,&quot; he said, &quot;you'll find plenty of them in my study.
+I'll join you later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Shiel had other ideas of amusing himself, and as soon as he had
+washed and changed back into his own clothes, he followed the sounds of
+music until he reached the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure you must feel dreadfully tired,&quot; Gladys said, leaving off
+playing. &quot;It was too bad of Father to make you work like that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid your father thinks me a very useless article,&quot; Shiel
+replied, seating himself in an easy chair, and trying his hardest not to
+look too ardently. &quot;And an artist is not much good outside his
+profession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is?&quot; Gladys smiled. &quot;Shall you still go on painting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now that my uncle has died? It all depends&mdash;depends on whether he has
+been able to leave me anything in his will. From one or two things your
+father has said I fear he has not&mdash;in which case I don't quite know what
+I shall do. I could hardly expect Mr. Martin to take me into his firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you any good at invention?&quot; Gladys asked, &quot;I know he wants some
+one who is&mdash;some one who can help him devise fresh tricks. This
+everlasting racking of the brains to think of something new is beginning
+to be too much for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I could be of some use,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;both for his sake and
+mine, and may I add yours. Anyhow I'll try. I have a certain amount of
+imagination&mdash;I suppose most artists have, and henceforth I'll devote it
+to trickery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not to trickery!&quot; Gladys said, &quot;to conjuring!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, to conjuring then&mdash;to planning something novel and startling in
+the way of a trick. And as they say, two heads are better than one,
+perhaps, you will help me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I,&quot; Gladys laughed, &quot;why I've never invented anything in my life,
+barring a song.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless I'm sure you would be of great help to me,&quot; Shiel said;
+&quot;you would at least criticize my efforts, wouldn't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I should certainly do that,&quot; Gladys laughingly rejoined, &quot;and
+probably do more harm than good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could never do any harm!&quot; Shiel said, with so much eagerness that
+Gladys got up and began searching for a piece of music. &quot;I would give
+anything to paint you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been painted&mdash;twice,&quot; Gladys observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the R.A.?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I didn't much care about it, and I grew desperately tired of
+sitting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who painted you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heniblow painted me once, and Darker painted me once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's useless for me even to think of it. How did they treat you in
+their pictures?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heniblow painted me in evening dress, and Darker painted me in the
+character of Enid&mdash;you know, the Enid in the 'Idylls of the King.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. But I should like to paint you as 'Melody in Flower Land.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid I can't grasp it,&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you!&quot; Shiel exclaimed, &quot;I can. The idea came to me when I heard
+you singing just now, and saw you sitting here, in the midst of flowers,
+and dressed like a rose. I should paint you clad as you are now&mdash;all in
+pink&mdash;seated in the garden singing; and all the flowers leaning towards
+you listening. I would give anything to paint it,&quot; and he spoke with
+such enthusiasm that Gladys, remembering her dream, flushed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; she said, &quot;we might go into the garden and see how the work
+is progressing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear I can't do any more digging,&quot; Shiel put in hastily, &quot;I willingly
+would if I could, but I really can't use my hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you've not had any vaseline,&quot; Gladys cried. &quot;I'll get you some,&quot;
+and before he could prevent her she had gone.</p>
+
+<p>She was back again, however, in a few moments with a tiny white jar and
+some linen bandages. &quot;I couldn't find my aunt,&quot; she began, &quot;or she would
+bandage your hands for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you?&quot; Shiel asked. &quot;Do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He thrust his hands towards her as he spoke, and Gladys uttered an
+exclamation of horror&mdash;the palms and fingers were raw and swollen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel heartily ashamed of myself for being so thin-skinned,&quot; Shiel
+said. But Gladys had disappeared. She returned almost immediately with a
+bowl of water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure they must hurt you dreadfully,&quot; she exclaimed, as she gently
+bathed the hands. &quot;It makes me feel quite ill to see them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the next few moments Shiel was in Paradise. The touch of her cool,
+white fingers on his hot and burning skin was far nicer than anything he
+had ever imagined. Her sweet-scented breath stealing gently up his
+nostrils soothed away all his care&mdash;even the remembrance of his recent
+loss.</p>
+
+<p>With his whole heart and soul concentrated in his gaze, he watched her
+every movement&mdash;watched the waving and tossing of the stray wisps of
+hair over her temples and ears, as the breeze rustled through the open
+windows; and the gentle tightening and relaxation of her delicately
+moulded lips each time she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel had always led a very solitary existence. Apart from his uncle he
+had no near relatives, and with the exception of the five or six weeks
+in the year he had spent at Dick Davenport's house at Sydenham, he had
+always been in rooms. He had often felt lonely, but never quite so
+lonely as now&mdash;now that the only person he had known intimately and for
+whom he had entertained any real affection, was suddenly taken away. He
+was now absolutely alone in the world, and the poignancy of his position
+came home to him acutely.</p>
+
+<p>It is a terrible thing to be lonely. Lonely men do all sorts of dreadful
+things&mdash;things they would certainly never dream of doing if they had
+companionship. And Shiel was doing a dreadful thing now. Every moment he
+was falling more and more desperately in love, despite the fact that he
+had no money, and worse still&mdash;no prospects of ever making any. And
+loneliness was in the main responsible for it.</p>
+
+<p>Had he not been so lonely&mdash;had he not spent days and days, alone in
+lodgings, with no one to talk to&mdash;no one to care whether he were ill or
+dying; had this not been his experience&mdash;the experience he was even then
+undergoing, reason would have outweighed folly, and even though he might
+have realized that in Gladys Martin he had found his ideal of beauty&mdash;of
+womanliness, he would have been content only to admire.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, he was in that very dangerous mood when the heart yearns for
+sympathy; when a plain woman's sympathy means much&mdash;and a pretty
+woman's more than much. It is no exaggeration to say that Shiel would
+have lain down and died for Gladys ten times over. For her sake&mdash;if only
+to see her smile, no mere physical pain would have been too excruciating
+for him to bear. And when she put the finishing touches to the bandages,
+and quite by chance, of course, their eyes met, he looked at her as if
+he never meant to leave off looking at her, as if he never meant to do
+anything else but look at her for all eternity.</p>
+
+<p>Whether she understood as much or not, is impossible to say. Shiel asked
+himself the question over and over again before the day was out, and in
+his sleep, and during the next day, and for many days afterwards. Could
+she tell how much he admired her? How much he worshipped her? All that
+he was prepared to do for her sweet sake? All this he asked himself
+repeatedly, and went on thinking of her when he knew he ought never to
+have thought of her at all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure your hands are more comfortable now. Won't you go into the
+garden and see how the work is progressing?&quot; she said. &quot;Or if you are
+afraid Father will want you to dig again, perhaps you would like to go
+into his study and read the papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to stay here and listen to you singing,&quot; he said. &quot;Mayn't
+I do that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You might,&quot; she said, &quot;but I have to go out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll stay here till you return,&quot; he said, &quot;I've never been in such
+a delightful room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you think of Shiel Davenport?&quot; Gladys remarked to her aunt a
+few minutes later. &quot;I don't think I've ever met such an extraordinary
+young man. He does nothing but stare at me, and when I ask him to do one
+thing he suggests doing another. He's the most difficult person to
+manage. In fact, I can't manage him at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind about managing him, my dear,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, &quot;so
+long as you don't let him manage you. Young men who do nothing but stare
+are not merely difficult&mdash;they are dangerous.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT CHALLENGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>When John Martin came into tea that afternoon, he gave Gladys a shock.
+Despite the fact that he had been in the sun all day and was much tanned
+in consequence he had never looked&mdash;so Gladys thought&mdash;so old and
+haggard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dear old Daddie!&quot; she said, hastening to pour him out some tea,
+&quot;you shouldn't work so hard&mdash;this silly digging has quite knocked you
+up! Haven't you finished?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I've finished!&quot; John Martin said, catching his breath. &quot;I've found
+water!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's true all the same. We struck it at exactly the distance he
+said&mdash;twenty feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then of course he knew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? How the deuce could he have known?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't say,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;All I know is, that he's not straight,
+and that there's some underhand trickery going on. But do have your tea
+now, and dismiss it from your mind. Anyhow, he can do you no harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's a letter for you, John,&quot; Mrs. Templeton exclaimed, entering the
+room at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>John Martin took it from her, and tore open the envelope curiously. It
+was a handwriting he did not know, and did not like&mdash;its
+characteristics were sinister.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew it!&quot; he cried; &quot;I knew the fellow was a scoundrel. What the
+deuce do you think he has the impertinence to do now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He!&quot; Gladys said, looking anxiously at her father. &quot;Whoever do you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, that confounded young bounder who came here last night&mdash;Leon Hamar
+he signs himself. In this letter he declares that he can perform any of
+our tricks, and will accept the wager I offered for their solution some
+little time ago. He also says that unless I consent to see him, and to
+listen courteously to what he has to say, he will publicly announce his
+intention of taking up the wager, at our Hall, in Kingsway, to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think there is any possibility of his having discovered the
+secrets of your tricks?&quot; Gladys asked. &quot;Could he have bribed any one to
+tell him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think so,&quot; John Martin said. &quot;The only people who have any clue
+as to how they are done are my two attendants&mdash;both as you know natives
+of Cashmere, and men who, I feel pretty certain, could not be 'got at.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case,&quot; Gladys remarked, &quot;I fail to see what there is to worry
+about. Your course is perfectly clear&mdash;take no notice of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin was silent&mdash;dazed. He did not know what to think or do!
+There was something painfully ominous to him in the discovery of the
+money and the water&mdash;something that accentuated the impression Hamar's
+sinister appearance had made on him. The man did not look ordinary&mdash;his
+manner, gestures, walk and expression were decidedly abnormal&mdash;in fact
+they put him in mind of the superphysical. The superphysical! Might not
+that account for his knowledge? Bah! There was no such thing as the
+superphysical. The man was extraordinary&mdash;but, after all, only a
+man&mdash;his knowledge only that of a man. And it must be as the shrewd
+Gladys conjectured&mdash;he had put the money in the tree himself and had
+learned of the presence of water through some subtle artifice&mdash;perhaps
+only guessed at it. He would defy him&mdash;let him do what he would!</p>
+
+<p>This was John Martin's decision as he finished tea. An hour later he had
+changed his mind, and was speaking to Hamar on the telephone, expressing
+his willingness to grant him a brief interview if he came at once.</p>
+
+<p>In rather less than an hour a motor drew up at the Martins' door and
+Hamar stepped out of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin,&quot; he exclaimed on
+being ushered into the latter's presence. &quot;I reckoned you would sing to
+a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me to give
+you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to business?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name your business at once,&quot; John Martin replied gruffly; &quot;I haven't
+many minutes to spare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;that's a pity; because part of what I have at the
+back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The
+situation in a nutshell is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.
+Martin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How dare you, sir?&quot; John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!&quot; Hamar observed, backing towards the door.
+&quot;Gently&mdash;you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no
+offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely&mdash;she takes the shine out
+of our American girls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The deuce she does!&quot; John Martin foamed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She does, you bet!&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;And I see no reason if she likes
+me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as far
+as money goes. What do you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and kick
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership,&quot; Hamar went
+on complacently, &quot;and I would introduce a number of new tricks that
+would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry&mdash;the length
+of the engagement would be for you to decide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it would be <i>ad infinitum</i>,&quot; John Martin said grimly, &quot;for you'll
+never get my consent to a marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never is a long day&mdash;and even a John Martin may change. You want new
+blood and new capital in your Firm&mdash;you would have both in me. I assure
+you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my daughter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have said it&mdash;that is the one and only condition. Your daughter&mdash;my
+brains, my dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided!&quot; John Martin said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good!&quot; Hamar exclaimed; &quot;I guessed you would! There's nothing like the
+almighty dollar, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; John Martin rejoined; &quot;the almighty fist&mdash;and that's what you'll
+get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you ever come
+skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll set my.
+solicitor on to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's war&mdash;war to the knife!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;How melodramatic! But
+it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner&mdash;and I shall yet have
+Miss Gladys! Au revoir&mdash;I won't say good-bye!&quot; and with a mock bow he
+hurriedly took his departure.</p>
+
+<p>That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed
+as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop. A
+man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the
+audience in a loud voice: &quot;Ladies and gentlemen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts of
+&quot;Silence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Curtis&mdash;for it was he&mdash;was not easily daunted. &quot;Do you call this
+fair play!&quot; he demanded; &quot;I am here to-night to make a sporting offer,
+and one which will afford you vast entertainment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Cries of &quot;Shut up!&quot; &quot;Silence!&quot; &quot;He's drunk!&quot; &quot;Turn him out!&quot; merging
+into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials now
+invaded the box, but Hamar&mdash;who, as well as Kelson, was with
+Curtis&mdash;fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the
+half-lowered lights of the house&mdash;for the stage only at that moment was
+fully illuminated&mdash;held them in check, and they hung back not knowing
+what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of the
+audience&mdash;some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts, whilst
+others were merely curious&mdash;and the somewhat premature cries of &quot;Turn
+him out!&quot; etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: &quot;Let them
+alone!&quot; &quot;Let them speak!&quot; &quot;Let us hear what they have to say.&quot; It was in
+the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of nervous
+agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the cause of the
+commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who had come to the
+performance anticipating something of the sort, called to her father,
+from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father,&quot; she added; &quot;and
+besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on
+their part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in;
+and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of clapping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I were spokesman,&quot; Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the
+sight of so many pretty upturned faces. &quot;Go on, old man!&quot; he added,
+giving Curtis a nudge. &quot;Fire away, and show them you know a bit about
+elocution, for the credit of the Firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once
+possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned
+over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am Edward Curtis,&quot; he said, &quot;one of the directors of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often boasted
+that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I have come
+here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only accept their
+offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their tricks, but I
+agree to pay them double that amount&mdash;cash down&mdash;if I do not do
+everything they do&mdash;from 'The Brass Coffin' to their world-famed
+'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's permission I will
+explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night, and the only thing
+I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that I get fair play.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon as
+it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to
+speak, said: &quot;I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this
+challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here, in
+this hall to-night, of displaying their skill&mdash;or their ignorance, as
+the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be
+performed by any outsider&mdash;the Firm in accepting this challenge will
+merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer&mdash;and if&mdash;as is hardly
+likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure they
+themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their successful
+rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I too!&quot; shouted a dozen other voices. &quot;Be a sport and accept his bet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; John Martin replied with dignity, &quot;you have
+given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who have
+so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is
+maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of
+which Mr. Curtis&mdash;I think that is the name of my rival&mdash;will be quite at
+liberty to try his exposition of my tricks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar and
+Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had volunteered
+to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were provided for the
+referees&mdash;three on the one side of the stage and three on the other; and
+having seen that everything was fair and square John Martin retired to
+the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was concealed.</p>
+
+<p>A brief description of &quot;The Brass Coffin&quot; trick, which was the first
+Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
+suffice.</p>
+
+<p>A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
+audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
+anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.</p>
+
+<p>The operator then summons an assistant, jokingly refers to him as &quot;the
+corpse&quot;&mdash;puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet,
+securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the
+audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the
+coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet over
+the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on removing it
+and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A shout from the
+front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to their amazement,
+&quot;the corpse&quot; is seen standing up at the back of &quot;the Pit,&quot; holding the
+sack with the rope and seal&mdash;intact&mdash;in his hand. Such was the
+marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and Davenport's
+Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of which no one as
+yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in these circumstances,
+the tremendous excitement of the audience at the prospect of seeing this
+notorious puzzle tackled&mdash;and tackled by a member of a Firm which was
+already reputed to be doing all kinds of weird and extraordinary things.
+But, whereas it was quite obvious that John Martin was greatly perturbed
+(his eyebrows were working nervously, and his lips and fingers
+twitching), Curtis, on the other hand, was as cool as possible&mdash;he
+literally did not turn a hair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, gentlemen,&quot; he said, turning to the referees, &quot;keep your eyes well
+skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he went on,
+raising his voice, &quot;I am now about to show you how the coffin trick is
+done. Observe me&mdash;I'm 'the corpse'&mdash;Mr. Kelson, here, is the operator&mdash;&quot;
+and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced, down the stage to
+take part in the proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Watch me get into the sack!&quot; He stepped into it as he spoke. &quot;Look at
+what I have in my hand,&quot; he went on, holding up his right hand in full
+view of the audience. &quot;I have a plug of wood covered with the same
+material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
+over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
+will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
+think you know this coffin but you don't. See!&quot;&mdash;and stepping out of the
+sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and deep.
+&quot;Come closer!&quot; and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers were now
+augmented by three newspaper reporters&mdash;representatives of the <i>Daily
+Snapper</i>, the <i>Planet</i> and the <i>Hooter</i> respectively. &quot;Here is a secret
+panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And amidst a breathless silence&mdash;the nine members of the audience on the
+stage following every movement&mdash;Curtis put his hand inside the head of
+the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In an
+instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid back,
+leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to squeeze
+through.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone now looked at John Martin&mdash;he was leaning back in his chair,
+breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.
+Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died out
+of his face when he glanced at Gladys&mdash;the scorn in the girl's eyes
+made his blood boil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, Miss Martin,&quot; he muttered between his teeth; &quot;you adopt that
+attitude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on! I'll win
+you body and soul, or my name is not what it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. &quot;I'm too stout
+to play the r&ocirc;le of the corpse, and so is Matt,&quot; Curtis said to him;
+&quot;you must undertake that part. Now!&quot; he went on, &quot;take this plug and get
+into the sack,&quot; and he whispered a few instructions in his ear. Then he
+tied the top of the sack&mdash;in reality tying it round the plug Hamar was
+holding&mdash;and one of the audience sealed the knot. Curtis and Kelson then
+lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and corded it. Then Curtis,
+turning to the audience, said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is now happening inside the coffin is this&mdash;'the corpse' pulls the
+plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus becomes
+loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once touches the
+spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and the panel
+slides back&mdash;So!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first of
+all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture thus
+made.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is this,&quot;
+Curtis explained; &quot;the head of the coffin is always turned away from you
+and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to you
+appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly
+opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this
+'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it
+you. Here it is&quot;&mdash;and beckoning to the referees to come quite close, he
+pointed to a glass screen, in the centre of the base of which was a
+glass trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the
+coffin. &quot;Here, corpse!&quot; Curtis said, &quot;crawl through&quot;&mdash;and Hamar, looking
+as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of wriggling on
+his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight together as he
+could, and squirmed through.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?&quot; Curtis inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perfectly!&quot; the referees answered. &quot;Nothing could be plainer. We see
+exactly, now, how the trick is done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the
+elegant manner in which he had been patiently and assiduously coached by
+Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>He then proceeded to the second trick&mdash;&quot;Eve at the Window,&quot; a trick
+almost, if not quite, as famous as &quot;The Brass Coffin,&quot; and for the
+solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge sums
+of money.</p>
+
+<p>A large pane of glass some nine by six feet in area, and set in a frame,
+made to represent that of a window, is placed on the stage, about
+eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches from the ground a
+wooden shelf is placed against the window. An assistant&mdash;usually a
+woman&mdash;then mounts on the shelf and, looking out of the glass, proceeds
+to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a shocked voice asks her to
+desist. She refuses and, to the amusement of the audience, carries on
+her pantomimic flirtation more desperately than before. The operator
+pretends to lose his temper, and snatching up a screen places it at the
+back of her. He then fires a pistol, pulls aside the screen, and she has
+vanished. As the top, bottom and sides of the window, all in fact except
+the very middle, have been in full view of the audience, and as the
+window has been tightly closed all the time, the disappearance of the
+girl completely mystifies the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis explained it all. He pointed out that the keynote to the illusion
+lay behind the wooden shelf, which was so placed as to conceal the fact
+that the lower part of the window was made double, the bottom of the
+upper part being concealed from view by a second sheet of silvered glass
+placed in front of it. The shelf covers the line of junction and enables
+the window frame to be scrutinized by the audience.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the screen is put in front of the lady on the shelf&mdash;the
+glass pane slides up about a foot and a half into the top of the frame,
+purposely made very deep. The bottom of the window is cut away in the
+middle, leaving an aperture about two feet square, which was previously
+hidden from view by the double glass at the base. Eve makes her exit
+through this hole, and slides on to a board placed behind the window in
+readiness for her. The pane of glass then slides down again, the screen
+is removed, and the window appears just as solid as before.</p>
+
+<p>When Curtis concluded his verbal explanation he gave the audience a
+practical illustration of how the thing was done; he manipulated the
+screen and pistol, whilst Hamar posed as Eve, and directly he had
+finished there was another outburst of applause. Kelson dared not look
+at John Martin or Gladys. The brief glance he had taken of them at the
+conclusion of the giving away of the first trick had shocked him&mdash;and
+he purposely stood with his back to them. With Hamar it was
+otherwise&mdash;the joy of triumph was strong within him, and the picture of
+John Martin, leaning forward in his chair, with his mouth half open and
+a dazed, glassy expression in his eyes, only thrilled him with pleasure;
+he laughed at the old man, and still more at Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the way to treat a girl of that sort,&quot; he whispered to Kelson;
+&quot;scoff at her&mdash;scoff at her well. Let her see you don't care a snap for
+her&mdash;and in the end she'll run after you and haunt you to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not so sure,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;It might act in some cases, perhaps,
+but I don't think you can quite depend on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pooh! You are no judge of women, in spite of all your experience,&quot;
+Hamar retorted. &quot;I'll bet you anything you like she'll come round and
+make a tremendous fuss of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supposing you fall in love with her, how about the compact?&quot; Kelson
+asked. &quot;You've warned me often enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, but I'm not like you,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;There's nothing soft in my
+nature. I fall in love! Not much! Why, you might as well have
+apprehensions of my joining the Salvation Army, or wanting to become a
+Militant Suffragette&mdash;either would be just about as possible. No&mdash;! I
+shall make the girl love me&mdash;and we shall be engaged for just as long as
+I please. If I find some one that attracts me more, I shall throw her
+aside&mdash;if not, maybe, I shall marry her&mdash;but in either case there will
+be no question of love&mdash;at least not on my part. She shall do as I
+want&mdash;that is all! Hulloa! Curtis is beginning again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were five other tricks on the programme&mdash;all of which were world
+renowned. They were &quot;The Floating Head&quot;; &quot;The Mango Seed&quot;; &quot;The Haunted
+Bathing-machine,&quot; &quot;The Girl with the Five Eyes,&quot; and &quot;The Vanishing
+Bicycle&quot; illusion. As with the first two tricks, so Curtis did with the
+following five&mdash;he explained them, and then, aided by Hamar and Kelson,
+gave practical demonstrations of their solutions; and so thoroughly and
+clearly were these solutions demonstrated that the referees asked no
+questions&mdash;they were absolutely satisfied. Turning to the audience&mdash;at a
+sign from Curtis&mdash;they announced that the whole of Messrs. Martin and
+Davenport's tricks had been solved to their entire satisfaction, and
+that Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.
+had, without doubt, won the wager.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you anything to say?&quot; Curtis asked, addressing John Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I acknowledge my defeat, though I do not understand it!&quot; John Martin
+said with very white lips. &quot;I shall pay you the ten thousand pounds
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't worry about that,&quot; Hamar interposed; &quot;we don't want to take your
+money, all we wanted to do was to prove to you we could perform the
+tricks you believed to be insoluble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ladies and gentlemen!&quot; he went on, raising his voice, &quot;the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. has given you some proof to-night of their
+capabilities in the conjuring line, and if you will give us the pleasure
+of your company to-morrow night&mdash;we invite you all free of charge for
+the occasion&mdash;we will give you a still further demonstration of our
+powers. May we count upon your patronage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A terrific storm of clapping was the reply, and as the audience slowly
+filed from the hall, John Martin staggered into the wing, reeled past
+Gladys ere she could catch him, and sank helplessly on to the floor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The days that followed were dark days for Gladys. Her father, whom she
+loved&mdash;and, until now, had never realized how much she loved&mdash;lay
+seriously ill. He had had a stroke which, although fortunately slight,
+must, as the doctor said, be regarded as a prelude to what would happen,
+unless he was kept very quiet. And to keep him quiet was not an easy
+thing to do. His mind continually reverted to what had just taken place,
+and he was for ever asking Gladys to tell him whether anything further
+had occurred in connection with it, whether there was anything about it
+in the papers.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys, of course, was obliged to dissemble. She hated anything
+approaching dissimulation, but on this occasion there was no help for
+it, and what she told John Martin was the reverse of what she knew to be
+actually happening. The papers were full to overflowing with accounts of
+that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous gratis exhibition
+given on the succeeding evening by the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Hooter</i>, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
+in large type&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">Extraordinary Scene <br />at <br />Martin and Davenport's<br /><br />
+The Greatest Conjuring Tricks
+in the World Solved! </p>
+
+<p>Whilst the <i>Daily Snapper</i>, determined to be none the less sensational,
+began thus:</p>
+
+<p class="hl">Mysteries No Longer!<br />
+&quot;The Brass Coffin Trick&quot; And &quot;Eve at the Window&quot; Done at Last!<br />
+Martin and Davenport Lose Their Prestige </p>
+
+<p>This was bad enough, but the <i>Planet</i> published a paragraph that was
+even more galling, viz.&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
+     explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home of
+     Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
+     surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should turn
+     elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is above
+     all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort to the
+     Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids fair to
+     become the future home of everything uncanny. Their programme&mdash;to
+     the uninitiated&mdash;presents possibilities&mdash;and impossibilities.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>So said the <i>Planet</i>, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
+Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
+succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled to
+overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being verified.
+The solution of Martin and Davenports' tricks had taken place (Hamar had
+so planned it) on the last night the trio possessed the property of
+divination, and, consequently, on the night that terminated the first
+stage of their compact. The following night they would be in possession
+of new powers, such powers as would warrant them giving a gratis
+exhibition&mdash;an exhibition of jugglery absolutely new and unprecedented.
+That the exhibition was successful may be gathered from the following
+article in the <i>Daily Cyclone</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN COCKSPUR STREET.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., in their new premises in Cockspur
+     Street, gave the most remarkable display of Phenomena it has ever
+     yet fallen to our lot to report. Indeed, the performances were of
+     such an extraordinary nature that the huge audience, <i>en masse</i>,
+     was scared; not a few people fainted, whilst every now and again
+     were heard screams of terror intermingled with long protracted
+     'Ohs!'&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>A brief <i>r&eacute;sum&eacute;</i> of the entertainment ran as follows:&mdash;The first part of
+the Modern Sorcery Company's programme was carried out by Mr. Leon
+Hamar, solus, who, stepping to the front of the stage, announced that he
+was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further prelude he
+pointed to various members of the audience, and described spiritual
+presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he could see a
+spirit, answering to the name of James or George&mdash;or some such equally
+familiar name&mdash;and then proceed to give a description of it, so elastic,
+that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly have fitted nine
+out of every ten people one meets with every day, but unlike any other
+clairvoyants we have known, he described the individual physical and
+moral traits of the people he professed to see. For example: To a lady
+sitting in the third row of the stalls, he said: &quot;There is the phantasm
+of an elderly gentleman standing behind you. He has a vivid scar on his
+right cheek that looks as if it might have been caused by a sabre cut.
+He has a grey military moustache, a very marked chin; wears his hair
+parted in the middle, and has light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously
+on the gentleman seated on your left. Do you recognize the person I am
+describing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so,&quot; the lady answered in a faint voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will spare you a description of his person,&quot; Hamar went on, &quot;but I
+should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
+He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
+pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
+revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
+right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply&mdash;but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. &quot;I can see behind
+you,&quot; he said, &quot;an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large emerald
+drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of which she
+appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She died of
+pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of&mdash;Ahem!&mdash;of her
+relatives&mdash;for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
+however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square&mdash;a Society
+for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to whom
+I refer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only too well!&quot; came the indignant and spontaneous reply.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. &quot;Hulloa!&quot; he exclaimed.
+&quot;What have we here&mdash;an Irish terrier answering to the name of 'Peg.' It
+is standing upright with its two front paws resting on your knees. It is
+looking up into your face, and its mouth is open as if anticipating a
+lump of sugar. From the marks on its body I should say it has been
+killed by being run over?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again Mr. Hamar was correct. &quot;What you say is absolutely true,&quot; the
+gentleman replied; &quot;I had a dog named Peg. I was greatly attached to it,
+and it was run over in Piccadilly by a motor cyclist. I hate the very
+sight of a motor bicycle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a brief interval of awestruck silence a voice from the gallery
+called out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are in league with him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then the man in the stalls stood up, and essayed to speak; but his voice
+was drowned in a perfect tornado of applause. He had no need&mdash;he was
+instantly recognized&mdash;he was J&mdash;&mdash; B&mdash;&mdash;. With a few more examples of
+clairvoyance Mr. Hamar continued to entertain his audience for half an
+hour or so, by the end of which time, we have no hesitation in saying
+that every one was convinced that he actually saw what, he said, he saw.</p>
+
+<p>The second part of the programme was entirely in the hands of Mr.
+Curtis, who now came forward with a bow. &quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he
+said; &quot;you all know that man is complex&mdash;that he is composed of mind and
+matter, the material and immaterial. I now propose to give you a
+physical demonstration of this fact. Will twelve of the audience kindly
+come up on the stage and sit around me, so that you may feel quite
+certain that I have here no mechanical devices to assist me?&quot;&mdash;And
+amongst other well-known people who responded to Mr. Curtis's request,
+were Lord Bayle, Sir Charles Tenningham and the Right Hon. John Blaine,
+M.P. Having arranged these twelve volunteers in a semi-circle at the
+back of the stage, Mr. Curtis, standing in the centre of the stage,
+again addressed his audience. &quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he said; &quot;the
+secret of separating the mind&mdash;or what Spiritualists, who love to
+bolster up their pretended knowledge of the other world by the invention
+of pretentious nomenclature, call the 'ethical ego'&mdash;from the body, lies
+in intense concentration. If you wish to acquire the power, practise
+concentration&mdash;concentrate on being in a certain place. If nothing
+happens at first, don't be discouraged, but keep on trying, and a time
+will come when you will suddenly leave your body, in a form, which is
+the exact counterpart of the body you have left. You will visit the
+place whereon you are concentrating. Perhaps the best method of
+practising projection is to put your forehead against a door or wall,
+and concentrate very hard on being on the other side. It may take weeks
+before you get a result, but if you persevere, you will eventually
+succeed in leaving your physical form and passing through the door, or
+wall, into the space beyond. Now watch me! I shall concentrate on
+projecting my immaterial body, and of walking in it, three times round
+my material body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Curtis closed his eyes, and for some seconds appeared to be thinking
+very hard. Then the audience witnessed a remarkable phenomenon&mdash;a
+figure, the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, stepped out, as it were,
+from his body, and slowly walking round it three times, deliberately
+glided into it, and apparently amalgamated with it. The twelve members
+from the audience who were within a few feet of the alleged ethereal
+body, as it walked past them, declared they saw it most vividly, and
+that feature for feature, detail for detail, it was the exact
+counterpart of Mr. Curtis, whose material body remained standing,
+upright and motionless, with its eyes tightly closed. Our representative
+questioned several of these eye-witnesses very closely, and they were
+all most emphatic in their belief that what they had seen was a
+<i>bona-fide</i> case of spiritual projection. At the request of a large part
+of the audience, Mr. Curtis repeated his demonstration, a further
+complement of men from the stalls joining those already on the stage to
+witness the operation.</p>
+
+<p>Several tests were now applied to the ethereal body of Mr. Curtis, as it
+walked round his material body. One man, clutching at its sleeve, tried
+to detain it, but his hand passed through the sleeve, and held&mdash;nothing.
+Another man put out an arm to act as a barrier, and the projection,
+without swerving from its course, passed right through it; and, on the
+completion of the third round, disappeared as before.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to inquiries, Mr. Curtis stated that the phenomenon might be
+taken as a good illustration of projections; and that he was prepared to
+project himself once again, in order to prove that it was erroneous to
+suppose that phantasms could not do all manner of physical actions. A
+deal table (upon which stood a tumbler and jug of water), a grandfather
+clock, and a piano were brought on to the stage, and Mr. Curtis once
+again projected his spirit form. The latter at once walked to the table,
+and, taking up the tumbler, filled it with water from the jug; after
+which it wound up the clock, and, sitting down on a seat in front of the
+piano, played &quot;Killarney&quot; and &quot;The Star-spangled Banner.&quot; And then,
+amidst the wildest applause&mdash;the first time assuredly &quot;a ghost&quot; has ever
+received public plaudits in recognition of its services&mdash;it modestly
+re-entered its physical home.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Curtis then announced that not only could he project his ethereal
+body from his material body in the manner he had already demonstrated,
+but that with his ethereal body he could amalgamate with inorganic
+matter. He bade those on the stage approach the table in convenient
+numbers, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> two or three at a time, and listen attentively. He then
+took his stand on one side of the stage, about fourteen feet from the
+table; and the audience approaching the table and listening attentively,
+first of all heard it pulsate as with the throbbings of a heart, and
+then breathe with the deep and heavy respirations of some one in a sound
+sleep. The table then raised itself some three or four inches from the
+ground and moved round the stage; at the conclusion of which feat Mr.
+Curtis informed the audience that &quot;table-turning&quot;&mdash;when not
+accomplished through the trickery of one of the sitters&mdash;was frequently
+performed by the work of some earth-bound spirit&mdash;usually an
+Elemental&mdash;that could amalgamate with any piece of furniture, in
+precisely the same way as his own projection had amalgamated with the
+table in front of them. &quot;Elementals,&quot; Mr. Curtis continued, &quot;are
+responsible for many of the foolish and purposeless tricks performed at
+s&eacute;ances; and for the unintelligible and useless kind of answers the
+table so often raps out. The best you can hope for, from an Elemental,
+is amusement&mdash;it will never give you any reliable information; nor will
+it ever do you any good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With these words Mr. Curtis's share in the entertainment concluded. He
+retired to the wings, whilst Mr. Kelson stepping forward&mdash;begged those
+several gentlemen who, on Mr. Curtis's exit, had reseated themselves
+among the audience, once again to step up on to the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be good enough,&quot; he said addressing them in his most polite manner, &quot;to
+observe me very closely. I am about to give you a few further examples
+of what intense mental concentration can do, thus proving to you to what
+an unlimited extent mind can gain dominion over matter. You all know
+that will-power can overcome any of the internal physical forces; for
+instance, when you have tooth or ear ache&mdash;you have only to say to
+yourselves: 'I shan't suffer'&mdash;and the suffering ceases. But what you
+may not know&mdash;what you may not have realized, is that will-power can
+over-rule external forces and principles&mdash;as for example&mdash;gravity. As a
+matter of fact, airships and aeroplanes are absolutely superfluous&mdash;and
+the time, money and labour they involve is a prodigious waste. Any man
+with strong mental capacity can fly without the aid of mechanism. He has
+only to will himself to be in the air&mdash;and he is there. Look!&quot; And to
+the amazement&mdash;the indescribable, unparalleled amazement&mdash;of all
+present, Mr. Kelson knit his brows, as if engaged in intense thought,
+and, jumping off his feet, remained in the air, at a height of some four
+feet from the floor.</p>
+
+<p>At his request members of the audience came up to him, and passed their
+hands under, over and all around him, to make sure there were no wires.
+He then struck out with his hands and legs after the manner of a
+swimmer, and moving first of all round the stage, and then over the
+stalls and pit, gradually ascended higher and higher, till he reached
+the level of the boxes, to the occupants of which he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Such an extraordinary spectacle&mdash;which apparently gives the lie to all
+our preconceived notions of gravity&mdash;has certainly never before been
+witnessed, and the effect it had on those who saw it, baffles
+description. When Mr. Kelson returned to the stage, and the terrific
+applause that greeted his arrival there had subsided, he gave the
+audience a few valuable hints as to how they, too, might accomplish this
+feat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Practise concentration,&quot; he said, &quot;and develop your will power, if only
+by a very little, every day. Jump off a stool to begin with, saying to
+yourself as you do so: 'I will remain in the air. I won't touch the
+ground,'&mdash;and though you may fail for the hundredth time, if only you
+keep on trying you will eventually succeed. To keep your equilibrium on
+a bicycle is a feat which would have been pronounced utterly impossible
+by your ancestors of two hundred years ago; but just as that power came
+to you&mdash;after many futile efforts, all at once&mdash;so, in the end, will
+flying come to you. See, I am now going to rise to the highest point in
+the building. Gravity pulls me back, but I say to myself: 'I will
+rise&mdash;I will fly there'&mdash;and fly there I do!&quot;&mdash;and, springing off the
+ground, he struck out with his arms and legs, flew swiftly and easily to
+the dome of the hall, which he touched&mdash;and then flew back again to the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>This completed the evening's entertainment. If only on the strength of
+its first performance, the Modern Sorcery Company, in our opinion, has
+more than justified its name; and although we understand they will give
+no more performances gratis, we feel confident in prophesying that, for
+many a long night, there will be no falling off in the attendance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>SHIEL TO THE RESCUE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Gladys did not feel too happy when she read notices such as these; she
+could not do other than see in them destruction to her father, and the
+worst of it all was she could do nothing to help him. Who could? Who
+could possibly invent anything as wonderful as the marvels of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd.? And yet unless John Martin gave up altogether,
+that is what he must do. Nay, he must do more&mdash;he must not only equal
+the Modern Sorcery Company's marvels, he must eclipse them. But after
+the affair of the challenge, it seemed to Gladys that there was no help
+for it&mdash;the Hall would have to be closed for a time. Now that Dick
+Davenport was dead, there was no one to take her father's place. On the
+night succeeding the catastrophe, she had persuaded one of the Indian
+attendants to undertake the r&ocirc;le of operator, but his skill was not
+equal to the tax upon it, and the audience&mdash;a poor one&mdash;was very
+lukewarm in its applause. The following day she talked the matter over
+with her father. The latter was in favour of keeping the show on at any
+cost; Gladys, for closing it temporarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A bad performance is worse than no performance,&quot; she said, &quot;much better
+to close till you have invented some new tricks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin groaned. &quot;I fear my days of invention are over,&quot; he
+muttered. &quot;If I can read the papers and write letters, that will be
+about as much as I shall be able to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Couldn't you retire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would if I were not a Britisher,&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;but being a
+Britisher I'd sooner shoot myself than give in to a d&mdash;&mdash;d Yank!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Gladys, in terror lest her father should over-excite himself,
+promised she would see that the entertainment was carried on as usual,
+and that the Indian continued in the r&ocirc;le of operator.</p>
+
+<p>But when out of her father's presence, Gladys gave way to despair. How
+could she&mdash;a woman&mdash;hope to cope with such a difficult situation? And
+she was racking her brains to know how to act for the best, when Shiel
+was announced.</p>
+
+<p>A wave of relief swept over her. She could explain her difficulties to
+Shiel, in a way that she could not to any one who had no knowledge at
+all of her father's affairs&mdash;and she told him just how matters stood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here!&quot; he exclaimed, when she had finished, &quot;why not let me take
+your father's place at the Kingsway? I have done a little amateur
+acting, and am not nervous at the thought of appearing in public. Your
+father confided in you so much&mdash;you must know all his tricks by
+heart&mdash;couldn't you coach me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys looked at him critically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't be half a bad idea,&quot; she said. &quot;Supposing you come with me
+to the Hall, I can explain the tricks better if I show you the apparatus
+at the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel thoroughly enjoyed that journey up to town. He knew it was wrong
+of him to think of his own pleasure, when the affairs of his companion
+were in such a critical condition. He knew he ought not to look at her
+in the way he did&mdash;as if she was the most precious thing in the world,
+and he would give her his soul if she wanted it&mdash;he knew that he&mdash;a
+penniless artist without any prospects&mdash;had no right to behave thus. But
+her beauty appealed to him with a force he was entirely incapable of
+resisting, and he went on looking at her in the way he knew he ought not
+to look at her, simply because he couldn't help it.</p>
+
+<p>He lunched with her at her club in Dover Street, and then they taxied to
+the Kingsway.</p>
+
+<p>The door-keeper, the only living creature in the building, saving
+themselves, seemed to share in the general depression hanging over
+everything&mdash;the great, empty front of the house with its gloomy,
+cavernous boxes and grim, grey gallery&mdash;the dark, dismal flies&mdash;the
+chilly wings&mdash;all hushed and still, and impregnated with the sense of
+desertion. But with this man beside her, who, she knew, would do
+anything he could to help, the place did not look quite so bad to Gladys
+as it had done the day before. There was a ray of light now where,
+before, ebon blackness had prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Without delay Gladys rang up the Indian attendants on the telephone, and
+occupied the time prior to their arrival by describing to Shiel how each
+of the tricks was done.</p>
+
+<p>Her pupil proved far more able than she had anticipated. After several
+rehearsals he was able to go through the whole performance without a
+hitch.</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished, Gladys stretched out her hand impulsively. &quot;I
+don't know how to thank you enough,&quot; she said. &quot;You are a brick, and if
+only you do half as well this evening as you have done now, we shall
+get on swimmingly&mdash;that is to say, as well as we can expect, until we
+can arrange a fresh programme. If only you were an inventor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If only I were. If only I had money!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, what would you do?&quot; Gladys asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give it to you! Give you every halfpenny of it!&mdash;But as I haven't any,
+I mean to give you all the energy I possess instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why me? My father you mean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you!&quot; Shiel said impulsively, &quot;both of you if you prefer it, but
+you first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me first! That doesn't seem very lucid&mdash;but I can't stay to hear an
+explanation now, for if I miss the four-thirty train I shall miss my
+dinner, which would indeed be a calamity!&quot; And slipping on her gloves,
+she hurried off, forbidding Shiel to escort her further.</p>
+
+<p>Left to himself, Shiel strolled along the Strand into the Victoria
+Gardens, where he bought an evening paper, and sat down to read it. The
+first thing that caught his eye was&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p style="text-indent: 3em;">&quot;MAGIC IN LONDON&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;This morning the West End received a shock. About twelve o'clock,
+     a gentleman, fashionably dressed, turned into Bond Street from
+     Piccadilly, and when opposite Messrs. Truefitt's prepared to cross
+     over. The street happened just then to be blocked by a long line of
+     taxis. The gentleman, however, had no intention of waiting till
+     they had passed. Measuring the distance from one pavement to the
+     other with his eyes, he jumped about fifteen feet into the air and
+     cleared the intervening space without the slightest apparent
+     effort&mdash;a feat that literally paralysed with astonishment all who
+     beheld it. On being remonstrated with by a policeman, who was
+     highly perplexed as to whether such extraordinary conduct
+     constituted a breach of the peace or not, the gentleman calmly
+     leaped over the policeman's head, and striking out with arms and
+     legs swam through the air.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Continuing in this fashion, the cynosure of all eyes&mdash;even the
+     traffic being suspended to watch him&mdash;he passed along Bond Street
+     into Oxford Street, where he once more alighted on his feet. On
+     being questioned by a representative of the Press, it transpired he
+     was Mr. Kelson, one of the partners in the Modern Sorcery Company
+     Ltd., whose wonderful performances at their Hall, in Cockspur
+     Street, have already been reported in these columns.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I should well like to know how that flying trick is done,&quot; Shiel said
+to himself. &quot;According to Kelson it is entirely a question of will
+power. I'll see if I can't develop my concentrative faculty and
+introduce a few of the same performances in our show. I'll go to the
+Hall and try them now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But his preliminary efforts were certainly far from successful. He
+jumped off chairs saying to himself, &quot;I'll fly! I will fly,&quot; and he
+struck out heroically each time, but the result was always the
+same&mdash;gravity conquered&mdash;he fell.</p>
+
+<p>Had he not been so much in love with Gladys, he would have desisted; as
+it was, the more he bumped and bruised himself, the more determined he
+was to go on trying. In fact, flying with him became a mania; and
+according to the daily journals, his was by no means the only case. All
+over England people were trying to fly. An old lady, in Gipsy Hill,
+appeared in the Police Court to answer a charge of causing annoyance to
+her neighbours by practising flying, from off her bed, at night. Her
+bulk being large and her will power apparently small, she yielded to
+gravity and landed on the ground with prodigious bumps, which set
+everything in the room vibrating, and which could be plainly heard in
+the adjoining houses, through the thin brick walls on either side of her
+room.</p>
+
+<p>An old gentleman in Guilsborough had an extremely narrow escape. Being
+warned on no account to practise flying in the house or garden, lest his
+grandchildren should see him and want to do the same, he retired to the
+seclusion of an old, disused and dilapidated coach house. Here, in the
+upper storey, he practised by the hour together. He climbed on to a
+stool which he had taken there for the purpose, and when he fancied he
+had acquired the right amount of concentration, he sprang into the air,
+arriving, presumably through want of will power, on the floor. For two
+whole days he practised&mdash;bump&mdash;bump&mdash;bump&mdash;and the more he bumped, the
+more he persevered. At last, however, the floor gave way, and with loud
+cries of &quot;I will! I will!&quot; he fell on the ground floor, ten feet below!
+He was unable to go on experimenting, owing to a broken leg and a
+fractured collar-bone.</p>
+
+<p>In Aylsham, Norfolk, there had been a perfect epidemic among the
+children for trying aeronic gravity. Rudolph Crabbe, aged five, after
+listening to an account of the performances at the Modern Sorcery
+Company's Hall, which his father had read aloud, sprang off the
+dining-room table crying out &quot;I will fly! I will stay in the air.&quot;
+Fortunately, he fell on the tabby cat, which somewhat broke the shock of
+concussion, and he escaped unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>In College Road, Clifton, Bristol, an octogenarian thinking he would add
+novelty to the Jubilee celebrations at the College, leaped off the roof
+of his house, crying, &quot;I'll fly over the Close! I will fly over the
+Close!&quot;&mdash;and broke his neck.</p>
+
+<p>In St. Ives, Cornwall, where the treatment of animals is none too
+humane, a fisher-boy threw a visitor's Pomeranian over the Malakoff
+saying, &quot;You shall fly! You shall remain in the air;&quot; whilst at Bath a
+girl of ten, snatching her baby brother from the perambulator, leaped
+over Beechen Cliff, calling out, &quot;We will fly together! We will fly
+together!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These are only a few of the many similar cases Shiel read in the paper,
+and which he narrated afterwards to Gladys Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am quite convinced,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;that Kelson does his flying
+through supernatural agency. His assertion that it can be done through
+mere will power, is sheer humbug. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consult a
+clairvoyant. What do you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel thought it was an excellent suggestion. He saw in it an
+opportunity of spending yet another afternoon in Gladys's company, and
+asked her to go with him to an occultist the very next day. When she
+assented, the pleasure of it tingled through every pore of his skin. Of
+course, Gladys assured herself there was no harm in her acceptance of
+Shiel's escort&mdash;that neither he nor she meant anything by it&mdash;that it
+was on her part merely a sort of an acknowledgment that he had been
+awfully good to her in her present predicament. Besides, if she needed
+further excuse, she had no reason for supposing Shiel to be in love with
+her&mdash;and had her father not spoken to her about it, she would not have
+remarked anything different in his glances, from the glances&mdash;for the
+time being, perhaps, earnest enough&mdash;bestowed upon her by other young
+men; which excuse, was, certainly, in Gladys's case, a more or less
+honest one.</p>
+
+<p>They had some difficulty in selecting a psychometrist&mdash;so numerous were
+those who advertised, in an equally alluring manner&mdash;but they at length
+decided in favour of Madame Elvita, whose consulting rooms were in New
+Bond Street. When they arrived there, Madame Elvita was, of course,
+engaged. Shiel was delighted&mdash;it gave him an extra half-hour with
+Gladys. When Madame was free, she had much to tell them. First of all
+she spoke to them of Karmas, Kamadevas, Rupadevas, vitalized shells,
+etheric doubles, the Nermanakaya, and afterwards solemnly announced that
+she must relapse into a state of clairvoyance, in order to get in touch
+with Tillie Toot, a certain spirit from whom she could learn all that
+Gladys and Shiel wanted to know. Accordingly, in the manner of most
+other two-guinea clairvoyants, she composed herself in a graceful and
+recumbent attitude, made a lot of queer grimaces and still queerer
+noises, and spoke in a falsetto voice, which purposed to be that of
+Tillie Toot, once a barmaid in Edinburgh, now one of Madame's familiar
+spirits. And the gist of what &quot;Tillie&quot; told them was that Hamar &amp; Co.
+derived their powers from Black Magic; and that the secrets thereof
+could only be learned from Madame, after a series of sittings with
+her&mdash;sittings for which Madame would only require a fee of fifty
+guineas: a most moderate, in fact quite trifling, sum, considering the
+wonderful instruction they would receive.</p>
+
+<p>But Madame's magnanimous offer tempted neither Gladys nor Shiel; and
+they abruptly took their departure.</p>
+
+<p>Kateroski (<i>n&eacute;e</i> Jones) in Regent Street, whom Gladys and Shiel had
+agreed to consult in the event of a non-successful visit to Madame
+Elvita in Bond Street, also told them that Black Magic was the key to
+Hamar, Curtis &amp; Kelson's performances. She advised them to get on the
+Astral Plane, where they would meet spirits who would give them all the
+information they desired.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Kateroski's instructions were simple. &quot;It is really a matter of
+faith,&quot; she said. &quot;All you have to do is to go to some secluded
+spot&mdash;the privacy of your bedroom will do admirably&mdash;sit down, close
+your eyes, look into your lids and concentrate hard. After a while you
+will no longer see your eyelids&mdash;your lids will fade away and you will
+be on the Astral Plane, and see strange creatures, which, although
+terrifying, won't harm you. When you get used to them, you will
+communicate with them, and learn from them all you want to know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall we try?&quot; Gladys remarked laughingly to Shiel, as they stepped
+into the street. &quot;But if faith is essential to success, I fear failure,
+as far as I am concerned, is a foregone conclusion. I know I shouldn't
+have sufficient faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I either,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;But, perhaps, we could acquire a necessary
+amount of it, if we were to experiment together. Supposing we try in
+that delightfully secluded copse in your garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys shook her head. &quot;I'm afraid it would be useless. Besides, if my
+father were to hear of it, he would fear worry had turned my brain, and
+most likely have another fit. No, we must think of something more
+practical. In the meanwhile, if you will keep on with the part, you have
+so generously undertaken, you will be doing me an inestimable service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll keep on with it for ever,&quot; Shiel replied, and before she
+could stop him, he had kissed her hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In order to explain the manner in which Hamar, Kelson and Curtis were
+initiated into their new properties, I must now go back to the day
+preceding the gratis performance of the Modern Sorcery Company, that is
+to say the last day of stage one of the compact.</p>
+
+<p>To Kelson the day had been one of surprises throughout. When he arrived
+at the building in Cockspur Street (he preferred living alone, and,
+consequently, rented a handsome suite of rooms in John Street, Mayfair),
+he was not a little astonished to meet Lilian Rosenberg on the
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank you so much!&quot; she exclaimed, shaking hands with him most
+effusively. &quot;It is all owing to you I got the post.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Hamar has engaged you,&quot; Kelson ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, yes! didn't you know!&quot; Lilian said with a smile. &quot;I had a letter
+from him the very evening of the day I called here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you! He never told me anything about it! How do you think you will
+get on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, splendidly! The work is interesting and full of variety. Moreover,
+I like the atmosphere of the place, it is so weird. I believe the three
+of you really are magicians!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that be so,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;then we have only acted in accordance
+with our character in engaging the services of a witch&mdash;a witch who has
+already bewitched one member of the trio. Now please don't go to the
+expense of lunching out: lunch with me instead. Lunch with me every
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very kind of you,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, &quot;and I will gladly
+do so when I am not lunching with Mr. Hamar. But he has invited me to
+have all my meals with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That doesn't mean you are obliged to have them with him every day!&quot;
+Kelson cried. &quot;Lunch with me this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am very sorry,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, looking at Kelson with mock
+pleading eyes, &quot;please don't scold me, but I've really promised Mr.
+Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have tea with me, then,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've promised him that, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supper then!&quot; Kelson said, savagely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm awfully sorry, but I'm engaged all this evening, and practically
+every evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Mr. Hamar?&quot; Kelson asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh no! my own private business,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;Do forgive
+me. I should so like to have been able to accept your invitation. Now I
+must hurry back to my work,&quot; and she gave him her hand, which Kelson
+held, and would have gone on holding all the morning, had he not heard
+Hamar's well-known tread ascending the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here!&quot; he said, as they entered his room together, &quot;I want Miss
+Rosenberg to have luncheon with me one day this week, and she tells me
+you have already invited her. Let her come with me to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Now I'll tell you what it is, Matt, I
+anticipated this the moment I saw you two together, and its got to stop.
+You would genuinely fall in love with that girl&mdash;or as a matter of fact
+any other pretty girl&mdash;if you saw much of her&mdash;and love, I tell you,
+would be absolutely disastrous to our interests. You must let her
+alone&mdash;absolutely alone, I tell you. I have given her strict orders she
+is to confine herself to her work, and to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you take a great deal too much on yourself. I shall see just as
+much of Miss Rosenberg, when she is disengaged, as I please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then she never shall be disengaged. But come, do be sane and put some
+restraint on this mad infatuation of yours for pretty faces. Can't you
+keep it in check anyhow for two years&mdash;till after the term of the
+compact has expired! Then you will be free to indulge in it, to your
+heart's content. For Heaven's sake, be guided by me. Harmony between us
+must be kept at all costs. Don't you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes! I understand all right,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;and I'll try. But it's
+very hard&mdash;and I really don't see there would be any danger in my taking
+her out occasionally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I do,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;and there's an end. To turn to something
+that may spell business. Just before I got up this morning I saw a
+striped figure bending over me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A striped figure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
+limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs&mdash;of a sort&mdash;if it
+cared to show them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were frightened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
+indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit. To-night,
+at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu, called Karaver,
+in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into the second stage of
+our compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
+figures&mdash;I've had enough of them,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking of
+the compact,&quot; Hamar retorted, &quot;otherwise you'll see something far
+worse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
+injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
+had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house.</p>
+
+<p>To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did you know we were coming,&quot; Curtis asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gentleman called here early this morning and told me,&quot; Karaver
+explained. &quot;He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
+the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
+each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there. I
+demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations of
+my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few&mdash;those born under the
+sign of Dejellum Brava.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The stranger showing me the sign&mdash;written plainer than I have ever seen
+it&mdash;in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no sooner
+done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking to an
+Elemental&mdash;a spirit of my native mountains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything very
+alarming in this astral business?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It depends on what you call alarming,&quot; the Indian said coldly. &quot;I
+shouldn't be alarmed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be a fool, Matt,&quot; Hamar interposed. &quot;I never saw such a
+frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Think
+of what there is at stake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Think of Lilian Rosenberg,&quot; Curtis whispered, &quot;and be comforted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre of
+the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told to
+sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
+composed of: &frac12; oz. of hemlock, &frac34; oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
+oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, &frac12; oz. of assaf&oelig;tida, and
+&frac14; oz. of saffron.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are these preparations absolutely necessary?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely,&quot; Karaver said. &quot;English clairvoyants will, doubtless, tell
+you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few slipshod
+instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the Astral Plane is
+mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely difficult and can only be
+done, in the first place, through the guidance of a skilled Oriental
+occultist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
+air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
+chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
+mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
+from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, &quot;Great Spirits of the
+mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
+seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge to
+the realms of thy eternal phantoms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
+fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying &quot;Give me
+authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;&quot; and then kneeling down in front of
+the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Green phantom figures of the air,<br /></span>
+<span>A ready welcome see that you prepare.<br /></span>
+<span>Black phantom figures from the earth,<br /></span>
+<span>Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth.<br /></span>
+<span>Red phantom figures of the furious fire,<br /></span>
+<span>For kindly greeting change your usual ire.<br /></span>
+<span>Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,<br /></span>
+<span>To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells.<br /></span>
+<span>Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" /><a href="#Footnote_19_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,<br /></span>
+<span>And to these three poor fools, explain, explain<br /></span>
+<span>The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The dark,
+lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth receded
+farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice appeared to
+grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that he sprayed them
+all over with some sweet-smelling scent,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" /><a href="#Footnote_20_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> and that he whispered (in
+reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
+&quot;Darkona&mdash;droomer&mdash;doober&mdash;parlar&mdash;poohmer&mdash;perler.
+A&mdash;ta-rama&mdash;skatarinek&mdash;ook&mdash;drooksi&mdash;noomig&mdash;viartikorsa.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" /><a href="#Footnote_21_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Then
+there came a temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of
+light. The light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily
+closed their eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been
+accustomed to&mdash;it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of
+vibration. When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect
+to keep their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing,
+apparently on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such
+as they knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
+breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground, no
+scenery, but only&mdash;space!</p>
+
+<p>They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
+glided across their vision, forms&mdash;of every conceivable shape, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>,
+those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
+faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs&mdash;some apparently just dead and
+others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
+propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
+people&mdash;misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio and
+tried to peer into their faces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For heaven's sake keep off!&quot; Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form of
+an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks, came
+up to him, and thrust its face into his.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a bit thick,&quot; Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
+phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
+putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Curse you! d&mdash;n you!&quot; Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a vain
+endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were trying to
+bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. &quot;A little more of this, and
+I shall go mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
+up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence of
+mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm. &quot;If you leave us,
+Matt,&quot; he said, &quot;we are lost. I feel our safety depends on our keeping
+together. If I'm not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on the part of the
+Unknown to separate us. If that happens, I feel we may never get back to
+our bodies&mdash;and the compact will then be broken. We must hang on to each
+other at all costs.&quot; So saying, he slipped his free arm through that of
+Curtis, and the three stood linked together.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar clung on to the other two, until his hands grew numb, and the
+sweat stood on his chest and forehead in great beads. As figure after
+figure stealthily and noiselessly approached them, Kelson and Curtis
+writhed and shrieked; and, at times, it seemed as if the chain must be
+broken. But alarming as were these harrowing types of
+Vice-Elementals&mdash;<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, nude things with heads of beasts and bodies of
+men and women; grotesque heads; malevolent eyes; mal-shaped hands;
+headless beasts, etc.; none had so dangerous an effect on the unity of
+the trio as the alluring types of Vice-Elementals, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, shapes of
+beautiful women that smiled seductively at Kelson, and resorted to every
+device to entice him away with them. It was then that Hamar was taxed to
+the utmost, that he exhausted voice, strength, and patience, in holding
+Kelson back.</p>
+
+<p>He was about to give in, when to his astonishment these Vice-Elementals
+vanished, and a phantasm, the exact counterpart of Karaver, only much
+taller, appeared before them, and commenced giving them instructions as
+to Stage Two.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he said, addressing Hamar, &quot;will possess the property of second
+sight, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, the power to see, at will, earthbound spirits,
+conditionally, that you fumigate your room, for ten minutes every night,
+before retiring to rest, with a mixture composed of 2 drachms of
+henbane, 3 drachms of saffron, &frac12; oz. of aloes, &frac14; oz. of mandrake, 3
+drachms of salanum, 2 oz. of assaf&oelig;tida; that you abstain from animal
+food and wine, and give up smoking; that, three times every day, you
+bathe your face in distilled water, to which has been added three drops
+of the juice of the whortleberry, one drop of the juice of the mountain
+ash berry, 1 oz. of lavender water, 1 oz. of nitre, and &frac12; oz. of
+tincture of arnica; and that, just before going to sleep, you look for
+three minutes, without blinking, at an equilateral triangle, transcribed
+in blood, on white paper, and composed of these letters and figures.&quot;
+And he handed Hamar a piece of paper, on which were written these
+symbols: K.T.O.P.I.6.X.7.4.H.I.P.3.S.4.W.V.2.8.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you observe these conditions the power will remain with you.
+To-morrow, only, it will be awarded you without any preparations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he went on, turning to Kelson, &quot;will possess the property of
+projection, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, the power of leaving your body, and of visiting,
+where you will, on the material plane. You will continue to possess the
+same, conditionally, that you carry out the same rules as Leon Hamar,
+with the exception that, instead of looking at a triangle before going
+to sleep, you will repeat these words. See, I have written them down for
+you.&quot; And he handed Kelson a slip of paper, on which were transcribed
+&quot;Darkona, droomer, doober, parlar, poohmer, perler.
+A&mdash;ta&mdash;rama&mdash;skatarinek&mdash;ook&mdash;drooksi&mdash;noomeg&mdash;viartikorsa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he said, turning to Curtis, &quot;will be endowed with the property of
+overcoming gravity, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, you will be able to fly, to jump great
+heights, and to lift and move prodigious weights; and this property will
+remain in your possession during the prescribed period, provided you
+abstain from all animal food, from smoking and from drinking alcohol;
+and observe the same rules with regard to fumigating your sleeping
+apartment, and bathing your face, as Hamar and Kelson. But, always,
+before you attempt to fly or to jump, it will be necessary for you to
+set in motion certain vibrations, in the ether, that counteract the
+attraction of gravity. You must repeat the words 'Karjako Mandarbsa
+Guahseela,' which I have written on this blue paper; and when you want
+to move or lift objects, you must first repeat the words 'Perabibo
+Henlilee Oko-kokotse,' which I have written on this green paper.
+Gravity, as you will see, is entirely dependent on sound&mdash;sound can move
+mountains. It did so in Atlantis, it did so in Egypt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Making the sign of a triangle, an eye, and a tree in the air, with the
+forefinger of his left hand, he slowly repeated the words
+&quot;Barjakva&mdash;ookpoota&mdash;trylisa.&quot; and the concluding syllable was no sooner
+uttered, than the trio found themselves standing in Berners Street. But
+of Karaver's house&mdash;the house they had just quitted&mdash;there was no trace.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> According to Brahminical teaching there are seven main
+classes of spirits; some having innumerable sub-divisions. They are&mdash;
+</p><p><br />
+1. Arrippa Devas, with forms.<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+2. Arrippa Devas, without forms.
+(Both Classes 1 and 2 are intelligent, sixth principles
+of certain planets. I style them Planetians, and
+classify them with all other spirits hailing from Jupiter
+Neptune, etc.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+3. Mara rupas (identical with Vice-Elementals).<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+4. Pisachas, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> male and female elementaries. (I have
+termed them Impersonating Elementals, since they
+consist of the astral forms of the dead, that may be
+utilized by Elementals.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+5. Asuras, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> gnomes, pixies, etc. (Corresponding to those
+I have designated Vagrarian Elementals.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+6. Monstrosities. (These I include among Vice-Elementals
+and Vagrarians.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+7. Kaksasas, viz. souls of wizards, witches, and of clever
+people with evil tendencies, scientists with cruel or
+harsh tendencies&mdash;such as vivisectionists and sophists.
+All these come under my division of &quot;earthbound
+phantasms of the dead&quot;&mdash;spirits tied to this earth
+by passions or vices; and I should add to the list&mdash;militant
+suffragettes, strike agitators, hooligans,
+apaches, pseudo-humanitarians, religious bigots,
+misers, all people obsessed with manias, idiots, epileptic
+imbeciles and criminal lunatics. All such may at
+times be encountered on the lowest spiritual plane.<br /><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Composed of 2 drachms of myrrh, &frac12; oz. of sweet oil, 2
+oz. of attar of roses, &frac12; oz. heliotrope and &frac14; oz. of musk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> These words are so arranged as to set in vibration and
+loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the
+physical body, and so set the latter free.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" />CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The doctors had stated that the tenth day would see the crisis of John
+Martin's illness; if he could tide over that period, he might go on for
+years without another attack. When the momentous day arrived, Gladys was
+simply eating her heart out with suspense. Not a sound was permitted in
+the house. The servants, tiptoeing about, hardly ventured even to
+exchange glances; the errand boys were waylaid and sent to the
+right-about, with a vague notion that if they opened their mouths their
+heads would be off; and some one was posted at the garden gate to deal,
+in a scarcely less summary manner, with visitors. Indeed, so fearful was
+Gladys lest her father should hear Shiel, who had managed to elude her
+outpost, that without meaning it, she greeted him curtly, and, more
+plainly than politely, gave him to understand that she wished him
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have you been saying to Shiel Davenport?&quot; Miss Templeton asked
+Gladys, when they met at lunch. &quot;I passed him in the road just now, and
+he looked so wretched that, despite his ineligibility, I felt quite
+sorry for him. I am sure he is very much in love with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;he is only a boy.&quot; But boy though it pleased
+her to call him, she knew that he had played a man's part during her
+father's illness. Every night he had faithfully performed the r&ocirc;le, she
+had allotted to him, at the Kingsway Hall, and upon him she was forced
+to admit the success of the entertainment, in a large measure, depended.
+Without pushing himself, or being the least bit officious, he had been
+equally helpful behind the scenes. He had held in check all those who,
+taking advantage of her father's absence, were disposed to dispute her
+authority and shirk their work&mdash;and he had also, on her behalf,
+successfully resisted their demand for higher wages. And, over and above
+all this, he had always considered her personal comfort. Her
+meals&mdash;which she could never bother about for herself, when engaged all
+day at the hall&mdash;were, thanks to him, brought to her as punctually, and
+served as daintily, as they would have been for her father; he had taken
+every care that she should not be disturbed when resting; and there was,
+in short, nothing he had not thought of doing to lighten the load, so
+unexpectedly laid upon her shoulders. The only fault she could find with
+him, was that he had not gained the good graces of her father.</p>
+
+<p>The day slowly waned. Gladys had stolen into her father's room
+repeatedly to see how he fared, and to her his condition had seemed much
+about the same&mdash;he was as usual tired and peevish. But when, at six
+o'clock, she again stole in to peep at him, and found him lying back on
+his pillow absolutely still and motionless, and without apparently
+breathing, she was immeasurably shocked. Had he had another fit, or was
+he dead? Wild with grief and terror, she rushed from the room to
+telephone to the doctor, and met him on the landing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You need have no fear,&quot; he said to her the moment he had looked at
+John Martin, &quot;he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will
+be past. To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will be
+himself again. Only you must take care that he does not use his brain
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys could hardly restrain her delight. She felt pleased with
+everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours
+later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain. In fact it was owing to
+this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in his
+performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic laughter
+of the audience. When the entertainment was over, and he was preparing
+to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of her sparkling
+eyes and animated features again overcame him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall you advise your father to do?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner,&quot; Gladys replied,
+&quot;some one who can attend to the business side of the concern for him. It
+is essential he should not be worried with figures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose my services won't be required much longer?&quot; Shiel said,
+speaking with rather an effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I can't answer for my father,&quot; Gladys replied, &quot;but I should
+imagine he would be only too glad to employ you. The only thing is the
+salary. You can't live on air, you know, and with the poor attendances
+he gets now, I don't see how he can afford to pay much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would work for very little,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;I should be awfully sorry
+to give up now. I wonder if you would miss me at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I should!&quot; Gladys retorted. &quot;You have behaved admirably, and
+I am most grateful to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You needn't be grateful to me. I have never enjoyed anything half so
+much as I have trying to help you. I am poor, penniless in fact, since
+my uncle left me nothing, but supposing&mdash;supposing I were to get some
+lucrative post, do you think&mdash;do you think there would ever be any
+possibility of&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of your caring for me! I am terribly in love with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear I must have given you encouragement,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;I'm awfully
+sorry. You see I never thought of this, and I don't know what to say to
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you give me a chance, just a chance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But my father would never hear of it. Unfortunately he seems to be
+prejudiced against you. Won't you wait a while, and then, if you are
+still in the same mind, speak to me again in&mdash;say&mdash;a year. By that time
+you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else,&quot; Shiel
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think I shall,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;Of course, I meet crowds of men,
+but you see I am not the marrying sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think you would care for me just a bit?&quot; Shiel asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;but I'm not at all sure. I
+can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
+opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for the
+time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows&mdash;it may lie in your power
+to do him some service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how,&quot; Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. &quot;But no
+matter&mdash;after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
+first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes,&quot; Gladys laughed. &quot;Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
+to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual.&quot; And,
+with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor, and
+drove off.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
+utterly unenviable as penury and love&mdash;to be next door to starving, and
+at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus afflicted,
+had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated himself with her
+beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure there would, later
+on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only in romance, he told
+himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds himself in a position
+to marry&mdash;in reality, his love suit is rejected with scorn; his adored
+one marries some one who has, or pretends he has, limitless wealth; and
+the despised swain ends his days a miserable and dejected bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>All the same, Shiel determined that he would for once fare like the hero
+in romance&mdash;that he would either win the object of his affections or
+perish in the attempt; and no sooner did the fit of the blues,
+consequent on the conversation just related, wear off, than he set to
+work in grim earnest to discover some means of breaking up the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and of restoring to the firm of Martin and
+Davenport their former prestige.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, affairs were by no means stationary, as far as Hamar
+and his colleagues were concerned. The appearance of their paper
+<i>To-morrow</i>, a morning journal, that chronicled faithfully every event
+of the following day, caused a tremendous sensation; and the sale of
+every other paper sank to nil&mdash;no one, naturally, wanting to buy the
+news that had happened yesterday, when, for the same money, they could
+obtain news of what would happen that very day. The stupid method of
+chronicling past events, Hamar announced in the first issue of his
+organ, was now obsolete. It was, perhaps, good enough for the Victorian
+era, but it was utterly out of keeping with the present age of hourly
+progress. Who, for instance, wanted to know that at 6 p.m., on the
+preceding evening, there had been a big fire in New York? Was it not far
+more to the point for them to learn, for example, that at 2 p.m., on
+that very day, Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by an
+earthquake; that the Post Office in King's Road, Chelsea, would be
+broken into by thieves; that Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square would
+be blown up by Suffragettes; or something equally fresh and exciting?
+One cannot get thrills&mdash;at least not the right kind of thrills in
+reading of what has already taken place. To say to ourselves, or to a
+friend, &quot;Just fancy, we might have been in that railway accident,&quot; or,
+in reading of a shipwreck &quot;What a mercy we did not embark after all, is
+it not?&quot; is not half as enthralling as to be wondering if, at eleven
+o'clock that night, when the terrific storm in which twenty-six people
+will be killed by lightning in various parts of England, we shall be
+among the fatal number. One is not much moved to find oneself alive when
+a danger is passed, but one does get terribly excited in contemplating
+the risk we are bound to run of being killed. Within a week, the
+circulation of <i>To-morrow</i> had gone up from fifty thousand to ten
+million, and Hamar, inflated with success, said to himself, &quot;Now I will
+go and have another look at John Martin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When he arrived, Gladys was in the garden. His stealthy approach had
+given her no chance to escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is your business?&quot; she asked, glancing nervously in the direction
+of the house, and dreading lest her father should see Hamar from his
+window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to see your father,&quot; Hamar said, his eyes resting admiringly
+on her face and then running leisurely over her figure. &quot;How is the old
+gentleman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not well enough to see visitors,&quot; Gladys said, with absolute
+hauteur. &quot;Perhaps you will state your business to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! I don't mind if I do!&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;Let us sit down. It's more
+comfortable than standing.&quot; And he dropped into a seat as he spoke. &quot;Now
+I've been noticing,&quot; he went on, &quot;that your Show in the Kingsway is not
+getting on very well&mdash;that there are fewer and fewer people there every
+night, and I've no doubt it will soon have to dry up altogether. We, on
+the other hand, are doing better and better every night, and we shall go
+on doing better&mdash;there is no limit to our possibilities. We are worth
+half a million now&mdash;next year, we shall be worth ten times that amount!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are optimistical, at all events,&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can afford to be,&quot; Hamar grinned. &quot;Now, do you know what we intend
+doing before very long?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't the least idea, and I am not in the slightest degree
+curious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you? Well, you should be, since it concerns you. We mean to buy
+up the whole of Kingsway!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And later on, of course, the whole of Regent Street!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are satirical. You are not alarmed at the prospect of having me for
+a landlord!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you! The Hall in Kingsway is my father's own
+property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that is so then you have nothing to fear,&quot; Hamar laughed, &quot;but I
+think it just possible you are mistaken. At any rate, I've been in
+communication with some one styling himself the landlord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father would have an agreement, anyhow!&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;and I've a pretty shrewd idea of the terms
+of it. But enough of this&mdash;let me come to the point. I intend buying the
+property, and I shall refuse to renew your father's lease, unless he
+agrees to give me what I want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course a preposterous price?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you&mdash;only you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I've never seen a girl I like more. I've limitless wealth and I'll
+give you everything you want&mdash;a steam yacht, motors, diamonds, anything,
+everything, and all I ask in return is that you should consent to be
+engaged to me on trial&mdash;say for fifteen months&mdash;just to see how we get
+on! What pretty hands you have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And before Gladys could draw them away, he had caught hold of them in an
+iron grasp, and, turning them over, cast admiring glances at the slim,
+white fingers with the long, almond-shaped and carefully manicured
+nails.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon,&quot; he said, &quot;I shall never find any one prettier all through.
+What do you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your proposition is impossible&mdash;monstrous! I detest you,&quot; Gladys
+retorted, her cheeks white with anger. &quot;Leave go my hands at once, and
+never let me see you again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't promise not to see you again,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;but I'll let go
+your hands now, for I'm no more a lover of scenes than you. I
+anticipated a little fuss at first&mdash;it's the way all you women have&mdash;you
+are so modest, you don't like to appear too eager to snap up a good
+offer. You'll close with it right enough in the end. I'll call again in
+a few days. By that time you may have changed your mind.&quot; And, before
+she could prevent him, he had again seized her hand and was kissing it
+over and over again.</p>
+
+<p>With an ejaculation of the utmost indignation, she sprang away from him,
+and with all the dignity she could assume, walked to the house. What
+became of him she did not know. Some few seconds later she told the
+gardener to see him safely off the premises, but he was nowhere to be
+found.</p>
+
+<p>A week later, Hamar turned up again at the Cottage, and, despite the
+vigilance of Gladys and the servants, caught John Martin alone.</p>
+
+<p>When the latter, at last, came to the end of what had, at first, seemed
+an inexhaustible stock of invectives, Hamar stated his proposals with
+mathematical exactitude.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe for one moment my landlord would be such a blackguard
+as to play into your hands,&quot; John Martin spluttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, he would!&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;An Englishman will do anything for
+money, and I am prepared to offer him just twice as much as any one else
+for your Hall. Do you think he will refuse&mdash;not he!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what on earth's your object! You've ruined me already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your daughter!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Miss Gladys! I am prepared to go any
+lengths to get her. Refuse to give her to me and I'll turn you out of
+your Hall, I'll torment you with every kind of insect, I'll plague you
+with disease, I'll make your life hell. But give her to me&mdash;and I'll&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I won't! And I defy you to do your worst, you&mdash;you&mdash;&quot; and there is
+no knowing what would have happened, had not Gladys suddenly come in and
+dragged her father out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How dare you?&quot; she exclaimed, returning to the study to find Hamar
+still there. &quot;I've telephoned to the police, and unless you go instantly
+and promise not to come again, I shall give you in charge, for
+annoyance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Foolish of you&mdash;very foolish!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;when I want to be friendly.
+Sooner or later you must give in, so why not end all this needless
+unpleasantness now, and receive me&mdash;if not with open arms&mdash;at least
+amicably. You are so awfully pretty! I must have just one&mdash;&mdash;&quot; but
+before he could kiss Gladys the police arrived, and Hamar once more
+retired&mdash;with somewhat undignified haste, and more than a little
+discomfited.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving in Cockspur Street, Hamar's temper underwent a still further
+trial. Kelson, taking advantage of his absence, had gone off to tea with
+Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>In ill-suppressed fury, he waited till they returned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A word with you, Matt,&quot; he said, as Kelson tried to shuffle past him.
+&quot;So this is the way you behave when my back is turned. I suppose you've
+had a good time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delightful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you know the consequences!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only that I'm looking forward to the same thing another day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She'll go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She won't,&quot; Kelson chuckled. &quot;She is far too valuable. So there, old
+man! A month ago your threat might have held good. It won't now. You
+daren't&mdash;you positively daren't part with her&mdash;because, if you did so,
+you'd not only part with a good few of your secrets, but you'd part with
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" />CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;What's to be done with Matt?&quot; Hamar asked Curtis, soon after the
+interview just recorded. &quot;He's as sweet on Rosensberg as he can be, and
+says if I dismiss her he'll go too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then don't dismiss her,&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;Leave them both alone, that's
+my tip. I don't believe Matt's such a fool as to fall in love, and I'm
+quite sure the girl isn't. Why, she went to the Tivoli with me two
+nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before that.
+It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who would
+treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How about
+Leon and Gladys Martin.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
+pretty&mdash;splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
+and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for love!
+Well! it's not in my programme.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still, stranger things have happened,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;Anyhow, I guess
+you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
+dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London&mdash;I don't
+go a cent on them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
+he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
+her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had never
+missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on the
+elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling her how
+much he admired her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You really mustn't,&quot; she said. &quot;Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders to
+attend to nothing but my work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, damn Hamar!&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;if I choose to talk to you it's no
+business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and it
+is I you should go out with, not Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with one
+eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told her his
+history&mdash;all about himself from the day of his birth&mdash;told her about his
+parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and cranks, his
+indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts, flirtations, with
+just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even went so far as to
+speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of hereditary gout, and of a
+slightly hectic cough with which, he suddenly remembered, he had at one
+time, been troubled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you think,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, &quot;you
+are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
+secret&mdash;and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
+fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
+should never forgive myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it distress you so much?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it would. I should be miserable,&quot; she laughed. And Kelson,
+unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them with
+kisses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your fingers would look well covered with rings,&quot; he said. &quot;I will give
+you some, and you shall come with me and choose. Only on no account tell
+Hamar.&quot; And he kissed her&mdash;not on the hands this time&mdash;but the lips.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar saw him. He watched him from behind the angle of the passage wall,
+but he said nothing&mdash;at least, nothing to Kelson. It was to Lilian
+Rosenberg he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is really not my fault,&quot; she said. &quot;I don't encourage him, and if
+you take my advice, you will not interfere, for I am sure at present he
+means nothing serious. He is the sort of man who imagines himself in
+love with every one he meets. If you prevent him seeing me, you may
+actually bring about the result you are most anxious to avoid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll risk that,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and I absolutely forbid you doing more
+than merely saying good morning to him. It is either that, or you must
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, of course I will do as you wish,&quot; Lilian said. &quot;I don't care a
+snap for him; and, after all, you ought to know your own business best!
+It is only natural that you should want him to marry some one who can
+bring money into the Firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want him to marry at all, or anyhow, not yet. However, there is
+no necessity to discuss that point. We have definitely settled the line
+you are to adopt, and that is all I wanted to speak to you about. When
+next you feel inclined to flirt, come to me, and you shall have kisses
+as well as&mdash;rings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was shortly after this <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> that Lilian Rosenberg was
+interrupted in her work, by a rap at the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in,&quot; she called, and a young man entered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe a clerk is wanted here,&quot; he explained. &quot;I've come to apply
+for the situation. Can I see Mr. Hamar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid he's out. There's no one in at present,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+replied, eyeing the stranger critically &quot;If you like to wait awhile, you
+may do so. Sit down.&quot; She signalled to him to take a chair and went on
+typing.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes the silence was unbroken, save for the tapping of
+fingers and the clicking of the machine. Then she looked up, and their
+eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not pleasant to be out of work,&quot; he said. &quot;Have you ever
+experienced it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Once or twice,&quot; she said. &quot;And I never wish to again. You don't look as
+if you were much used to office work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I'm an artist; but times are hard with us. The present Government
+has driven all the money out of the country and no one buys pictures
+now; so I'm forced to turn my hand to something else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I love pictures. My father was an artist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then we have something in common,&quot; the young man said. &quot;Would you like
+to see my work? I love showing it to people who understand something
+about painting, and are not afraid to criticize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to see it, immensely&mdash;though I won't presume to
+criticize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I inquire your name?&quot; the young man asked eagerly. &quot;Mine is Shiel
+Davenport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And mine&mdash;Lilian Rosenberg,&quot; the girl said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I don't get the post, may I write to you sometimes, Miss Rosenberg,
+and ask you to my studio. I call it a studio, though it's really only an
+attic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg nodded. &quot;I shall be delighted to come,&quot; she said. &quot;I am
+afraid I am very unconventional.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for further conversation, as Hamar entered the room at
+that moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you want?&quot; he asked curtly.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're too late,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I've engaged some one. If you'd called
+earlier, there might have been some chance for you, as you look
+tolerably intelligent. But it's no use now, so be off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Shiel left the room he caught Lilian Rosenberg looking at him; and he
+saw that her eyes were full of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>The acquaintance, thus begun, ripened. She went to see his pictures,
+they had tea together, and they spent many subsequent hours in each
+other's company. And although Shiel saw in Lilian Rosenberg only a
+rather prepossessing girl from whom, after cultivating her acquaintance,
+he was hoping to learn the inner working of the Modern Sorcery Company
+Ltd., with her it was different.</p>
+
+<p>In Shiel, Lilian Rosenberg saw the qualities she had always been
+seeking&mdash;the qualities she had almost despaired of ever finding&mdash;and
+which she had so often declared existed only in fiction. He only
+interested her, she argued; but she forgot that interest as well as pity
+is akin to love&mdash;and that where the former leads, the latter almost
+invariably follows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe you have enough to eat,&quot; she said to him one day. &quot;You
+are a perfect shadow. How do you exist if you have no private means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I just manage to exist, and that is all,&quot; Shiel laughed, and he spoke
+the truth, his present state of semi-starvation having resulted from the
+untoward events, which had happened prior to his application for the
+post of clerk to the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., and his subsequent
+acquaintance with Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst John Martin had been ill, and he had helped at the Hall in Kings
+way, he had lived well. Gladys had taken care he was paid&mdash;not a big sum
+to be sure&mdash;but enough to keep him. But directly John Martin, in spite
+of Gladys's remonstrances, had resumed work, Shiel had been dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I could help you,&quot; John Martin said to him, &quot;for I really feel
+grateful to you for all you have done, but to tell you the candid truth,
+I can't afford to pay any salaries. As you know, the receipts of the
+Hall are next to nothing; but the expenses continue just the same&mdash;rent,
+gas, and staff&mdash;all heavy items. Moreover, at your uncle's death, many
+of his creditors put in claims on the Firm for debts&mdash;debts he had
+incurred without either my sanction or knowledge&mdash;and it has been a
+serious drain on me to pay them off. In fact, my finances are now at
+such a low ebb that I cannot possibly do anything for you. If only the
+Modern Sorcery Company could be cleared off the scenes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would, I suppose, feel extremely grateful to whoever cleared them
+off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would,&quot; John Martin replied, with a significant chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though it were some one who had not stood very high in your
+estimation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though it were the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, look here, Mr. Martin,&quot; Shiel said, trying to appear calm. &quot;I will
+devote all my energies and all my time to your cause&mdash;the overthrow of
+the Modern Sorcery Company, if only&mdash;if only, in the event of my being
+successful, you will give me some hope of being permitted to win your
+daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I promise you that hope, and any other you may see fit to aspire to,&quot;
+John Martin said, with a grim smile, &quot;since there isn't the remotest
+chance of your succeeding in the task you have set yourself. Believe me,
+it will take both money and wits to get the better of Hamar, Curtis and
+Kelson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anyhow, I have your permission to try. I shall do my best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may do what you like,&quot; John Martin rejoined, &quot;so long as you don't
+talk to me again about Gladys till you've redeemed your pledge, that is
+to say, till you've overthrown the Modern Sorcery Company. In the
+meanwhile, I must ask you to abstain from seeing her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid I can't promise that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't promise that,&quot; John Martin cried, his eyes suffusing with sudden
+passion. &quot;Can't you! Then damn it, you must. I'm not going to have my
+daughter throw herself away on a penniless puppy. There, curse it all,
+you know what I think of you now&mdash;you're a bumptious puppy, and I swear
+you shall not come within a mile of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall,&quot; Shiel retorted, drawing himself up to his full height. &quot;I
+shall see her whenever she will permit me&mdash;and since she is not at home
+at the present moment, I shall now await her return outside the house,
+and defy the savage old bull-dog inside it.&quot; Leaving John Martin too
+taken aback with astonishment to articulate a syllable, Shiel withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>True to his word, he waited to see Gladys. He paced up and down the road
+in front of the house from eleven o'clock in the morning, when his
+interview with John Martin had terminated, till eight o'clock in the
+evening, and was just beginning to think he would have to give up all
+hope of seeing her that day, when she came in sight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really!&quot; she exclaimed, after Shiel had explained the situation. &quot;Do
+you mean to say you have stayed here all day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I have,&quot; Shiel answered. &quot;I told your father I would see you,
+and I meant to stay here till I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what good has it done you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All the good in the world. I shall sleep twice as well for it. I'm more
+in love with you than you think, and I mean to marry you one day. My
+prospects at present are absolutely Thames Embankmentish, but no matter,
+I've hit upon a capital way of ferreting out the secrets of the Modern
+Sorcery Company. I shall get employed by them&quot;&mdash;and he told Gladys of
+the advertisement he had seen in the paper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! I wish you all success,&quot; she said, &quot;but I'm afraid you've upset
+my father dreadfully, and the doctor says excitement is the very worst
+thing for him and may lead to another stroke. You must on no account
+come here again, until I give you leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I may see you elsewhere?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you're a wise man, you'll do one thing at a time. You'll discover
+the secret of the Sorcery Company first, and then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I have discovered it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father may forgive you. Have I told you I'm going on the stage? I
+know Bromley Burnham, and he's offered me a part at the Imperial. It is
+imperative now, that I should do something to help my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you become an actress,&quot; Shiel said bitterly, &quot;my chances of marrying
+you will indeed be small.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not smaller than they are now,&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;<i>Au revoir.</i>&quot; And
+with one of those tantalising and perplexing smiles, with which some
+women, consciously or unconsciously, counteract&mdash;and sometimes, perhaps,
+for reasons best known to themselves&mdash;completely nullify the needless
+severity of their speech, shook hands with Shiel, and left him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" />CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>STAGE THREE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The weeks sped by. Gladys Martin went on the Stage, and thanks to beauty
+and influence, rather than to talent&mdash;though in the latter respect she
+was certainly not wanting&mdash;she became an immediate success. Her photos,
+some taken alone, and some with Bromley Burnham, occupied a conspicuous
+place in all the weekly illustrateds, and in innumerable shop windows.
+People talked of her as they do of all actresses. Some said her father
+was a broken-down peer; some, a needy parson, and some, a policeman!
+Some said the Duke of Warminster was madly in love with her; others that
+Seaton Smyth, the notorious Cabinet Minister, was pining for a divorce
+on her behalf, and others, that she was seldom seen off the stage&mdash;she
+was entertaining the King of the Belgians.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've met her,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said to Shiel, as they stopped one
+evening to gaze at Gladys's portraits outside the Imperial Theatre. &quot;She
+came to our place to have a dream interpreted, and I thought nothing of
+her. I don't admire her the least bit in the world, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do,&quot; Shiel replied, rather sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, you sound quite angry,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg laughed. &quot;One would think
+you knew her. I wonder if Bromley Burnham is very much in love with
+her! He looks as if he were in these photographs! Do you think it
+possible for a man and woman to make love to each other every night on
+the stage, like they do, without one or other of them being affected?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I really couldn't say,&quot; Shiel replied. &quot;I'm no authority on such
+matters&mdash;they don't interest me in the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But this was an untruth&mdash;they did interest him&mdash;and very much, too. He
+seldom, indeed, thought of anything else. Had Gladys fallen in love with
+Bromley Burnham? Could she resist the fascinations of so handsome a man?
+He did not, of course, pay any heed to the gossip that coupled her name
+with dukes and other notorieties. He knew Gladys too well for that, but
+when he saw her thus photographed, clasped in the arms of Bromley
+Burnham, he had grave apprehensions. He longed to see her&mdash;to ask her if
+she were still free; but his every attempt failed. She always avoided
+him, and there was no other alternative save to further his scheme&mdash;his
+scheme for crushing the Sorcery Company&mdash;and to hope for the best.</p>
+
+<p>And in these dark days of his life, when he was tormented by the yellow
+demon of jealousy, and at the same time endured hunger, Lilian Rosenberg
+was his solacing angel. Utterly regardless of appearances&mdash;she did not
+exaggerate when she said, &quot;I am not conventional; I don't care twopence
+for Mrs. Grundy.&quot; She visited him in his garret, and she seldom went
+empty-handed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want your things,&quot; he rudely expostulated, when she loaded his
+table with cold chicken, jellies and potted meats. &quot;I'm not starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, you are,&quot; she said, &quot;and you've got to eat all I bring you.&quot; And
+she made him eat. She made him, too, go for walks with her, and she
+insisted that he should go with her on Saturday afternoons for long
+rambles in the country, knowing all the time that Kelson was eating his
+heart out for love of her, and prophesying all kinds of terrible
+happenings to himself, unless she returned his affections.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this point, at all events, Shiel did not allow his friendship with
+Lilian to blind him to the fact that he was cultivating her acquaintance
+with a set object. He frequently sounded her to see how much she knew of
+the inner workings of the Firm, and he satisfied himself that she knew
+very little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They never discuss their powers in my presence,&quot; she told him, &quot;but I
+see them do very queer things, Mr. Kelson seldom walks to his room, he
+flies. He takes a little jump into the air, moves his arms and legs as
+if he were swimming, and flies upstairs and along the corridor. And what
+do you think happened the other day? Some men were carrying into the
+building a huge, oak chest and several large pictures that Mr. Hamar had
+bought at a sale, when Mr. Kelson arrived on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'There is no need to lift these things,' he said to the men, 'put them
+down.' He then made some rapid signs in the air and muttered something;
+whereupon the chest and pictures rose in the air, and followed him into
+the building, and up the stairs to their respective quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The men must have been surprised,&quot; Shiel said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surprised!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. &quot;They were simply bowled over,
+and looked at one another with such idiotic expressions in their bulging
+eyes and gaping mouths, that I nearly died with laughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you've no idea how Kelson did that trick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, excepting, of course, that the signs he made, and what he said,
+must have had something to do with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was on the tip of Shiel's tongue to ask her, if she would try and
+find out for him, but he checked himself. Even at this juncture of their
+friendship he dare not appear too curious. He must wait.</p>
+
+<p>To go back to Hamar. He had seen Gladys act; he had become more
+infatuated with her than ever; and his passion was stimulated by the
+knowledge that she was universally admired, and that half the men in
+London were dying to be introduced to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Money will do anything,&quot; one of Hamar's friends&mdash;they were all
+Jews&mdash;remarked to him. &quot;Offer the manager of the Imperial a hundred
+pounds and he'll do anything you like with regard to the girl. Every
+manager can be bought and every actress, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion was a welcome one, and Hamar acted on it. But whether or
+not the exception proves the rule, he was immeasurably disconcerted to
+find that with regard to money and managers, his friend had deceived
+him. Far from being pleased at the offer of a bribe, the manager of the
+Imperial, an old Harrovian, raised his foot, and Hamar, who invariably
+paled at the prospect of violence, hurriedly withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of the initiation into Stage Three, the trio were very much
+perturbed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to goodness nothing will appear to me,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;My heart
+isn't strong enough to stand the shock of seeing striped figures. They
+should come to you, Curtis&mdash;a few jumps wouldn't do you any harm&mdash;you're
+fat enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Agreeing each to sleep with a light in his room, they separated, and at
+about two o'clock Curtis, who had been suffering of late from his
+liver&mdash;the effect, so the doctor told him, of living a little too
+well&mdash;and could not sleep, heard a knock at his door. To his
+astonishment it was Kelson&mdash;Kelson, in his pyjamas.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; Curtis exclaimed. &quot;What on earth brings you here, and however
+did you come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The usual way!&quot; Kelson said, in what struck Curtis as rather unusual
+tones. &quot;I flew here to tell you that we are now in stage three. Give me
+paper and ink. I want to write down the instructions I have received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis conducted him into his sitting-room, switched on the lights and,
+giving him what he wanted, poured out a couple of tumblers of
+soda-and-milk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will lower my temperature,&quot; he said to himself. &quot;I shall know if
+I'm dreaming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then sat by Kelson's side and observed what he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The properties of walking on the water, and of breathing under the
+water are conferred on you during the forthcoming stage. You must
+refrain from red flesh and alcohol, but may eat poultry, fish, fruit,
+and vegetables in abundance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil I may!&quot; Curtis said, in a fury. &quot;How very kind! I would
+rather have roast beef than all the poulets and kippers in Christendom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Without noticing this interruption, Kelson went on writing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must also concentrate for one hour every morning. Grade two in the
+scale of concentration, though sufficient for projection through ether,
+will not enable you to offer sufficient resistance to the pressure of
+water. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, before
+you can either walk on, or breathe under, the water. From six to seven
+a.m. you must fix your eyes on a glass of fresh spring water, and
+concentrate your very hardest on amalgamating with it, on passing your
+immaterial ego into it. At night, before going to bed, you must drink a
+mixture composed of two drachms of Vindroo Sookum, one drachm of Harnoon
+Oobey, and one ounce of distilled water. Vindroo Sookum and Harnoon
+Oobey are a species of seaweed; the former of a pale salmon colour, the
+latter of a deep blue. They were formerly shrubs growing in the wood of
+Endlemoker in Atlantis, and are now to be found at a depth of two
+hundred fathoms, twenty miles to the north-east of Achill Island. These
+weeds must be well rinsed first; and when the prescribed amount of each
+has been carefully cut off and weighed, it must be boiled in the
+distilled water, and the compound, thus formed, allowed to cool before
+being drunk. This mixture renders the lungs immune to the action of
+fluid, and will enable you to breathe as easily in water as in air.
+There is still, however, the action of gravity to be considered, and
+this must be counteracted by sound. Before experimenting, these
+Atlantean words must be repeated aloud in the following order:
+Karma&mdash;nardka&mdash;rapto&mdash;nooman&mdash;K&mdash;arma&mdash;oola&mdash;piskooskte.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's all very well to write all these directions,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;but
+how am I to obtain the weeds? I can't go and fish for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must engage the services of Mr. John Waley, formerly employed by
+the Brazilian Government in repairing marine cables. He will do all you
+want for the sum of &pound;200.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson left off writing, and, wishing Curtis good-night, walked out of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be deuced cold without an overcoat,&quot; Curtis called out after
+him. &quot;Won't you have mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But there was no reply, and though Curtis strained his ears to listen,
+he could catch no sound of a vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson left Curtis at twenty minutes past two. At half-past two, Hamar,
+who had been sound asleep, was awakened by a loud rap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kelson!&quot; he gasped. &quot;How on earth did you get here? Are you a
+projection?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't worry me with questions,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I have come to give
+you instructions. A paper and ink, quick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar obeyed with alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On you,&quot; Kelson wrote, &quot;is conferred the property of invisibility&mdash;a
+property common in Atlantis, and still possessed by the Fakirs of
+Hindoostan, the natives of Easter Island and certain tribes in New
+Guinea. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, by
+concentrating, from five to six o'clock, every morning, on amalgamating
+yourself with the ether. You must sit, with your head thrown back,
+gazing up into space&mdash;allowing nothing to distract your mind. Wholly and
+solely, your thoughts must be fixed on the ether. This property of
+invisibility can only be successfully practised, when the third grade in
+the scale of concentration has been reached. Carry out these
+instructions, and, in a week's time, you will then be able to
+experiment&mdash;to become invisible at will. But before experimenting it
+will always be necessary to repeat the words 'Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana,'
+and to swallow a pill, composed of two drachms of Derhens Voskry, one
+drachm of Karka Voli and one drachm of saffron. Derhens Voskry and
+Karka Voli are a crimson and white species of seaweed, that grows on the
+hundred-fathom level, thirty miles west-southwest of the Aran Islands,
+Galway Bay. Mr. John Waley, employed by the Brazilian Government for
+repairing cables, will procure these ingredients for you. To become
+visible, you've only to repeat the words, 'Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana,'
+backwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how about my clothes?&quot; Hamar asked. &quot;Will they disappear too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything!&quot; Kelson answered. &quot;Hat, boots, tie and breeches. All you
+have on! Good-night!&quot; And walking out of the room, he leaped into the
+air, and flew downstairs. But though Hamar listened attentively, he
+could not hear him leave the building&mdash;there was no sound of any door.</p>
+
+<p>When they met the following mid-day in Cockspur Street, Kelson
+remembered nothing of his visits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I know is,&quot; he said, &quot;that the moment I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and suddenly found myself standing in a kind of brown desert,
+talking to a tall man with most peculiar features and eyes, and a
+dazzling, white skin. He informed me he had been an animal-trainer in
+the State of Ballyynkan, Atlantis, and was ordered to give me
+instructions as to the taming of the present day wild beast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You must obtain a stone called the Red Laryx,' he said. 'It is to be
+found in great quantities on the three-hundred fathom level, forty miles
+to the west-south-west of North Aran Island, and can be procured for you
+by the same man that gets the weeds for Hamar and Curtis. It is a
+blood-red pebble, covered with peculiarly vivid green spots, and cannot
+be mistaken. Sit with it pressed against your forehead for an hour
+every morning, and concentrate hard on amalgamating yourself with
+it&mdash;<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> passing into it, and its properties will gradually be
+imparted to you. Do this regularly, for a week, and by the end of that
+time, you will be able to experiment with animals. All you will have to
+do, will be to hold the stone slightly clenched in your left hand,
+whilst, with your right, you make these signs in the air,' and he showed
+me certain passes. 'Stare fixedly into the animal's eyes all the while,
+and, by the time you have finished making the passes, you will find the
+animals are subdued. Pronounce these words &quot;Meta&mdash;ra&mdash;ka&mdash;va&mdash;Avakana,&quot;
+holding up, as you do so, your right hand with the thumb turned down and
+held right across the palm, and the little finger stretched out as wide
+as it will go, and you will understand what any animal wishes to say.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
+whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
+myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
+two o'clock in the morning?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't talk rot,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
+chill on my liver.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What was it, Leon?&quot; Curtis inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of unconscious projection,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Clearly the work of the
+Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in practice
+their newly acquired properties.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
+Brighton &amp; South Coast Railway.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton,&quot; he said, &quot;and cheat the Company.
+They deserve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
+himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
+sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
+dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical <i>nouveau riche</i> nose!</p>
+
+<p>When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
+waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
+tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
+one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
+which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
+words, &quot;Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana!&quot; The next moment he had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Strike me red!&quot; the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
+and grasping the door with the other. &quot;What's become of him? Was
+he&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;gho&mdash;st?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't&mdash;er&mdash;know&mdash;er what to&mdash;to make of it,&quot; the parson said,
+heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
+teeth. &quot;I don't&mdash;er, of course&mdash;er, believe in gho&mdash;sts! He must&mdash;er
+have been&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;an evil spirit. Dear me&mdash;aw!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Help me out of the carriage at once,&quot; the lady with the stare panted.
+&quot;I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
+Company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter, Joe?&quot; an inspector called out, threading his way
+through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
+of the compartment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm blessed if I know!&quot; the collector said. &quot;The honly explanation I
+can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved&mdash;the hot
+weather has melted him like butter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
+the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
+words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking than
+that of his previous disappearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it away&mdash;take it away!&quot; the lady opposite him shouted, throwing up
+her hands to ward him off. &quot;It's there again! Take it away! I shall
+die&mdash;I shall go mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How hideous! How diabolical!&quot; a stout, elderly man said in slow,
+measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. &quot;It must
+be the devil! The devil! Ha!&quot; and burying his face in his hands, he
+indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it,&quot; a
+remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
+highly indignant tones to the clergyman. &quot;As usual, whenever there is
+something to be done, it is woman who must do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the clergyman&mdash;whose
+condition of terror prevented him uttering even the one telling, biting
+word&mdash;Suffragette&mdash;that had risen and stuck in his throat&mdash;raised her
+umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck it vigorously at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ghost, demon, devil!&quot; she cried. &quot;I know no fear! Begone!&quot; And the
+point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's waistcoat,
+all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and with a
+ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he writhed
+and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant continued
+to stab and jab at him.</p>
+
+<p>In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
+some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
+pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" />CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES</h3>
+
+
+<p>With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him, and
+he was locked up in a separate compartment, &quot;to be given in charge,&quot; so
+the indignant official announced, directly they got to Brighton. But
+Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered
+from the effects of the severe castigation the female furioso had
+inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the train drew up at the
+Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen arrived to march him on, he
+was nowhere to be found! This was his first experiment with the newly
+acquired property. &quot;In future,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;before I try any
+tricks, I'll take very good care there are no Suffragettes about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
+he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
+calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was able
+to enjoy many&mdash;gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on the
+very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat the
+trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at last
+caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated among
+the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch for him
+in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently, directly he
+entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was arrested and
+handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill.</p>
+
+<p>He was now in a most unpleasant predicament&mdash;the tightest corner he had
+ever been in. Supposing he could not escape&mdash;his sentence would be at
+the least two years' penal servitude&mdash;what would happen? Curtis and
+Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give himself
+entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian Rosenberg;
+the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after that&mdash;he dare
+not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The police took him
+away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them, he struggled
+desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel circle that
+held them. &quot;It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!&quot; he said to himself,
+&quot;all right at least&mdash;now! They know nothing! They have never tried to
+think what the breaking of the compact means! Their weak, silly minds
+are entirely centred on the present! The present! Damn the present! They
+are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of the present&mdash;it's the
+future&mdash;the future that matters!&quot; He scraped the skin off his wrists, he
+sweated, he swore! And it was not until one of the detectives threatened
+to rap him over the head, that he sullenly gave in and sat still.</p>
+
+<p>The taxi drew up in front of the Gerald Road Police Station, and Hamar
+was conducted to an ante-room, prior to being taken before the
+inspector. Just as a policeman was about to search him, he made one last
+desperate effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;if I pledge you my word I'll not attempt to do
+anything, will you let me have my hands&mdash;or at least one of my
+hands&mdash;free a moment. Some grit has got in my eye and I cannot stand the
+irritation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That game won't work here,&quot; one of the detectives said, &quot;you should
+keep your eyes shut when there's dust about, or else not have such
+protruding ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar threatened to report him to the Home Secretary for brutal conduct,
+but the detective only laughed, and Hamar had to submit to the
+mortification of being searched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are these?&quot; a detective said, fingering the seaweed pills
+gingerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stomachic pills!&quot; Hamar said bitterly, &quot;they are taken as a digestive
+after meals. You look dyspeptic&mdash;have one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, none of your sauce!&quot; the detective said, &quot;you come along with
+me,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar was hauled before the inspector.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can I go out on bail?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not,&quot; the inspector replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shan't give you my name and address,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I shan't tell
+you anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The inspector merely shrugged his shoulders, and after the charge sheet
+was read over, Hamar was conducted to a cell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is awful,&quot; he said, &quot;what the deuce am I to do! To send for Curtis
+and Kelson will be fatal, and it will be equally fatal to leave them in
+ignorance of what has happened to me. I am, indeed, in the horns of a
+dilemma. I must get at those pills.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Up and down the floor of the tiny cell he paced, his mind tortured with
+a thousand conflicting emotions. And then, an idea struck him. He would
+ask to be allowed to see his lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cotton's the man,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;he will get the pills for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The inspector, after satisfying himself that Cotton was on the register,
+rang him up, and after an hour of terrible suspense to Hamar, the lawyer
+briskly entered his cell.</p>
+
+<p>They conferred together for some minutes, and having arranged the method
+of defence, Cotton was preparing to depart, when Hamar whispered to
+him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to do me a particular favour. In the top right hand drawer
+of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, in Cockspur Street, I have left a
+red pill-box. These pills are for indigestion. I simply can't do without
+them. Will you get them for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, to-night?&quot; the lawyer asked dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, to-night,&quot; Hamar pleaded. &quot;I'll make it a matter of business
+between us&mdash;get me the pills before eight o'clock, and you have &pound;1000
+down. My cheque book is in the same drawer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer said nothing, but gave Hamar a look that meant much!</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a dreadful wait, and Hamar had abandoned himself to the
+deepest despair when Cotton reappeared. He shook hands with his client,
+slipping the pills into the latter's palm. Whilst the lawyer was
+pocketing his cheque, Hamar gleefully swallowed a pill, and crying out
+&quot;Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;takso&mdash;mana,&quot;&mdash;vanished!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heaven preserve us! What's become of you?&quot; Cotton exclaimed, putting
+his hand to his forehead and leaning against the wall for support. &quot;Am I
+ill or dreaming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything wrong, sir?&quot; a policeman inquired, opening the cell door and
+looking in. &quot;Why, what have you done with the prisoner&mdash;where is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no more idea than you,&quot; the lawyer gasped. &quot;He was talking to me
+quite naturally, when he suddenly left off&mdash;said something idiotic&mdash;and
+disappeared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar did not dally. He quietly slipped through the open door, and
+darting swiftly along a stone passage, found his way to the entrance,
+which was blocked by two constables with their backs to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give the brutes something to remember me by,&quot; Hamar chuckled, and,
+taking a run, he kicked first one, and then the other with all his
+might, precipitating them both into the street. He then sped past
+them&mdash;home.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, by astute inquiries, learned that the police had decided to hush
+up the affair, not being quite sure how they had figured, or, indeed,
+what had actually occurred. As to Cotton, the shock he had undergone, at
+seeing Hamar suddenly melt away before his eyes, was so great that he
+went off his head, and had to be confined in an asylum.</p>
+
+<p>After this adventure Hamar shunned restaurants, and manipulating his new
+property sparingly, and with the utmost caution, warned Kelson and
+Curtis to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll bet anything,&quot; he said to them, &quot;it was a put-up job on the part
+of the Unknown&mdash;a cunning device to make us break the compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, we'll be careful enough as far as that goes,&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;It's
+this vegetarian diet that I can't stick. Fancy living on beans and
+potatoes, and only milk and aerated water to wash them down. It was bad
+enough in San Francisco, when we hadn't the means even to smell meat
+cooking&mdash;but with the money literally burning a hole in one's pocket,
+it's ten times worse! Whatever the Unknown has in store for us it can't
+be a worse Hell than what I've got now. What say you, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same! Precisely the same!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;Only it's love&mdash;not
+potatoes and beans that worries me. In the old days when I was
+penniless, I did get some consolation from knowing it was all
+hopeless&mdash;but now&mdash;now, when, as Ed says, 'the money's literally burning
+a hole in one's pocket,' and everything might go swimmingly&mdash;not to be
+allowed even to buy a bracelet&mdash;is more than human nature can endure. I
+certainly can't conceive a Hell to beat it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be too sure,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and for goodness' sake don't let the
+Unknown give you an opportunity of comparing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The night succeeding this conversation, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+introduced their new properties into the programme of their
+entertainment in Cockspur Street, and London got another big thrill.
+Hamar exhibited such startling proofs of his power of invisibility, that
+not only was the whole audience convinced, but from amongst certain
+prominent members of the Council of the Psychical Research Society, who
+were attending with the express purpose of unmasking Hamar, two had
+epileptic fits on the spot, and several, before they could get home,
+became raving lunatics.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the second part of the programme&mdash;the audience
+was still too flabbergasted to fully grasp what was happening. They saw
+on the stage a huge tank of water&mdash;with which they were told Mr. Curtis
+would experiment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I am about to do,&quot; Mr. Curtis&mdash;who now walked on to the
+stage&mdash;informed his audience, &quot;is quite simple. All you want is faith.
+Those of you who are Christian Scientists should be able to do it as
+easily as I. Say 'I will! I will walk on the water!' and your
+faith&mdash;your colossal faith&mdash;faith in your ability to do it will actually
+enable you to do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis then repeated&mdash;in tones that could not be heard by the
+audience&mdash;the Atlantean cabalistic
+words&mdash;&quot;Karma&mdash;nardka&mdash;rapto&mdash;nooman&mdash;K&mdash;arma&mdash;oola&mdash;piskooskte,&quot; and
+glided gracefully on to the surface of the water. Every now and then he
+sank slowly down to the bottom, where he strolled about, or sat, or lay
+down.</p>
+
+<p>The audience was simply fascinated. Nothing they had hitherto seen
+tickled their fancy half as much. As an American, who was present, put
+it&mdash;&quot;To live under the water like a fish is immense&mdash;so hygienic and
+economical.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though the time apportioned to this part of the entertainment was half
+an hour, it was extended to over an hour, and even then the audience was
+not satisfied. They would have gone on watching
+Curtis&mdash;eating&mdash;drinking&mdash;jumping&mdash;skipping&mdash;singing and chasing gold
+fish&mdash;under the water all night, and when he was at length permitted to
+come out of the tank&mdash;exhausted and sulky&mdash;they gave him even heartier
+applause than they had given Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>But the cup of their enjoyment was not yet full. The greatest treat of
+all was in store for them.</p>
+
+<p>For the third and last part of the entertainment, a cage, containing a
+large Bengal tiger, was wheeled on to the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You look precious white,&quot; Curtis remarked, just as Kelson was about to
+go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess you'd look the same,&quot; Kelson retorted, &quot;if you had to hobnob
+with a tiger. The Unknown always gives me the nasty jobs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in this case,&quot; Curtis said with a low, mocking laugh, &quot;it also
+loads you with consolations. The house is full of ladies who adore you,
+and if you are eaten, just think of the sympathy welling up in their
+beautiful eyes! If that isn't sufficient compensation for you, I&mdash;&quot; But
+the remainder of this encouraging speech was lost in a loud roar. The
+Bengal tiger shook its bars&mdash;the audience screamed, and Curtis flew.</p>
+
+<p>With a desperate attempt to look calm, Kelson, clutching the red laryx
+stone in his left hand, walked on to the stage, whilst the tiger,
+rearing on its hind legs tried to reach him with its paws.</p>
+
+<p>There were loud cries of &quot;Oh! Oh!&quot; from the audience, and Kelson's heart
+beat quicker, when a girl with wavy, fair hair and big, starry eyes,
+screamed out &quot;Don't go near it! Don't go near it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as there was comparative quiet Kelson spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you can see, ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he said, &quot;this animal is
+genuinely savage! It is not like the tigers one sees in menageries,
+drugged and deprived of their natural weapons&mdash;teeth and claws. It comes
+direct from India, where its reputation as a man-eater is widespread. I
+am not, however, intimidated&mdash;its growls merely amuse me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Quaking all over, he approached the cage, and staring fixedly into the
+tiger's face, made the prescribed passes. In an instant, the whole
+attitude of the great cat changed. Dropping on to its fore-legs, it
+rubbed its head against the bars and purred. A low buzz of astonishment
+burst from the audience, and Kelson, now assured that the spell had
+worked, waved his disengaged hand, in the most gallant fashion, at the
+audience, and strutted into the cage. He shook paws with the tiger,
+patted it on the back, sat down by its side, and, whilst pretending to
+be on the most familiar terms with it, took every precaution to avoid
+coming in too close contact with its teeth and claws.</p>
+
+<p>The audience was charmed&mdash;the men cheered, the ladies waved
+handkerchiefs, and the only disappointed persons present were a few
+belligerent and bloodthirsty boys, and a Suffragette, who severally, and
+for diverse reasons, would have relished the performances of a savage
+tiger, but had little sympathy with the performance of a tame one.</p>
+
+<p>The next surprise that Mr. Kelson had for his audience, was the
+announcement that he could interpret the language of animals. At his
+invitation, a dozen members of the audience came on to the platform and
+stood near the cage. Looking steadily at the tiger he then pronounced
+the mystic words &quot;Meta&mdash;ra&mdash;ka&mdash;va&mdash;avakana,&quot; holding up his right hand,
+with the thumb turned down and stretched right across the palm, and the
+little finger extended to the utmost. In an instant the great
+secret&mdash;the secret that Darwin had studied so strenuously for years&mdash;was
+revealed to him. The language of animals was olfactory. The tiger spoke
+to him through the sense of smell&mdash;through his nose instead of his ears.
+It regulated and modified the odour it gave off from its body, and which
+worked its way out through the pores of its skin, just as human beings
+regulate and modify the intonations of their voices. Indeed, so delicate
+are the olfactory organs of animals that the faintest of these language
+smells makes an impression on them, which impression is at once
+interpreted by the brain. If an animal wishes to leave a message behind
+it, it merely impregnates some article&mdash;a leaf or a root, or a clump of
+grass&mdash;or merely the ether with a brain smell, and any other animal,
+happening to pass by the spot, within a certain time (in favourable
+weather), will at once be attracted by the smell, and be able to
+interpret it. That is the reason one so often sees an animal suddenly
+stop at a spot and sniff it&mdash;it is reading some message left there by
+some other animal. All this, and more, Kelson explained to his audience,
+who were exceedingly interested, many of them getting up to ask him
+questions. He also reported to them the tiger's conversation, which
+consisted chiefly of complaints against the management with regard to
+its food.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh,&quot; it said, &quot;when there
+were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under its very
+nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly speak to
+whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
+remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the papers were full of it.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Planet</i>, under the startling announcements&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;Recovery of the Lost Senses.<br />
+More Extraordinary Feats in Cockspur Street.<br />
+Leon Hamar becomes invisible at will,&quot; </p>
+
+<p>&mdash;narrated all that had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Monitor</i>&mdash;if anything more sensational&mdash;declared&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;The Language of Animals Discovered at Last!<br />
+The Problem of Breathing under Water&mdash;SOLVED!<br />
+Dematerialization at Will established!&quot; </p>
+
+<p>And even the <i>Courier</i>&mdash;the steady, ever cautious old <i>Courier</i>,
+England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
+conspicuously large type; vide the following&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!<br />
+Actual Case of Subduing and Conversing with Wild Animals.<br />
+Recovery of the Properties of Invisibility; of Walking on Water,
+and of Breathing under Water.&quot; </p>
+
+<p>As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
+unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
+instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
+requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
+walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
+to see him, but despite the fact that he said &quot;I will! I will!&quot; with the
+greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed, since
+they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S&mdash;&mdash;
+supported the waves.</p>
+
+<p>For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to Hyde
+Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
+resounded with the words, &quot;I will walk! I will walk!&quot; succeeded by
+splashes and cries for help.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
+flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were literally
+packed with people trying to get into conversation with the animals;
+these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of fatal results.
+One old gentleman&mdash;a Fellow of the Royal Society&mdash;carried away in his
+enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after making what he thought to be the
+correct signs, slipped his nose through the bars of the tiger's cage,
+and had it promptly bitten off&mdash;whilst a girl, in her endeavours to
+sniff the crocodiles, and so get in conversation with them, fell in
+their midst, and was torn to pieces before help arrived.</p>
+
+<p>However, these fatalities only served as an advertisement to the firm,
+and hundreds of people, for whom there was not even standing room, were
+turned away from the house nightly.</p>
+
+<p>But later on there were hitches. Curtis, whose dislike to vegetarian
+diet steadily increased, when dining one evening at his club, could no
+longer withstand the sight of roast beef. The smell of it tickled his
+palate unmercifully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take this infernal mess away!&quot; he said, pushing a plate of nut steak
+from him in disgust, &quot;and let me have a full course&mdash;entr&eacute;e, soup, fish,
+meat, everything you've got&mdash;chartreuse and a liqueur, and bring it
+quick&mdash;I'm famished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ate and ate, and drank and drank, until it was as much as he could do
+to rise from the table. And then, in excellent spirits, he repaired to
+Cockspur Street.</p>
+
+<p>How he got on to the stage he could never tell. Everything was in a haze
+around him, until there was a dull crash in his ears, and he suddenly
+found himself drowning. No one, at first, noticed his helpless
+condition, but attributed his antics to part of the programme; and he
+most certainly would have been drowned, had it not been for Lilian
+Rosenberg, who, being quite by chance, in front of the house, perceived
+he was drunk, the moment he came on the stage. She flew to the wings,
+and, just in the nick of time, got two of the supers to haul him out of
+the tank. Of course, it was announced&mdash;with a pretty apology&mdash;by Mr.
+Hamar, that Mr. Curtis had been taken ill. Kelson immediately came on
+with his animals, and the audience departed without the slightest
+suspicion as to the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was furious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You idiot!&quot; he said to Curtis, &quot;that all comes of your making a beast
+of yourself&mdash;you would sacrifice Matt and me, for your insatiable
+craving for meat and alcohol. Can't you see it was a trick of the
+Unknown to make us break the compact? Had you been drowned, the
+partnership, would, of course, have been dissolved&mdash;and it would have
+been your fault! You must obey your injunctions! Damn it, you must!&quot; And
+Hamar spoke so fiercely that Curtis was for once in a way cowed, and
+solemnly promised that he would not repeat the offence.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was the next culprit; and his misdoings were indirectly
+associated with the foregoing incident. Lilian Rosenberg's action in
+saving Curtis's life, thrilled him to the core, and called into play all
+his ardent passion. He had seen her sitting in the front of the house,
+and had come upon the scene just as she was urging the supers to go to
+Curtis's assistance; and he then thought she had never looked so lovely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come out with me to-morrow afternoon,&quot; he whispered. &quot;Hamar's going
+out of town!&quot; And before she could stop him he had kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson hardly expected Lilian Rosenberg would accept his invitation, but
+on arriving at the place he had named, he was delighted beyond measure
+to find her there.</p>
+
+<p>Nor could anyone have been nicer to him. No girl, he told himself, who
+did not in some degree at least, reciprocate his sentiments, could have
+allowed him to stare into her eyes as she did, or squeeze her hands, as
+he did. He took her to the ladies' drawing-room of his club, where there
+were plenty of quiet, secluded nooks, and there, whilst she poured out
+tea for him, he once more related to her all his early deeds and
+ailments&mdash;real and imaginary&mdash;and all his ideals and aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg was most sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You should have been a poet,&quot; she said. &quot;There is something about you
+that is quite Byronic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Kelson, who had never even heard of Byron, was immensely flattered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come to the jeweller's with me,&quot; he said, &quot;and choose whatever
+you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for rings&mdash;rings of all
+sorts!&quot; and he gave them a gentle pressure.</p>
+
+<p>She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
+Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she laughingly
+refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond bracelets and
+pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore&mdash;the rest&mdash;unknown to him
+of course&mdash;she sold; sending the proceeds, anonymously, to Shiel
+Davenport&mdash;who was starving.</p>
+
+<p>When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
+away&mdash;planning for his honeymoon&mdash;that he entered the cage of a newly
+imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
+certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
+supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
+the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It had
+been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing his
+performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
+anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar would not hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the second bungle we have had,&quot; he said, &quot;and the reputation of
+the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.</p>
+
+<p>After it was all over, and he had bowed himself out into the wings,
+Hamar led him aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't look so damned pleased with yourself,&quot; he said, &quot;I don't half
+like the look of things. This is the third time the Unknown has tried to
+trap us&mdash;the fourth time it may be successful! Take care!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" />CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Much to the relief of the trio, the end of stage three was at length
+reached&mdash;and, thanks to Hamar, reached without further mishap. To keep
+Curtis and Kelson up to the mark, Hamar had worked indefatigably. He had
+never relaxed his efforts in the strict watch he kept over them, and he
+had unceasingly impressed upon them, the vital importance of obeying, to
+the very letter, the instructions they had received from the Unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The part he had thus taken upon himself, the difficulties he had to
+encounter in this unceasing vigilance, had produced a new Hamar&mdash;a Hamar
+that was a personality; a personality so utterly unlike the old
+Hamar&mdash;the meek and servile clerk&mdash;as to make one wonder if there could
+possibly be two Hamars&mdash;outwardly and physically the same&mdash;inwardly and
+psychologically diametrically opposed. A year ago, Curtis and Kelson
+would have ridiculed the idea of being afraid of Hamar&mdash;such an idea
+would have struck them as simply absurd; but they were afraid of him
+now, they dreaded his anger more than anything, more even than the
+prospect of infringing their compact with the Unknown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have made pots of money,&quot; Curtis remarked one day. &quot;Why can't we
+give up work and enjoy it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I say no!&quot; Hamar hissed. &quot;No! We can't give up&mdash;not, at least,
+until the last stage has been safely gone through. To give up now would
+be to break the compact!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, why not?&quot; Curtis mumbled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Heavens, man, can't you understand! Can you
+form no conception of what failure to keep the compact means? Has the
+memory of that night&mdash;of that tree and all the foul things it suggested,
+passed completely out of your mind? It hasn't out of mine&mdash;it is as
+clear now as it was then. And often&mdash;mark this, both of you&mdash;often when
+I am alone in the night, I see queer luminous shapes&mdash;shapes of
+repulsive vegetable growths&mdash;of polyps&mdash;and of disgusting tongues that
+come towards me through the gloom and circle slowly round the bed,
+whilst the whole room vibrates with soft, mocking laughter! You know how
+mirrors shine in the moonlight. Well, the other night, when I looked at
+mine, I saw in it the reflection, not of a face, but of two light evil
+eyes that looked at me and&mdash;smiled! Smiled with a smile that said more
+plainly than words, 'I am waiting!' and that is what the shapes, and the
+very atmosphere of the place at night always seem to say&mdash;'We are
+waiting! You are enjoying the joke now&mdash;we shall enjoy it later on!' If
+we knew exactly what was in store for us it wouldn't be so bad, but it
+is the vagueness of it, the vagueness of the horrors that the Unknown
+has hinted at, that makes it so appalling! We may die awful deaths&mdash;or
+we may not die AT ALL&mdash;the shapes, indefinite and misty no longer, but
+materialized&mdash;wholly and entirely materialized&mdash;may come for us and
+take us away with them! And it is to prevent this, that I am urging you,
+compelling you, to stick to the compact, and give the Unknown no
+loophole! Think of the tremendous rewards, if we succeed in passing
+through the last stage! As I have said before, Curtis need do nothing
+else but eat, whilst you, Matt, can become a Mormon and marry all the
+pretty girls in London!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This speech had the desired effect, and nothing more&mdash;for the time at
+least&mdash;was said about retiring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think Leon is quite&mdash;er&mdash;like&mdash;er&mdash;like us?&quot; Kelson said, when
+Hamar left them, after administering his admonition. &quot;At times he hardly
+looks human. His face is such a funny colour, such a lurid yellow, and
+his eyes, so piercing! He gives me the jumps! I can't bear to think of
+him at night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rubbish,&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;You imagine it. There's nothing of the spook
+about Leon! He's of this world and nothing but this world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was odd, however, that from that time he, too, began to have the same
+feeling&mdash;the feeling that Hamar was perpetually watching them&mdash;watching
+them awake and watching them asleep! Curtis awoke one night to see,
+standing on his hearth, a shadowy figure with a lurid yellow face and
+two gleaming dark eyes, which were fixed on him. He called out, and it
+vanished!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it's the nut steak!&quot; And thus he tried to assure himself. But
+he was badly scared all the same.</p>
+
+<p>Another night, he saw some one, he took to be Hamar, peeping at him from
+behind the window curtains. He threw a slipper at the figure, and the
+slipper went right through it. If Hamar's phantom had been the only
+thing he saw, he would not have minded much; but both he and Kelson soon
+began to see and hear other things. Curtis frequently saw
+half-materialized forms, forms of men with cone-shaped heads and
+peculiarly formed limbs, stealing up the staircase in front of him, and,
+turning into his bedroom, vanish there. He heard them moving about, long
+after he had got into bed. Sometimes they would glide up to the bed and
+bend over him, and though he could never see their eyes, he could feel
+they were fixed mockingly on him. Once he saw the door of his wardrobe
+slowly open, and a white something with a dreadful face&mdash;half human and
+half animal&mdash;steal slyly out and disappear in the wall opposite. And
+once when he put out his hand to feel for the matches, they were gently
+thrust into his palm, whilst the walls of the room shook with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a
+different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room
+would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede, and
+recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber, full of
+gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly, close in
+upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to death. A feeling
+of suffocation would come over him, and he would gasp, choke, beat the
+air with his arms, be at the verge of losing consciousness, when there
+would be a loud, mocking laugh&mdash;and the walls and ceiling would be in
+their proper places again. At other times he would see strange figures
+on the wall&mdash;numbers of circles, that would keep on revolving in the
+most bewildering fashion. Then, suddenly, they would leave the wall and
+slowly approach him, increasing in circumference; and the same thing
+would happen, as happened with the wall and ceiling; he would undergo
+the whole sensation of asphyxiation, and be on the brink of swooning,
+when there would be a loud peal of evil, satirical laughter, and the
+circles would instantly disappear.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the bedclothes would assume extraordinary shapes; sometimes
+the articles on his dressing-table; sometimes his clothes; and once,
+when he was about to put on his bedroom slippers, he found them already
+occupied&mdash;occupied by icy cold feet. Another time, when he put out his
+hand to take hold of a tumbler, he put it on the back of another
+hand&mdash;smooth, cold and pulpy!</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a night passed without some sort of manifestation happening to
+one or other of the trio, and even Curtis&mdash;fat and stolid Curtis&mdash;began
+to lose flesh and look harassed.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of the initiation into stage four, the three, separating for
+the night, retired to their respective quarters in a far from pleasant
+state of expectation.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was undressing, when there came a loud ring at the telephone,
+outside his door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holloa!&quot; he called out, &quot;who are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you Mr. Hamar?&quot; a voice asked, breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar replied in the affirmative, and the voice continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm Mrs. Anderson-Waite, of 30 Queen's Mansions, Queen's Gate. I have
+been holding a s&eacute;ance here, with some of my friends, and most
+extraordinary things have happened, and are still happening. There are
+violent knockings on the wall and ceiling, and the table has become
+positively dangerous. It has repeatedly sprung into the air, and
+savagely assaulted several of the sitters. It has thrown one lady on to
+the floor, and despite our efforts to prevent it, has rampled on her so
+viciously that she is badly hurt, and the doctor who has just arrived
+thinks very seriously of it. We wanted to stop, but some strange power
+seems to be forcing us to go on. The table has rapped out your name and
+address, and says it has something important to communicate with you,
+and that unless you come here at once, it won't answer for the
+consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I'll come. I'll be with you in less than half
+an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Hamar arrived at Queen's Mansions, he found a terrified party of
+ladies awaiting him in the entrance to the flat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank goodness, you've come!&quot; they exclaimed, all together. &quot;We've been
+having an awful time. The table has driven us out of the
+drawing-room&mdash;it is obsessed by a devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me have a look at it,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and I'll soon tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The leader of the party, Mrs. Anderson-Waite, very cautiously opened the
+drawing-room door, and Hamar peered in. In the centre of the room was a
+large, round, ebony table, that commenced to rock, in the most sinister
+fashion, the moment Hamar looked at it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It evidently wants to speak with me,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;you had better leave
+me here with it for a few minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do take care,&quot; Mrs. Anderson-Waite said, as she shut the door. &quot;It may
+want to murder you. If it does, ring this bell, and we will all come to
+your assistance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar gave her an assuring smile, but he was by no means as much at ease
+as he pretended to be. He stood staring at the table, too fascinated to
+take his eyes off it, and too afraid to move.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, pulling himself together, and convinced the table
+was the medium, through which the Unknown wished to give him fresh
+instructions, he stealthily approached it. He addressed it, and it
+rapped out to him that he must at once obtain pen and ink and take down
+what it wished to say.</p>
+
+<p>Obtaining the requisite materials from Mrs. Anderson-Waite, he sat down
+and was preparing to write on his knee, when the table told him to rub
+its surface briskly with his left hand, to trace on it the three
+Atlantean symbols, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> a club foot, a hand with the fingers clenched
+and the long pointed thumb standing upright, and a bat&mdash;and then&mdash;to
+place his paper on it, and transcribe what it had to say.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar obeyed, and after sitting for exactly three minutes with his
+pencil between his fingers, he felt a cold, pulpy hand laid over his,
+impelling him to write with lightning-like rapidity. The script read as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To Hamar, Curtis and Kelson&mdash;to the three of you in common&mdash;is given
+the knowledge of inflicting all manner of torments and diseases, of
+imparting all kinds of injurious properties, and of causing plagues.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place, you must understand that the essence of life,
+comprising the psychical, psychological and physical, permeates every
+part of the living corporeal body&mdash;and that any limb, or fragment of
+skin or flesh, cut off from the living corporeal body, retains the
+essence of life, comprising the psychical and physical in its full
+vigour and entirety. Consequently, if a person have grafted on to them a
+piece of skin or flesh, or be inoculated with the blood or veins of a
+tiger&mdash;then that person not merely becomes liable to all the physical
+infirmities of the tiger, but may&mdash;if the counteracting influences are
+not sufficiently strong&mdash;partake of all the tiger's psychological
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thus, if you give a person, in whom there is a latent tendency to
+drink, a drop of a drunkard's blood&mdash;in a glass of wine, or sweet, or
+pill, no matter what&mdash;that person will at once take to drink. Thus&mdash;mark
+you&mdash;people can be metamorphosed into libertines, suicides, idiots and
+murderers. This metamorphosis can also be produced by means of a magnet
+called the 'magnes microcosmi,' which is prepared from substances that
+have had a long association with the human body, and are penetrated by
+its vitality. Such substances are the hair and blood. Take either one of
+them, and dry it in a shady and moderately warm place, until it has lost
+its humidity and odour. By this process it will have lost, too, all its
+mumia&mdash;that is to say, its essence of life&mdash;and is hungry to regain it.
+It is now a magnes microcosmi, or a magnet for attracting diseases and
+properties, and if it be placed in close contact with a criminal or
+lunatic, it will be filled with his essence of life, and may then be
+used as a means of infecting other people with his pernicious qualities.
+Bury it under the doorstep of the person you wish infected, or hide it
+in his house, or mix it well with earth, and plant a shrub in the earth,
+and the vitality the magnet took from the criminal or lunatic will pass
+into the plant; and if the plant, or even flower of the plant, be given
+to any one, that person&mdash;unless she or he be a person absolutely free
+from the germs of vice&mdash;will be attracted to it, and greatly affected by
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or again, the earth over the grave of a lunatic or criminal will
+contain his essence of life, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> his vitality, which impregnates
+everything around it, and if that earth be placed somewhere in the
+immediate presence of a person, in whom there are latent tendencies to
+vice&mdash;then that person will be affected by it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And through these methods of using the essence of life, that is
+impregnated with the disease you wish to inflict&mdash;you may infect people
+with all kinds of incurable ailments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a quicker, and equally sure method of smiting people with disease,
+such as cancer, fever, epilepsy, apoplexy, etc.; of smiting them blind,
+deaf, dumb, lame, etc.; or bringing upon them all kinds of accidents, is
+to make an image of the person you wish to torment, and, setting it in
+front of you, preferably, at times when the moon is new, or in
+conjunction with Venus, Mars or Saturn, concentrate with all your will
+on whatever injury you wish to inflict. If, for example, you desire the
+person to become blind, stick a pin, or thorn, or nail in the eyes of
+the image; if deaf, in its ears; if maimed, cut a limb off the image; if
+to have a certain disease, will very earnestly that he or she shall have
+that disease. You may thus, too, torment the object of your aversion
+with plagues of insects and vermin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you desire to bewitch your neighbour's milk, wine, or any food he or
+she has, you may do it by placing the mumia, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the vehicle
+containing the essence of life of some criminal or lunatic, in the
+immediate vicinity of the food, etc.; or in the case of milk, by giving
+it to the cow to eat; or you may accomplish your design simply by means
+of concentration and an image.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Always, however, whatever methods you employ, prelude them with this
+prayer: 'I conjure thee, Great Unknown Power that is Antagonistic to
+man, that was at the Beginning, that is now, that always will be; by the
+winds and rain, and thunder and lightning; by the swirling rivers; by
+the Moon; by the sinister influence of the Moon with Venus, Mars and
+Saturn; help me obtain the perfect issue of all my desires, which I seek
+to perform solely for the furtherment of what is detrimental to
+humanity. Amen.' And conclude them with the signs of the foot, the hand
+and the bat. If you desire to know anything further it will be unfolded
+to you in your dreams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hand that had been laid on Hamar's was now removed. The writing
+ceased. The table rose several inches from the floor, and struck the
+latter three times in quick, violent succession. Then it remained quiet,
+and Hamar knew, by a subtle change in the atmosphere, that all occult
+manifestations&mdash;for that night at least&mdash;were at an end. The ladies
+were, of course, dying to know what had happened; and like most ladies,
+who dabble in spiritualism, were ready to believe anything they were
+told. Hamar, who had no intention whatever of telling them what had
+actually occurred, satisfied them admirably.</p>
+
+<p>He went home delighted&mdash;far too delighted to sleep&mdash;for he had in his
+possession now the greatest of all weapons&mdash;the weapon to torment. And
+with it what could he not do! What could he not get! He could
+get&mdash;Gladys!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" />CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SELLING OF SPELLS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The period of stage four promised to be one of such a lucrative nature,
+that the trio set to work to profit by it at once. They bribed medical
+men to procure for them the mumia of people suffering from every kind of
+disease; of criminal lunatics; of idiots and epileptics; they obtained,
+by bribery also, the blood and hair of the most abandoned men and
+women&mdash;rakes, thieves, murderers. They bottled and labelled, and
+arranged and catalogued, the mumia, in a laboratory designed for the
+purpose; and, when all their preparations were complete, advertised&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="line-height: 1.75em;">SPELLS FOR SALE<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.</span><br />
+offer for sale every variety of spells&mdash;love charms, sleep charms, etc. </p>
+
+<p>In order to carry out the principal conditions of the compact, namely,
+to do harm, they made pseudo-love charms as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>They procured the hair of a girl whom they knew to be an incorrigible,
+and, at the same time, heartless flirt; and, in the manner described
+(and related in the last chapter) made a magnes microcosmi of it. When
+ready for use, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> after it had been in immediate contact with the
+girl's flesh, so as to get it fully charged, they had portions of it set
+in rings, lockets and pendants. And the purchaser of any one of these
+trinkets had only to persuade the object of his (or her) affection to
+wear it, and his (or her) love would at once be reciprocated.</p>
+
+<p>Had the magnes microcosmi been charged with real, deep-rooted love, the
+effect on the wearer would have been highly satisfactory, but charged as
+it was with the effervescent and fleeting fancy of a flirt, the effect
+on whoever wore it could not be more disastrous. The sentiments of the
+hopeful purchaser would be reciprocated for a time, which would probably
+lead to marriage&mdash;after which the affection his adored had professed
+would suddenly decrease, and before the honeymoon was over, would have
+vanished altogether.</p>
+
+<p>During the week following the announcement of the sale of these spells,
+over a thousand were sold, the applicants being mostly shop girls,
+typists, clerks and servants; in the second week the sales rose to three
+thousand, and every succeeding week showed a still greater increase.</p>
+
+<p>In charging the magnes microcosmi, the motive of the purchaser had
+always to be taken into account. If the love charm were wanted by a
+woman&mdash;a housekeeper may be, who desired some rich old man to fall in
+love with her, in order that she might come into his property; or by a
+woman&mdash;a companion probably&mdash;who, having wormed herself into the
+confidence of some eccentric old lady, was anxious that that lady should
+leave her all her money&mdash;Hamar took care that the magnes microcosmi
+should be charged with a lasting infatuation; and the sale of this love
+spell&mdash;the spell that was sought solely that the purchaser might inherit
+property to which he (or she) had no claim&mdash;far exceeded the sale of any
+other spell. Indeed, it was extraordinary how many people&mdash;people one
+would never have suspected&mdash;desired spells that would do other people
+harm.</p>
+
+<p>Lady De Greene, the well-known humanitarian, who was most indefatigable
+in getting up petitions to the Home Secretary, whenever the perpetrator
+of any particularly heinous and inexcusable murder was about to be
+hanged, and who was universally acknowledged &quot;incapable of harming a
+fly,&quot; called, surreptitiously, on Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand,&quot; she said, &quot;everything you do here is in strict
+confidence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, madam, certainly!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;We make it a point of honour
+to divulge&mdash;nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being so,&quot; Lady De Greene observed, &quot;I want you to tell me of a
+spell that will hasten some very obnoxious person's death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will give me a rough idea of their personal appearance,&quot; Hamar
+said, &quot;I will make a wax image of them, and undertake they will trouble
+you no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lady De Greene shook her head. She had no desire to commit herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you do it in any other way,&quot; she said, &quot;can't you let me give
+them an unlucky charm&mdash;the sort of thing that might bring about a taxi
+disaster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar thought for a moment and then&mdash;smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; he said, &quot;I think I can accommodate you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Leaving her for a few minutes, he went to the laboratory, and from a tin
+box marked homicidal lunatic, he took a plain, gold ring. With this he
+returned to Lady De Greene, murmuring on the way the prayer he had
+learned from the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here you are,&quot; he said handing the ring to Lady De Greene, &quot;give it to
+the person you have mentioned to me&mdash;and the result you desire will
+speedily come to pass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Three days later, London was immeasurably shocked. It read in the papers
+that the highly accomplished Lady De Greene, beloved and respected by
+all, for the strenuous exertions on behalf of humanitarianism, had been
+barbarously murdered by her husband (from whom&mdash;unknown to the
+public&mdash;she had been living apart for years), who had suddenly, and, for
+no apparent reason, become insane. Hamar, who was immensely tickled,
+alone knew the reason why.</p>
+
+<p>This was no isolated case. Scores of Society women came to the trio with
+the same request. &quot;A spell, or charm, or something, that will bring
+about a fatal accident&mdash;not a lingering illness&quot;&mdash;and the person for
+whom the accident was desired, was usually the husband. And the trio
+often indulged in grim jokes.</p>
+
+<p>Without a doubt, Lady Minkhurst got her heart's desire when her husband
+abruptly cut his throat, but alas, amongst those decimated, when the
+charm fell into the hands of one of the footmen, was her ladyship's
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Mrs. Jacques, the beauty, who, at one time, wrote for half the
+fashion papers in England, certainly secured the demise of Colonel Dick
+Jacques, who tumbled downstairs and broke his neck, but as in his fall
+the Colonel alighted on one of the maids, who was not insured, and so
+seriously injured her that she was pronounced a hopeless cripple, Mrs.
+Jacques&mdash;with whom money was an object&mdash;had, of course, to maintain her
+for the rest of her life.</p>
+
+<p>Likewise, Sir Charles Brimpton, in jumping out of the top window of his
+house, besides pulverizing himself, pulverized, too, Lady Brimpton's pet
+Pekingese &quot;Waller,&quot; without whom, she declared, life wasn't worth
+living; and Lord Snipping, in setting fire to himself, set fire to Lady
+Snipping's boudoir (which he had been secretly visiting), and thereby
+destroyed treasures which she tearfully declared were quite priceless,
+and could never be replaced.</p>
+
+<p>Crowds of young married women were anxious to get rid of their rich old
+relatives, who clung on to life with a tenacity that was &quot;most
+wearying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you give me a spell that will make my grandmother go off suddenly?&quot;
+a girl with beautiful, sad eyes said plaintively to Kelson. &quot;Don't think
+me very wicked, but we are not at all well off&mdash;and she has lived such a
+long time&mdash;such a very long time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't want her to be ill first, I suppose,&quot; Kelson inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no!&quot; the girl replied, &quot;she lives with us and we could never endure
+the worry and trouble of nursing her. It must be something very sudden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will do it,&quot; Kelson said, giving her a locket containing the mumia
+or essence of life of a mad dog; &quot;fasten it round the old lady's neck,
+and you will be astonished how soon it acts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is your fee?&quot; the girl asked, her eyes brimming over with
+joyous anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For you&mdash;nothing,&quot; Kelson said gallantly. &quot;Only tell no one. May I kiss
+your hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The firm's sale of spells for getting rid of husbands having risen one
+day to five hundred&mdash;and the sale of their spells for putting old people
+out of the way to fifteen hundred&mdash;even Hamar, who was no believer in
+the perfection of human nature, was astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My word!&quot; he remarked. &quot;Isn't this a revelation? Who would have thought
+how many people have murder in their hearts? At least half Society
+would, I believe, become homicides if only there were no chance of their
+being found out and punished. Anyhow, if we go on at this rate there
+will be no old people left.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And it did indeed seem as if such would be the case. For the moment the
+idea got abroad that old people could be thrust out of existence with
+absolute safety and ease, there was a perfect mania amongst men, women,
+and even children, to get rid of them, and the deaths of people over
+sixty recorded in the papers multiplied every day. The following is an
+extract from the <i>Planet</i> of July 28&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bolt.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Elgin Avenue, S.W., Emily Jane, loved
+     and venerated mother of Mary Bolt, M.D., in her 69th year. Drowned
+     in her bath. And all the Angels wept!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Cushman.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Sheep Street, Northampton, Sarah
+     Elizabeth, adored mother of Josiah Cushman, Plymouth Brother, in
+     her 88th year. Run over by a taxi. Joy in Heaven!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Starling.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Snargate Street, Dover, Susan,
+     highly esteemed and greatly beloved mother of Alfred Starling,
+     Wesleyan Minister, in her 71st year. Lost in the harbour. Asleep in
+     Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Tretickler.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; The Terrace, St. Ives, Cornwall,
+     Elizabeth, adored grandmother of Tobias Tretickler,
+     Congregationalist, in her 91st year. Fell over the Malatoff. &quot;Oh,
+     Paradise! Oh, Paradise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Broot.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at Charlton House, Queen's Gate, S.W., Jane,
+     greatly beloved mother of John Broot, Labour M.P., in her 83rd
+     year. Fell down the area. Peace, blessed Peace.</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Gum.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Church Road, Upper Norwood, Sophia, widow
+     of the late Albert Gum, L.C.C., in her 85th year. Choked whilst
+     eating tripe. Sadly missed!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Paveman.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol, Anne
+     Rebecca, dearly beloved mother of Alfred Paveman, grocer, in her
+     74th year. Accidentally burned to death! At rest at last. </p></div>
+
+<p>But it must not be supposed from these few notices, selected from at
+least a hundred, that the applicants for spells were by any means
+confined to the upper and middle classes. By far the greater number of
+spells were sold to the working people&mdash;to those of them who, prudent
+and respectable, counted amongst their aged relatives, at least, one or
+two who were insured.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the sale of spells confined to adults; for among the numbers,
+that flocked to consult the trio, were countless County Council
+children.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you give me a spell to make teacher break her neck?&quot; was the most
+common request, though it was frequently varied with demands such as&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more than
+three lumps of sugar in my tea;&quot;&mdash;or, &quot;Mother has got very teazy lately.
+I want a spell to make her fall downstairs&quot;&mdash;or, &quot;Father only gives me
+twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a spell to
+make him have an accident whilst he's at work.&quot; And it was not seldom
+that the trio were petitioned thus: &quot;Please give us a spell to make our
+parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect freedom is the
+birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have perfect freedom whilst
+our parents are alive.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" /><a href="#Footnote_22_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the
+week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were&mdash;over sixty
+years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and sixty,
+six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were
+responsible.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham,
+Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants
+became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with
+them, and were forced to raise their charges.</p>
+
+<p>Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant
+Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me a spell,&quot; demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a
+half-up-to-the-knee skirt, &quot;one that will cause the roof of the House of
+Commons to fall in and smash everybody&mdash;EVERYBODY. This is no time for
+half-measures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented, but
+he had no sympathy with the ugly&mdash;they set his teeth on edge&mdash;he loathed
+them. </p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, madam, certainly,&quot; he said, &quot;here is a spell that will have
+the effect you desire,&quot; and he handed her a ring containing a magnes
+microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot. &quot;Wear
+it,&quot; he said, &quot;night and day. Never be without it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home
+for incurables.</p>
+
+<p>Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him
+with a similar request.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me have a spell at once,&quot; she said, &quot;that will make every member of
+the Government be run over by taxis&mdash;and killed. They are monsters,
+tyrants&mdash;I abominate them. Let them be slowly&mdash;very slowly&mdash;SQUASHED to
+death!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, madam,&quot; Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, &quot;here is
+what you want&mdash;wear it next your heart;&quot; and he gave her a locket,
+containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a
+leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I consider your fee far too high,&quot; the Suffragette said. &quot;You take
+advantage of me because I'm a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, madam,&quot; he said, &quot;I will make an exception in your case, and
+let you have it for half the sum.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a good deal more grumbling she paid the half fee, and, fastening
+the locket round her neck, flounced out of the building. As Kelson
+gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
+such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
+Suffragette&mdash;a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
+animosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick! Quick!&quot; she cried, bursting into the room where he was sitting.
+&quot;Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet Minister, and their
+wives and families as well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such an ambitious request as that, madam,&quot; Kelson rejoined, &quot;cannot be
+granted in a hurry. I must have time&mdash;to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! No! At once!&quot; the lady cried, stamping her feet with ill-suppressed
+rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;&mdash;to consider how it can best be done,&quot; Kelson went on calmly. &quot;I must
+have time to think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
+gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its head
+off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her description
+had been run over by a train at Chislehurst&mdash;and decapitated.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only plain
+but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
+decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
+longer.&quot; And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic to
+humour him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, Matt,&quot; he said, forcing a laugh. &quot;I'll try and arrange
+differently in future. After to-day you shall have your share of the
+pretty ones&mdash;anything to keep the peace. Only&mdash;remember&mdash;no falling in
+love.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Lest the reader should query this, let him consult the
+police in any of our big centres, and he will learn that crime and
+prostitution is immensely on the increase among children. In Newcastle
+it is estimated that there are over two thousand girls, of under
+fourteen years of age, voluntarily leading immoral lives, and making big
+incomes.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" />CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hamar's one great idea on reaching stage four was to utilize the
+torments as a means of getting Gladys. Though he saw crowds of pretty
+girls every day, none appealed to him as she did&mdash;and the very
+difficulty of getting her enhanced her value and stimulated his
+passions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will give her one more chance,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;and then if she
+won't have me I'll plague her to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went to the Imperial, and passing himself off as her father to the
+new official at the stage-door entrance, was shown into the ante-room
+(which led to her dressing-room). It took a good deal to scare Hamar,
+but he admitted afterwards that he did feel a trifle apprehensive whilst
+he awaited her advent; and his anticipations were fully realized.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, father!&quot; she began, as the door of her dressing-room swung open
+and she appeared on the threshold, clad in a shimmering white dress,
+that intensified her fair style of beauty, &quot;what brings you&mdash;&quot; The smile
+on her face suddenly died away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot; she cried, &quot;how dare you! Go! Go at once! And if you dare come
+here again or attempt to molest me in any way, I'll prosecute you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, dumbfounded at such an exhibition of wrath, slunk out of the room
+without uttering a syllable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The vixen,&quot; he muttered as soon as he found himself in the street. &quot;A
+thousand cats in one! Treated me like mud. Jerusalem! I'll pay her out.
+And I'll lose no time about it either. She'll look differently at me
+next time we meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He hurried back to Cockspur Street and going into the laboratory, threw
+himself into a chair and&mdash;thought.</p>
+
+<p>That same evening at nine-thirty, in the interval between her first and
+second &quot;going on,&quot; Gladys hastened to her dressing-room, and was
+preparing to partake of the light refreshments she had ordered, when&mdash;to
+her horror&mdash;she perceived crawling towards her, across the floor, a huge
+cockroach&mdash;a hideous black thing with spidery legs and long antennae
+that it waved, to and fro, in the air, as it advanced. It was at least
+double the size of any Gladys had hitherto seen, and her feelings can
+best be appreciated by those who fear such things&mdash;her blood ran cold,
+her flesh crawled, she sat glued to her chair, terrified to move, lest
+it should run after her. She screamed, and her dresser, startled out of
+her senses, came flying into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, madam? What is it?&quot; she cried.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys pointed at the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kill it!&quot; she shrieked. &quot;Stamp on it! Oh, quick, quick, it is coming
+towards me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the moment the dresser caught sight of the cockroach, she sprang on
+a chair and wound her skirts round her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, madam,&quot; she panted, &quot;I daren't! I daren't go near it. I'm
+frightened out of my life, at beetles. And there's another of them&quot;&mdash;and
+she pointed to the wainscoting&mdash;&quot;and another! Why, the room's full of
+them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so it was. Everywhere Gladys looked she saw beetles crawling
+towards her&mdash;dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds&mdash;and all of the
+same monstrous size and ultra-horrible appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look!&quot; she screamed. &quot;They are climbing on to my clothes. One's got
+into my shoes, and another will be in them, in a second. There's
+another&mdash;crawling up my cloak&mdash;and another on my skirt. Oh! Oh!&quot; and her
+cries, and those of the dresser, speedily brought a troop of actors and
+actresses to the door. The instant, however, the cause of the alarm was
+ascertained, there were loud yells, and a wild stampede down the
+passages. The Stage Manager was called, but one glance at the floor was
+enough for him&mdash;he fled. And in the end three of the supers had to be
+fetched. Hot water, brooms, ashes, and quicklime were used, and although
+thousands of the cockroaches were killed, thousands more came, and so
+hopeless did the task of getting rid of them become, that the room
+eventually had to be vacated, and the cracks under the door securely
+sealed.</p>
+
+<p>Before Gladys left the theatre, she was called on the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who are you?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hamar,&quot; came the reply, in insinuating tones. &quot;How do you like the
+beetles? You'll never see the end of them till&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Gladys rang off.</p>
+
+<p>On her return home something scuttled across the hall floor in front of
+her. She sprang back with a scream. It was a gigantic cockroach. The
+hall was full of them. She summoned the servants, and they set to work
+to kill them. But they might as well have tried to stop Niagara, for as
+fast as they squashed one battalion, another took its place. They came
+out of cracks in the floor, from behind the wainscoting, from every
+conceivable place in the kitchens, and in a dense black ribbon some six
+inches broad, ascended the staircase. Gladys tried to barricade her room
+against them, but it was of no avail. They came from under the boards of
+the floor and poured down the chimney. They swarmed over the furniture,
+in the cupboards, chest of drawers, the washstand (where they kept
+continually falling into the water), in her clothes (her dressing-gown
+was covered with them), over the bed, and the climax was reached when
+they approached the chair she stood on. Too fascinated with horror to
+move, she watched them crawling up to her. She was thus found by her
+father. He had come to her assistance in the very nick of time, and
+after lifting her from the chair and taking her to a place, as yet safe
+from molestation, returned to her room, where, with savage blows,
+smashing, equally, beetles and furniture, he remained till daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>With the first streak of dawn the beetles decamped, and the fray ended.
+The work of devastation had been colossal. Corpses were strewn
+everywhere&mdash;and it took the combined household hours, before all
+evidences of the slaughter were obliterated. As for Gladys, she had not
+slept all night and was a wreck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can never go through another night of it,&quot; she said to Miss
+Templeton. &quot;Do you think we shall ever get rid of the horrible things?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can but try, dear!&quot; Miss Templeton said consolingly, and she
+accompanied Gladys up to town, where they inquired of doctors, and
+chemists, and all sorts of possible and impossible people; and returned
+to Kew laden with chemicals, and patent beetle destroyers. But though
+they tried remedies by the score, none were of use, and the beetles
+repeated their performance of the preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys did not go to bed: surrounded with lighted candles, she sat on
+the top of a wardrobe till daybreak. The following morning the house was
+fumigated with sulphur; and people were told off to kill the
+cockroaches, as they made their escape out of doors. By this means an
+enormous number were killed; but at night they were just as bad as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>An engineer friend then suggested a freezing-machine. The temperature of
+the house was reduced to ten degrees below zero; the pipes froze (and
+burst next day), the milk froze, the housemaid's toes and the cook's
+little finger of the left hand froze, everything froze; and presumably
+the beetles froze, for there was not one to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>However, it was quite impossible to resort again to this extreme
+measure. John Martin had the most agonizing attacks of lumbago. Gladys
+had neuralgia, and Miss Templeton&mdash;a slight touch of pleurisy.</p>
+
+<p>When Gladys reached the Imperial that evening, she found that the staff
+had been battling with cockroaches all day, and that they had at last
+succeeded in getting rid of them with a fumigation mixture of camphor,
+cocculus, sulphur, bezonia and assaf&oelig;tida&mdash;suggested to them by a
+Hindoo student.</p>
+
+<p>For the next week not a beetle was to be seen at the theatre nor at the
+Cottage; and Gladys was beginning to hope that Hamar had ceased plaguing
+her (in despair of ever winning her), when the persecutions suddenly
+broke out again.</p>
+
+<p>She had been in bed about half an hour, and was falling into a gentle
+and much needed sleep, when a tremendous rap at the wall, close to her
+head, awoke her with a start, and set her heart pulsating violently.
+Thinking it must be some one on the landing, she got up and lit a
+candle. There was no one there. The moment she got into bed again, the
+rapping was repeated, and it continued, at intervals, all night. This
+went on for a week, during which time Gladys was never once able to
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>A brief respite ensued; but it was abruptly terminated one morning, when
+Gladys awoke feeling as if some big insect were attempting to penetrate
+her body. Uttering a shriek of terror, she whipped the clothes from her,
+and sprang out of bed. Miss Templeton, who slept in the next room, came
+rushing in, and they both saw an enormous insect, half beetle and half
+scorpion, dart under the pillow. John Martin was fetched, but although
+he searched everywhere, not a trace of the insect could be found.</p>
+
+<p>That night, directly Gladys got in bed and blew out the light, she heard
+a ticking sound on the sheets, and a huge insect with long hairy legs
+ran up her sleeve. Her shrieks brought the whole household to the room,
+but the insect was nowhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>She was thus plagued for nearly a fortnight. One insect only&mdash;never a
+number, but only one, of prodigious size and terrifying form&mdash;appeared
+to her in the least suspected places, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, on the dressing-table or
+chimney-piece, in her shoes, or pockets; crawled over her in the dark;
+and could never be caught.</p>
+
+<p>These perpetual frights, and consequent sleeplessness, wore Gladys out.
+She grew so ill that she had to give up acting, and go into a home to
+try the rest cure.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar then communicated with her, through a third person, and offered to
+leave off tormenting her, if she would agree to be engaged to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never will!&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I will never leave off persecuting you,&quot; was his retort.</p>
+
+<p>But he was wary. He had no wish to kill her or to damage her looks&mdash;so
+he let her get well and remain thus for a brief space. When she was once
+again in full vigour, acting at the Imperial, he recommenced his
+unwelcome attentions.</p>
+
+<p>At first he confined his new plague to the servants at the Cottage. The
+cook was one day turning out a drawer in the kitchen dresser, when she
+was horrified out of her senses to find squatting there, a large, black
+toad, which stared most malevolently at her, and then sprang in her
+face. She shrieked to the housemaid to help her kill it, but before a
+weapon could be got, the creature had bounced through an open window,
+and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>After this incident the servants knew no peace. Their bedclothes were
+thrown off them at night, their dresses torn and bespattered with ink,
+their brushes and combs thrown out of the window, and the water they
+poured out to wash in was sometimes quite black, sometimes full of a
+bright green sediment, and sometimes boiling, when it invariably cracked
+both the jug and basin.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to stand these annoyances the servants left in a body. Their
+successors fared the same, and worse. Besides having to endure the
+above-named horrors, pebbles were thrown through the windows, their
+chairs were pulled away as they were about to sit down (the cook, who
+was one of those upon whom this trick was played, thereby seriously
+injuring her spine), and all sorts of obstacles were placed on the
+stairs, so that those who ran down unwarily tripped over them and hurt
+themselves (two successive housemaids broke their legs, whilst another
+sprained her wrist).</p>
+
+<p>The meat, too, was a constant worry&mdash;it went so bad that enormous
+maggots crawled out of it by the thousand and covered the table and
+floor; and the milk, of which a large quantity was taken daily, &quot;turned&quot;
+in a very curious manner. After being deposited, in its usual place, in
+the pantry, it began to darken; first of all it became light blue, then
+deepened into an almost inky blackness, exhibiting curious zigzag lines;
+and, lastly, the whole mass began to putrefy and to emit a stench so
+overpowering that every one in the house retched, and the whole place
+had to be disinfected. This occurred day after day. Nothing would stop
+it. The dairyman who supplied the milk did all he could to counteract
+it. He had his dairies constantly cleansed, he saw that the cattle had a
+change of food, he bought an entirely new stock of dairy utensils, and
+no milk was ever sent to the Cottage that he had not had carefully
+analyzed.</p>
+
+<p>The troubles continued for three weeks, at the end of which period John
+Martin received a telephone call from Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hullo!&quot; the latter said, &quot;I guess you've had about enough of it by this
+time. Wouldn't you like some sweet-smelling milk for a change, or do you
+prefer to go on till you all get typhoid? The remedy, you know, lies in
+your own hands. You've only to tell that daughter of yours to accept me,
+and I'll undertake all your troubles shall cease.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll see you hanged first,&quot; John Martin answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then, you old mule,&quot; Hamar shouted, &quot;look out for
+yourself&mdash;and Miss Gladys.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" />CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>To bring about plagues of insects Hamar had resorted to a very simple
+method. He had first of all made a wax image representing a
+cockroach&mdash;scorpion&mdash;centipede, or whatever other species came into his
+mind. Then, placing the image he had made in front of him, and repeating
+the prayer he had learned from the Unknown, through the medium of Mrs.
+Anderson-Waite's table, he had concentrated body, soul, and spirit on
+plaguing Gladys with the insect, which the image represented. When his
+concentration reached the highest degree, insects in their actual
+physical bodies were transported from the tropics;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" /><a href="#Footnote_23_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> but when he was
+unable to concentrate to the utmost, only the ethereal projections of
+the insects were obtainable; hence the hybrid&mdash;partly scorpion and
+partly beetle, that appeared and disappeared in Gladys's bed and
+bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>To produce the rappings on the walls of Gladys's room, he had made a wax
+representation of a wall, and whilst concentrating to the very utmost,
+had struck it with his knuckles.</p>
+
+<p>The plaguing of the servants Hamar had also accomplished by means of
+images and concentration.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to bewitch milk, he had been obliged to resort to other
+means. He had converted the mumia of an idiot into a magnes microcosmi;
+and bribing the man who delivered the milk, he gave him instructions to
+soak the magnes microcosmi, for a few minutes, in every portion that he
+left at the Cottage.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" /><a href="#Footnote_24_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At length Hamar having failed to gain his object by plaguing Gladys and
+the servants, set about tormenting John Martin. He made a wax image of
+the latter, and after pronouncing the necessary prayer, stuck the image
+full of pins, crying out as he did so &quot;John Martin, I hate you. John
+Martin, I curse you. John Martin, a plague on you.&quot; And each time Hamar
+stuck a pin in the image he had made of John Martin, the real John
+Martin felt an acute pain in the region of his body corresponding to
+that in which the pin was stuck.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, who was called in, could make nothing of the malady, but,
+following the etiquette of the profession, cloaked his ignorance with a
+look of profound wisdom, and the pronouncement that he would tell them,
+in a day or two, what was the matter. In the meanwhile, he found it
+necessary and politic to prescribe a non-committal mixture of chalk and
+rhubarb, which, although disguised under the usual fanciful
+pharmacop&oelig;ia appellation, did not, however, allay the pain. Sharp,
+agonizing pricks, now on the neck now in the chest, now in the most
+sensitive part of the knee-cap, now under the toe-nail, now&mdash;most
+painful of all&mdash;under the finger-nail&mdash;continued to torment John Martin,
+who, though as a rule fairly stoical, could not stand these attacks with
+any degree of composure. He screamed, and swore, and cursed, until the
+whole household was terrified&mdash;and Gladys, pretty nearly out of her
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>During a lull&mdash;an interval, wherein John Martin enjoyed a brief respite,
+the telephone bell rang.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa,&quot; called a voice, &quot;I'm Hamar. Haven't you had about enough of
+it? Remember, you've only to say the word and I'll stop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him I'll do nothing of the sort,&quot; John Martin said, &quot;that he'll
+never get the better of me this way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton gave the message, and Hamar replied &quot;Wait! Wait and see!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then thrust wool, pins, horsenails, straw, needles and moss into the
+mouth of the image, and John Martin had such frightful pains in his
+stomach that he went into convulsions; and, after an emetic had been
+given him, vomited up all the above-named articles, save the pins and
+needles which worked their way out through his flesh, causing him the
+most exquisite tortures.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys, having given up going to the theatre in order to be with her
+father during these attacks, now declared that she could no longer bear
+to see him in such excruciating pain, whilst it was in her power to
+prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him,&quot; she said, &quot;tell Hamar you'll accept his conditions. Don't
+think of me! I would rather do anything than see you suffer like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can hold out a bit longer,&quot; he groaned, &quot;at any rate I needn't give
+in yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then there came a respite&mdash;perhaps for several hours,
+perhaps for several days&mdash;then the tortures recommenced. And always John
+Martin steeled himself to bear them. At last came the climax.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, infuriated that his efforts, so far, had proved fruitless,
+resolved, since time was pressing, to play his trump card and either
+win, or lose all. He rang up Gladys on the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My patience is exhausted,&quot; he said. &quot;I'll give you one more chance, and
+one&mdash;only. Agree to be engaged to me at once&mdash;or I'll smite your father
+with the most virulent form of cancer, and leave him to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no question now in Gladys's mind as to what she should do. Of
+all things in the world, she dreaded cancer most, and after the many
+evidences Hamar had given her of his skill in Black Magic, she did not
+doubt for one instant that he could, immediately he chose, carry out his
+threat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided,&quot; she said faintly, &quot;to&mdash;to&mdash;give in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You accept me, then?&quot; Hamar said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Y-yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When may I see you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll come at once,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;<i>Au revoir.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar, when he arrived at the Cottage, did not realize any of the
+gleeful anticipations he had indulged in <i>en route</i>. Gladys was ill&mdash;so
+Miss Templeton informed him&mdash;at the same time begging him, if he really
+had any regard for Miss Martin, not to ask to see her for the next few
+days; and to this request Hamar, seeing no alternative, was obliged to
+assent.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after he had gone, Shiel Davenport called, and found Gladys
+alone in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been told that your father is ill,&quot; he said, &quot;and should like to
+hear better news of him. How is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think he's all right now,&quot; Gladys replied, &quot;but he has suffered
+frightfully. Indeed, we've all had a terrible time,&quot; And she told him
+what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've not been acting at the Imperial lately?&quot; Shiel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for the past week,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;I couldn't leave father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How has Mr. Bromley Burnham got on without you?&quot; Shiel asked bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; Gladys said quietly. &quot;I have an understudy,
+and from what I am told she has given every satisfaction. I have some
+news which I fear won't be altogether welcome to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel turned a shade paler. &quot;What is it?&quot; he faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm engaged to be married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence, and then Shiel exclaimed
+mechanically &quot;Engaged to be married! To whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To Leon Hamar! I couldn't help it.&quot; And she explained the position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But he'll never keep you to it,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;He couldn't be such a
+brute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid he will,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;He's shown pretty clearly that
+he's capable of anything. I've given him my promise&mdash;I must keep it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's good-bye to all interest in life&mdash;for me,&quot; Shiel said, with a
+gulp. &quot;I've thought of no one but you since we first met. For you&mdash;in
+the hope of someday winning you, I've struggled on; I've reconciled
+myself to a bare existence. Now I've lost you, I've lost everything. I
+hate life. I shall&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll do nothing of the sort,&quot; Gladys interrupted, &quot;unless you want me
+to regret ever having met you. I wonder that you say 'I've nothing to
+live for'&mdash;when we can still be friends; and when you can, at least, win
+my respect, by putting your shoulder to the wheel, and exerting yourself
+to the utmost to get on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you&mdash;what about you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind me&mdash;I can well look after myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll live in Hell,&quot; Shiel cried, her eyes goading him to madness.
+&quot;Even though you may not care for me, I do not choose to stand quietly
+by, whilst you spend your life in Purgatory. Hamar has won you through
+some diabolical trickery, and if I can't thwart him in any other
+way&mdash;I'll kill him. He shan't marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will,&quot; Gladys sighed. &quot;No one can stop him. He is omnipotent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Apparently, Gladys's statement was more or less true; and ninety-nine
+men out of a hundred, in the same circumstances as Shiel, would have now
+recognized the hopelessness of the situation. But Shiel was abnormal. As
+he walked home from the Cottage that evening he kept on repeating to
+himself &quot;Gladys is my goal. I want only Gladys. I'll have only Gladys.&quot;
+And having once made up his mind to get Gladys, it seemed to him, as if
+out of every obstacle, that lay between him and Gladys, he could and
+would merely make a stepping-stone. &quot;Since,&quot; he argued to himself,
+&quot;all's fair in love and war, I'll win Gladys through another woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he straightway telephoned to Lilian Rosenberg to have tea with him.</p>
+
+<p>The latter had already made an engagement for the afternoon; but, all
+the same, she accepted Shiel's invitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you do me a favour?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it is anything that lies in my power,&quot; she said. &quot;What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to find out how Hamar works his spells. I asked you
+before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know you did and I've not forgotten,&quot; Lilian said, &quot;but I have to be
+very careful. I've played the part of eavesdropper once or twice, and
+heard enough to confirm me in my suspicions that Hamar is in touch with
+evil, occult powers. I've heard him praying aloud to them on more than
+one occasion, and I've also a shrewd idea he performs, at least, some of
+his spells by means of wax images. But why do you want to know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only curiosity. I am intensely interested in the occult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't want to start a rival show, do you?&quot; Lilian asked jestingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With a maximum capital of two pounds&mdash;and a minimum of knowledge!&quot;
+Shiel laughed. &quot;Hardly. I wish I could. I would offer you the post of
+manageress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Partner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, partner, if you like. Would you take it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps!&quot; she said, looking at him with a sudden shyness. &quot;What a pity
+you are not rich. Can't you get a post that would bring you in about
+&pound;200 a year for a start? I believe you really want something to
+stimulate you, to make you work in grim earnest&mdash;then you would succeed.
+There's grit in you&mdash;I love grit&mdash;but at present it's latent, it wants
+bringing out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very kind,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case,
+and, being such, have no business to be in your company. Will you come
+to the theatre with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The theatre! When you've no business to be in my company, and when it
+is as much as you can do to pay the rent of a back attic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, never mind that. I've had tickets given me. I've been doing odd
+bits of journalism lately, and a dramatic critic I know has given me two
+stalls at the Imperial!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Imperial!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. &quot;That's where Gladys Martin
+is acting, surely! I can't bear her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's not the only person in the cast,&quot; Shiel observed drily, &quot;and the
+play's a good one! Do come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a little more persuasion Shiel gained her consent; and both he and
+she enjoyed the play, or more correctly speaking, the occasion,
+immensely. So long as Gladys was on the stage Shiel's eyes never once
+left her; whilst throughout the performance Lilian Rosenberg saw only
+Shiel, thought only of Shiel. The interest she had taken in him, the
+interest she had so confidently asserted was only interest, had grown
+apace&mdash;had grown out of all recognition. It needed only a fillip now to
+convert that interest into something warmer; and the fillip was not long
+in coming.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel was seeing Lilian home to her lodgings in Margaret Terrace, a
+turning off Oakley Street, when a man knocked a woman down right in
+front of them. He was just the ordinary type of street ruffian&mdash;the
+whitewashed English labourer&mdash;and the woman, having without doubt been
+served by him in the same manner fifty times before, was probably well
+used to such treatment. But it was more than Shiel, who had spent so
+much of his life where they treat women differently, could stand, and
+before Lilian Rosenberg had time to remonstrate, he had rushed up to the
+prostrate woman, and was holding the man at bay. A scuffle now began, in
+which the woman, whom Shiel had helped to regain her feet, joined. Both
+man and woman now attacked Shiel, who, placing himself with his back
+against the railings, defended himself as best he could.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was late, there were no police about, and it seemed only too
+probable that the fracas would end in a tragedy. The labourer was a
+burly fellow, shorter than Shiel, but far broader and heavier, and any
+one could see at a glance that Shiel stood no chance against him. Lilian
+Rosenberg, at her wits' end to know what to do, ran into Oakley Street,
+and as there was no one in sight, she made for the nearest lighted house
+and rang the bell furiously. A man came to the door, whom, unheeding his
+expostulations, she caught by the arm and dragged into the street.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived on the scene of action, just as the ruffian, breaking
+through Shiel's guard, struck him a terrific blow on the forehead, which
+sent him reeling against the railings. The newcomer (upon whom, both man
+and woman, seeing Shiel incapacitated, instantly turned) would probably
+have shared the same fate, had not the occupants of several of the
+neighbouring houses&mdash;amongst whom were some half-dozen athletic young
+men&mdash;roused by the noise, come out into the street, and the ruffian and
+his companion, seeing the odds were against them, decamped.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel had not fully regained consciousness, when Lilian Rosenberg,
+regardless of propriety, led him into her sitting-room, bathed his
+forehead, dosed him with brandy, and making up a bed for him on the
+sofa, bade him rest there, till the morning.</p>
+
+<p>When he took his departure, he had quite recovered, and Lilian Rosenberg
+had, at last, realized that she loved him.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> There is no doubt that Moses inflicted the plagues, with
+which he tormented Pharaoh, in this way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In stage two this might have been performed by ethereal
+projection, but Hamar could not resort to this method as the power of
+projection had now passed from him.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" />CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUBP&OElig;NA</h3>
+
+
+<p>A few days after the incident in Margaret Terrace, Shiel had an
+inspiration. He was lunching with an old schoolfellow whom, quite by
+chance, he had met in Lincoln's Inn, having previously lost sight of him
+for many years, and the conversation, which had at first been confined
+to the old days, had gradually drifted to what was ever uppermost in
+Shiel's mind&mdash;namely, the Modern Sorcery Company, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Hamar, Kelson
+and Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you know,&quot; his friend remarked, &quot;that the old statute, introduced
+in Henry the Fifth's reign against sorcery, has never been repealed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean to say so,&quot; Shiel cried excitedly&mdash;a vague idea dawning
+on him. &quot;Tell me all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, that's rather a long order. For one thing, it imposes all kinds
+of penalties from capital punishment to fines. For another, it was in
+force up to the beginning of George the Third's reign, when the last
+case of a person being burned for witchery in England occurred, and
+since then it has fallen into disuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could it be revived?&quot; Shiel asked, a sudden wild hope surging through
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For all I know to the contrary, it could,&quot; his friend&mdash;who, by the way,
+was a barrister&mdash;replied. &quot;Of course no one could be burned or hanged
+under it, but they might be fined or imprisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I wish to goodness you would file a case against the Modern
+Sorcery Company! I'd move heaven and earth to get the scoundrels sent to
+prison!&quot; And he told his friend how matters stood between Gladys and
+Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>The barrister&mdash;whose name was Sevenning&mdash;H.V. Sevenning, of T.C.D. and
+Cheltenham College renown&mdash;was keenly interested. It was not only that
+his sense of chivalry was stirred, but he saw sport. Consequently, the
+foregoing conversation resulted in a prosecution which, taking place
+some four weeks later, was reported in the London Herald as follows&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hl">Extraordinary Charge Heard at the Old Bailey.<br />
+Revival of an Ancient Statute.</p>
+
+<p>     Yesterday, at the Old Bailey, before His Honour Judge Rosher, Leon
+     Hamar, Edward Curtis and Matthew Kelson, of the Modern Sorcery
+     Company Ltd., were indicted under the 23rd of Henry the Fifth, C.
+     15, which makes it a capital offence to practise and administer
+     spells. The case for the prosecution promises to be a lengthy one.
+     An enormous number of witnesses, who are most anxious to make
+     statements, will be called; and it is anticipated that much of
+     their evidence will be of a most extraordinary nature.</p>
+
+<p>     The accused are cited with having worked spells to the
+     injury&mdash;which injury, in many instances, has been fatal&mdash;of a vast
+     number of people, representative of every rank in life.</p>
+
+<p>     Hilda, Countess of Ramsgate, who appeared in heavy mourning, was
+     the first witness called. In her evidence she stated, that it was
+     owing to an advertisement she had seen in the <i>Ladies' Meadow</i>,
+     that she had consulted the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., with the
+     object of buying a spell to prevent her Pekingese pet, Brutus,
+     catching colds on his liver. She had hoped to see Mr. Kelson, as
+     she had heard that he was more sympathetic, where ladies were
+     concerned, than either Mr. Hamar or Mr. Curtis, but as Mr. Kelson
+     was engaged, she had consulted Mr. Edward Curtis instead. The
+     latter had given her a spell which he had assured her would have
+     the desired effect, but directly she got home, her adored Brutus
+     developed melancholia, and died raving mad, after having bitten her
+     child, who, by the way, had died, too.</p>
+
+<p>     For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., declared that the spell his
+     client had given the Countess was perfectly harmless; that it could
+     not possibly have produced either melancholia or madness. &quot;Can any
+     dependence,&quot; he said, &quot;be placed on a woman, who obviously thinks
+     more of her dog's death than that of her child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     The Court was adjourned till to-morrow. </p></div>
+
+<p>In the following day's paper, the evidence for the prosecution was
+continued. Lady Marjorie Tatler, who, in the weekly and illustrated
+journals, for no other reason than her reputed beauty, was reintroduced
+over and over again to the long-suffering public, was the first to step
+into the witness-box.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>She declared that Edward Curtis, instead of giving her a spell to
+     make Florillda win the Derby, had given her a diabolical something
+     that had brought out spots all over her face, and that she had to
+     undergo a most expensive treatment before they could be got rid of.</p>
+
+<p>     In cross-examination, Lady Marjorie Tatler admitted that she had
+     asked Edward Curtis for a spell that would cause all the horses
+     running in that particular race, save Florillda, to be taken ill.</p>
+
+<p>     For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., explained that his client was
+     so disgusted at the immorality of Lady Marjorie's request, that he
+     had purposely given her a spell that would have no effect upon a
+     horse, and could not possibly bring out spots on her Ladyship's
+     face. &quot;The spell Edward Curtis gave her,&quot; Gerald Kirby said, &quot;was a
+     mixture of hempseed and sago, flavoured with violet powder, and my
+     client instructed her Ladyship to wear it next her heart.&quot; (Loud
+     laughter.)</p>
+
+<p>     Lady Coralie Mars, the next witness, who declared she had sought a
+     spell to make the man, she was forced into marrying, fall into a
+     trance, just before the marriage ceremony was to take place; and
+     that, instead of bringing this about, the spell Edward Curtis had
+     sold her had caused her to have St. Vitus's Dance,&mdash;was adroitly
+     trapped into admitting that she had really wanted her fianc&eacute;
+     smitten with paralysis. &quot;A wish,&quot; Gerald Kirby announced, with a
+     dramatic flourish of his hands, &quot;that so aroused my client's
+     indignation that, instead of giving her the spell she wanted, he
+     gave her one that would make her affianced husband more than ever
+     hungry for the marriage hour to arrive. As for St. Vitus's Dance,
+     would any woman, with an emotional and hysterical-nature, such as
+     obviously was that of Lady Coralie Mars, ever be free from such a
+     complaint?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     The Hon. Augusta Mapple, who stated that she had visited the Modern
+     Sorcery Company, for the purpose of obtaining a spell to bring
+     about a defeat of the Government, by afflicting the bulk of their
+     supporters with such bilious attacks as would necessitate their
+     absence from the House, and that, instead of giving her such a
+     spell, Edward Curtis had given her one which had caused every
+     member of her household to fall downstairs&mdash;admitted, under
+     cross-examination, that she had asked for a spell that would make
+     every supporter of the Government in the House be suddenly seized
+     with tetanus. &quot;A diabolical request, your lordship,&quot; Gerald Kirby
+     said, &quot;and one to which my client could not possibly accede.
+     Consequently, as a punishment for such cruelty, he sold her a spell
+     that would result in her having a sharp attack of toothache. It
+     could not possibly have produced any of the mishaps she attributes
+     to it.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to quote further. By far the greater number of these
+witnesses, on being cross-examined by Mr. Kirby, who defended with an
+ability that has rarely, if ever, been excelled, were made to confess
+that they had wanted the spells for a far more subtle and dangerous
+purpose than they had previously stated; admissions which, of course,
+were highly prejudicial to the case for the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel lost hope. He had looked forward to the trial with an excitement
+that almost bordered on frenzy. It was never out of his mind. He thought
+of it at meals, he thought of it at his work, he thought of it out of
+doors, and, when he went to bed, he dreamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll save you! I'll save you yet!&quot; he wrote to Gladys. &quot;The trial can
+only result in one thing&mdash;the breaking up and imprisonment of the trio.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But when he read the papers each day, and saw how, in almost every
+instance, evidence which ought to have been damning to the accused, had
+been twisted into their favour, his heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one chance now&mdash;Lilian Rosenberg. She, of all the staff
+employed in the Hall in Cockspur Street, was best acquainted with the
+<i>modus operandi</i> of Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must get hold of that girl at all costs,&quot; H.V. Sevenning remarked to
+Shiel. &quot;You say you feel sure she likes you. Work upon her feelings to
+show the Firm up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't much like the idea of it,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;but I suppose the end
+justifies the means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it does!&quot; Sevenning retorted. &quot;It's your only chance of
+saving Miss Martin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the spells?&quot; he asked her. &quot;Have you found out yet how Hamar
+works them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only heard him muttering in his room again,&quot; she said, her
+cheeks paling. &quot;And&mdash;you will only laugh at me&mdash;I have seen queer
+shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages, shadows
+that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before I came to
+Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been almost too
+afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see something standing
+outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio practise
+sorcery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you approve of such proceedings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into
+the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but
+until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you think like that,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;how can you reconcile yourself to
+working for these people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I help myself?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg answered. &quot;Beggars can't be
+choosers. I am not responsible for what they do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous crime,
+wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;If I could stop them without
+running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop
+them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly
+shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays&mdash;especially good
+paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?&quot; Shiel
+said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends on the degree of friendship,&quot; Lilian replied. &quot;If it were
+for some one I liked very much, then&mdash;perhaps!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you
+being very fond of any one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Couldn't you?&quot; Lilian said, with a faint laugh. &quot;You don't think me
+capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman doesn't
+always wear her heart on her sleeve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I confess I don't understand women,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;and I had best come
+to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio&mdash;or at least one of
+the trio&mdash;is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable&mdash;a cruel and
+shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I may not be
+able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How <i>can</i> I?&quot; Lilian asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, by finding out something which might be damning evidence against
+them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of
+staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by
+getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What
+would become of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a
+noble action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on you
+personally?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some one you like?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A relation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can't say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I can't help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as you
+know, a woman's privilege. You must tell me all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's for a friend, then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Shiel replied, &quot;for a girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I ever heard you mention her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Occasionally,&quot; Shiel replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do mean her!&quot; Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. &quot;She is to be coerced
+into marrying Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The silly fool!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;I would like to see any one
+trying to coerce me. And it is to serve <i>her</i> you want me to sacrifice
+myself.&quot; And she turned away in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
+at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to H.V.
+Sevenning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must subp&oelig;na her,&quot; said Sevenning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll never get her to speak that way,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;If once she has
+made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard that said of people before,&quot; H.V. Sevenning replied dryly,
+&quot;but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the most
+mulish tongues in a marvellous manner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't hers,&quot; Shiel maintained.</p>
+
+<p>H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best&mdash;what lawyer doesn't?
+Moreover, it was all part of the game&mdash;the great game of becoming
+notorious at all costs. He served the subp&oelig;na.</p>
+
+<p>Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
+this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up with
+the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly what she
+thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however, the
+unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion, and
+confronted for the first time in her life with the startling proposition
+of &quot;self-sacrifice.&quot; She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry him for the
+very simple reason he had no money&mdash;but that only added poignancy to the
+situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel loved Gladys
+Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another matter&mdash;but he
+loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had been so abruptly
+thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should sacrifice herself, not
+only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar, but to pave the way for
+Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile herself to penury, to marry her
+himself. In other words she had been called upon to give up what was, at
+the moment, dearest to her in the world, and to court all the
+inconveniences and worries of being thrown out of employment&mdash;for if she
+gave evidence that would in any way tend to damage the firm of Hamar,
+Curtis &amp; Kelson, she would undoubtedly lose her post and, in all
+probability, never get another&mdash;at least not another as good&mdash;for the
+sake of a woman whom she did not know, but, nevertheless, hated.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
+date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she would
+have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
+actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it, too,
+until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up her mind
+to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the subp&oelig;na was
+served.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" />CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS IN A NEW R&Ocirc;LE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would adopt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a disgusting thing to do,&quot; she indignantly exclaimed. &quot;I wouldn't
+have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give evidence&mdash;of
+forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the woman he thinks he
+loves! I shan't do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
+witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
+appearance&mdash;she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women who
+had hitherto appeared in the witness-box&mdash;though many of them were
+so-called Society beauties.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were wrong,&quot; was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
+eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. &quot;She is on our side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
+lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
+assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
+misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
+favour of the trio.</p>
+
+<p>The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
+Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole proceedings
+as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two centuries, and
+wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a counsel for such
+a ridiculous prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though,&quot; he remarked, &quot;spirits such as have been specified by the
+prosecution do exist&mdash;which is extremely dubious&mdash;there has never yet
+been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them, and
+the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
+medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
+their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
+Cockspur Street have been accomplished&mdash;as the defendants have all along
+stated&mdash;through will&mdash;sheer will power and nothing else; and I intend
+producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful efficacy of
+all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company, lies in will
+power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard to the
+purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out this fact to
+the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time that the rings,
+lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to assist them in
+concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such trivial articles
+could have produced, of themselves, such calamities as the witnesses for
+the prosecution attributed to them. But, of course you did not believe
+the statements of such witnesses. How could you? How could you expect
+anything but falsehood from women who, upon cross-examination, had owned
+that their object in obtaining the spells was a far more dangerous
+object than they had at first led you to suppose. They sought spells
+that would do evil, and that evil was not accomplished. Now, I ask you,
+if the Firm worked their spells through the instrumentality of evil
+spirits&mdash;for it is assuredly only evil spirits that are associated with
+Sorcery&mdash;would not the spells they sold naturally have brought about the
+sinister results for which they were required? Undoubtedly they would!
+And they failed to produce the desired effect, simply because their
+efficacy depended, not on spirit agency, but on human will power; which
+power one could only too plainly see the society ladies&mdash;who had
+witnessed for the prosecution&mdash;did not possess.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
+spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'&mdash;and
+so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.
+'The Sorcery Company' is an attractive title, a 'catchy' title, and for
+this reason, which is surely a legitimate one, since it is strictly in
+accordance with the prevailing custom of advertisement&mdash;the firm of
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson adopted it. They did not expect&mdash;they were not
+so extraordinarily foolish as to expect&mdash;any one would take them
+literally. They thought&mdash;as you and I think&mdash;that sorcery cannot be
+taken seriously&mdash;that it is confined to fairy tales&mdash;and that, as a
+fairy tale, it is potent only in the nursery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was the gist of counsel's speech for the defence. A number of
+witnesses then gave evidence for the defendants; and when the
+prosecuting counsel rose, it was only too evident that he was pleading
+for a lost cause. The Court with ill-concealed derision barely accorded
+him a hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later the <i>Meteor</i>, always the first in the field when
+sensations crop up, headed the first column of their front page with&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">
+Collapse of the Sorcery Case<br />
+Crushing Speech by Gerald Kirby, K.C.<br />
+Acquittal of the Defendants
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Judge&quot;&mdash;so the <i>Meteor</i> reported&mdash;&quot;expressed himself in absolute
+agreement with the defending counsel. 'The action,' he said, 'ought
+never to have been brought&mdash;it was sublimely ridiculous to accuse any
+one of being in league with forces in the existence of which no sane
+person could possibly believe.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel was in despair. All chance of saving Gladys seemed to be fast
+disappearing. He telephoned to her, and was answered by Miss Templeton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gladys,&quot; she said, &quot;had gone out with Hamar, who had motored down to
+the cottage the moment the trial was over and the verdict known.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish to God we had won the case,&quot; Shiel observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, &quot;and so did Gladys&mdash;she regards her
+position now as absolutely hopeless!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell her not to lose heart,&quot; Shiel answered hurriedly. &quot;If I can't find
+any other means, I'll&mdash;&quot; but Miss Templeton rang off, and he spoke to
+the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Full of wrath against Lilian Rosenberg, he went round to see her, and
+met her, just as she was entering her house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to see you for the last time,&quot; he announced. &quot;After the way
+you behaved in Court, we can no longer be friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand,&quot; she said in rather a faltering voice. &quot;What have I
+done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only perjured yourself,&quot; Shiel retorted. &quot;The tale you told the judge
+was very different to the tale you told me, therefore it is impossible
+for us to continue our friendship. I could never have anything to do
+with a woman whose word I can't rely upon&mdash;whose character I scorn, whom
+I despise&mdash;and&mdash;&quot; he was going to add, &quot;detest,&quot; but checked himself,
+and unable to trust himself in her presence any longer, he gave her a
+glance of the utmost contempt, and wheeling round, walked quickly away.</p>
+
+<p>As in a dream, Lilian Rosenberg went upstairs to her room, and throwing
+herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow and indulged in a fit
+of crying. It was not the thought of losing Shiel that was so painful to
+her&mdash;she might have grown reconciled to that&mdash;it was the thought of
+losing his esteem. Most people would agree with her&mdash;would assure her
+she had done the right thing in looking after number one. &quot;What, after
+all, is perjury?&quot; she argued. &quot;Nearly every one in this world perjure
+themselves at one time or another&mdash;certainly all women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But it was not the opinion of the majority she cared about&mdash;it was the
+respect of the one; the respect she had wilfully and spitefully
+sacrificed.</p>
+
+<p>Was it too late to recover it?</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Gladys she was very sceptical. The reluctance to accept
+Hamar as her future husband she still believed to be all pretence, and
+she felt convinced that Gladys, in her heart of hearts, was only too
+glad to get the chance of marrying any one so rich. This being so, she
+could not bring herself to think she had done Shiel any actual wrong.
+Gladys would never marry him. The only person she had harmed was
+herself. She had lied, and Shiel was not the sort of man to condone an
+offence of that sort easily. Still, weeping would do no good; it would
+only make her ugly. She got up, had tea, and went out. She could think
+better in the open air&mdash;it soothed her. For some reason or other&mdash;custom
+perhaps&mdash;she strolled towards Cockspur Street, and there ran into one of
+the few people she particularly wished to avoid&mdash;Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>He was delighted to see her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's nectar to me to be out again,&quot; he said. &quot;Jerusalem!&mdash;it was awful
+in the Courts. Have supper with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine starlight night&mdash;the air cool and refreshing, and a wild
+abandonment seized Lilian Rosenberg. She would have supped with the
+devil had he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've nothing to lose now,&quot; she said to herself. &quot;Nothing! I'll have my
+fling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where shall we go?&quot; she asked. &quot;It must be somewhere entertaining.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not to my rooms?&quot; he said. &quot;We can talk better there&mdash;we shall be
+all alone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised no objection, and they were about to step into a taxi, when
+Hamar and Curtis suddenly put in appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Hamar cried, seizing his elbow. &quot;I want a word with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not now,&quot; Kelson protested, looking hungrily at Lilian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, now!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;At once! I shan't keep you more than five
+minutes&quot;&mdash;and he dragged Kelson away with him.</p>
+
+<p>The moment they had gone, Curtis, who was obviously the worse for drink,
+addressed Lilian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kelson won't come back,&quot; he said. &quot;Hamar is mad with him. He says if
+he ever sees you two together again he'll sack you. Let me take his
+place!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sudden inspiration came to her. There were one or two things she badly
+wanted to know&mdash;and with a bit of coaxing, Curtis, in his present state,
+might tell her anything. She would try.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; she said. &quot;I'll come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They got into the taxi and Curtis, as far as his fuddled senses would
+allow, made violent love to her.</p>
+
+<p>After supper&mdash;they had supper in his rooms&mdash;he grew a great deal more
+amorous. She let him sit close beside her, she let him put his arm round
+her waist; but before she let him kiss her, she struck her bargain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; she said, thrusting him away. &quot;Not just yet. That can come
+later&mdash;if you are good. I want you to tell me something first. About
+this marriage of Mr. Hamar and Miss Martin&mdash;is it likely to come off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ish it likely!&quot; Curtis said with a stupid leer. &quot;Ish it likely! Not
+much. Leon means nothing! He only wants the fun of being engaged to a
+pretty girl&mdash;like I wantsh fun with you. Nothing more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then he'll throw her over after a while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After he gets what he wantsh to get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And suppose she prove different to what he expects?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After he pashes stage seven&mdash;that will be all right!&quot; Curtis said
+giving her waist an emphatic squeeze. &quot;Everybody will be all right then.
+You and Matt&mdash;for exshample&mdash;and I and&mdash;and&mdash;whishky!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stage seven! What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't&mdash;you know!&quot; Curtis gurgled&mdash;and then a sudden gleam of
+intelligence coming into his watery eyes, he added. &quot;Then I shan't tell
+you&mdash;nothing shall make me. It's a shecret!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't kiss you till you do!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll make you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, you won't,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg cried, disengaging herself from
+his grasp, and rising. &quot;Don't you dare touch me. I'm going.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis watched her with a helpless grin. Then he suddenly cried out,
+&quot;Come back! Come back, I shay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, will you do as I want?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do anything&mdash;anything to please you&mdash;if only you shtay with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat down, and his arm once again encircled her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; she said, pushing his face away. &quot;Tell me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bit by bit she drew out of him the whole history of the compact with the
+Unknown, how in stage five, the stage they were about to enter, they
+would have fresh powers conferred upon them&mdash;their present power, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>
+of working spells and causing diseases, being then cancelled; how they
+would obtain supreme power over women when they reached the final
+stage&mdash;stage seven; and how the compact would be broken and their ruin
+brought about, should either of them marry, or should anything happen
+before this final stage was reached, to disunite them.</p>
+
+<p>Lilian could account for a great deal now. The uncanny feeling she had
+always experienced in the building; the curious enigmatical shadows she
+had seen hovering about the doorways and flitting down the passages;
+the extraordinary nature of the feats and spells; Hamar's mutterings and
+his fury, whenever Kelson spoke to her&mdash;were no longer wholly
+unintelligible. But she must know all. She must be most exacting.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, she got from Curtis everything there was to be got from him,
+and she laughed immoderately, when he excused himself on the grounds
+that it was all Leon's doings&mdash;Leon had told him to offer her a little
+compensation for the loss of her escort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you have compensated me more than enough,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.
+&quot;Now you shall have your reward,&quot; and she kissed him&mdash;kissed him three
+times for luck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you're not going?&quot; he said, staggering to his feet and attempting
+to hold her. &quot;You're not going till the roshy morning sun shines
+shaucily in on us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I am,&quot; she said. &quot;I've had quite enough of you! Good-bye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And before he could prevent her, she had run to the front door and let
+herself out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI" />CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>But now that Lilian Rosenberg was possessed of all this information
+respecting the trio, she was once again in doubt how to act, or whether
+to act at all. Supposing she were to attempt to warn Gladys Martin
+against Hamar, how would Gladys take the warning? Would she pay any
+attention to it? The odds were she would not; that having set her heart
+on marrying Hamar for his money, she would blind herself to his faults
+and resolutely shut her ears to anything said against him. Also there
+was the very great possibility of Gladys being rude to her&mdash;and even the
+thought of this was more than she could bear to contemplate. If only
+Shiel were reasonable! If only he could be made to see how utterly
+ridiculous it was for him to think of winning such a girl as
+Gladys&mdash;Gladys the pretty, dolly-faced, pampered actress, who had never
+known a single hardship, had always had a well-lined purse, and would
+never, never marry poverty! Then back to Lilian Rosenberg's mind came
+her parting with Shiel&mdash;she recalled his intense scorn and indignation.
+A liar! He did not wish to have anything to do with a liar! It's a good
+thing every man is not so fastidious, she said to herself bitterly, or
+the population of the world would soon fizz out. She laughed. He had
+never questioned her morals in any other sense&mdash;perhaps, in his
+innocence or assumed innocence, he had thought them spotless&mdash;at all
+events he had most graciously ignored them. But a liar! A liar&mdash;he could
+not put up with. And why! Because the lie had touched him on a sore
+point. When lies do not touch a sore point, they, too, are ignored.</p>
+
+<p>She walked to the Imperial and looked again at Gladys's photographs. How
+any man could fall madly in love with such a face, was more than she
+could conceive. It was a mincing, maudlin, finicking face&mdash;it irritated
+her intensely. She turned away from it in disgust, yet came back to have
+another look&mdash;and yet another. God knows why! It fascinated her. Finally
+she left it, fully resolved to let its odious original go to her
+fate&mdash;without a warning. Soon after her return to the Hall in Cockspur
+Street, she was sent for by Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Didn't I tell you,&quot; he said, &quot;that you were on no account to encourage
+Mr. Kelson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you kindly explain, then,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;why you have disobeyed my
+orders?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have I disobeyed them?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How!&quot; Hamar retorted, his cheeks white with passion. &quot;You dare to
+inquire how! Why, you were on the point of accompanying him to his rooms
+last night to supper, when I stopped you! I have overlooked your
+disobedience so many times that I can do so no longer. Your services
+will not be required by the Firm after to-day fortnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't they?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, her anger rising. &quot;I think you
+are mistaken. I know a great deal too much to make it safe for you to
+part with me. I know&mdash;for instance&mdash;all about your Compact with the
+Unknown!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know nothing,&quot; Hamar said, his voice faltering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I do!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg answered. &quot;I know everything. I know
+how you first got in communication with the Unknown in San Francisco; I
+know how you receive fresh powers from the Unknown every three months
+(the old powers being cancelled). I know the penalty you will undergo
+should the Compact be broken&mdash;and&mdash;what is more&mdash;I know how the Compact
+can be broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How the deuce have you learned all this?&quot; Hamar stammered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never you mind. Am I to remain in your service or leave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; Hamar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, &quot;it is better
+that you should remain&mdash;better for all parties. I owe you some little
+recompense for your loyalty to the Firm, and for the admirable way you
+spoke up for the Firm in Court. I will make you out a cheque for a
+hundred pounds now&mdash;and your salary shall be doubled at the end of this
+week. Promise to keep out of Mr. Kelson's way in future&mdash;for the next
+six months at any rate&mdash;after that time you may see him as often as you
+like&mdash;and I will give you as a wedding present a cheque for twenty
+thousand pounds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Twenty thousand pounds! You are joking!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not. I vow and declare I mean it. Is that a bargain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will certainly think it well over,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;and let
+you know my decision later on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From what Curtis had told her she knew it was the last day of stage
+four, that the trio that evening would be initiated into stage five&mdash;the
+Stage of Cures, and a mad desire seized her to witness the initiation.
+But how would the Unknown manifest itself on this occasion&mdash;and to which
+of the trio? She could not keep a close watch on the three of them. If
+only she had been friends with Shiel, they might, in some way, have
+worked it together. Curtis had carefully avoided her since the supper;
+but she had seen Kelson, and he had looked at her each time he met her
+as if he yearned to fall down at her feet and worship her. Should she
+attach herself to him for the evening&mdash;and run the risk of another
+quarrel with Hamar? She dearly loved risks and dangers&mdash;and the danger
+she would encounter in defying Hamar appealed to her sporting nature. It
+was easy to secure Kelson&mdash;one glance from her eyes&mdash;and he would have
+followed her to Timbuctoo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Charing Cross&mdash;under clock&mdash;after show to-night,&quot; she whispered as she
+flew hurriedly past him. &quot;I want to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that Hamar had given Kelson orders to return to his
+rooms, directly the performance was over, and to remain in them till
+morning, in case he was wanted in connection with the initiation. But he
+might have spared himself the trouble. It was Lilian, and Lilian only,
+that Kelson now thought of&mdash;it was Lilian, and Lilian only, that he
+would obey. The idea of meeting her&mdash;of having her all to himself&mdash;of
+being able to do her a service&mdash;filled him with such uncontrollable
+delight, that he hardly knew how to comport himself so as not to arouse
+Hamar's suspicions. Directly the performance was over he sneaked out of
+the Hall, and pretending not to hear Hamar, who called after him, he
+jumped into a taxi, and was whirled away to the trysting-place. Lilian
+Rosenberg, who arrived a moment later, was dressed in a new costume, and
+Kelson thought her looking smarter and daintier than ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall kiss me at once,&quot; she said, &quot;if you promise me one thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is that?&quot; he asked, looking hungrily at her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to let me see the Unknown when it comes to you to-night,&quot;
+she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God! What do you know about the Unknown!&quot; he exclaimed, his jaws
+falling, and a look of terror creeping into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great deal,&quot; she laughed, &quot;so much that I want to learn more&quot;&mdash;and of
+what she knew she told him, just as much as she had told Hamar. &quot;And
+now,&quot; she said, &quot;I repeat my promise&mdash;you shall have a kiss&mdash;think of
+that&mdash;if only you will hide me somewhere so that I can see the Unknown
+or its emissary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would do anything for a kiss,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;but I fear it is
+impossible to fulfil the condition, because I haven't the remotest idea
+where or when the Unknown will appear. Besides, it is just as likely to
+go to Hamar or Curtis as to come to me; and up to the present I haven't
+felt the remotest suggestion of its favouring me. Is this the only
+condition I can fulfil, so that you will let me kiss you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I am not in the habit of being
+kissed. Such an event can only happen in the most exceptional and
+privileged circumstances&mdash;such, for example, as exist at the present
+moment, when I ask you to put yourself to some considerable trouble&mdash;if
+not actually to incur danger&mdash;in order to accomplish what I wish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet I remember kissing you unconditionally,&quot; Kelson commented.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Memory is a fickle thing,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, &quot;and so is woman.
+Times have changed. I'll leave you at once, unless you promise to do
+your very utmost to grant my request.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson promised, and&mdash;after they had had supper at the Trocadero,
+suggested that they should take a stroll in Hyde Park.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope you are not awfully shocked?&quot; he inquired rather anxiously, &quot;but
+a sudden impulse has come over me to go there. I believe it is the will
+of the Unknown. Will you come with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't be able to get in, shall we, it's so late?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+said. &quot;Otherwise I should like to&mdash;I'm rather in a mood for adventure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They don't shut the gates till twelve,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;and it's not that
+yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, let's go, then. I'm game to go anywhere to see the Unknown,&quot;
+and so saying Lilian rose from the table, and Kelson followed her into
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>They took a taxi, and alighting at Hyde Park Corner entered the Park. It
+was very dark and deserted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's nearly closing time,&quot; a policeman called out to them rather
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are only taking a constitutional,&quot; Kelson explained. &quot;We shall be
+back in five minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They crossed the road to the statue, and were deliberating which
+direction to take, when they heard a groan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's only some poor devil of a tramp,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;The benches are
+full of them&mdash;they stay here all night. We had better, perhaps, turn
+back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I'm not a bit afraid. There's
+another groan. I'm going to see what's up,&quot; and before he could stop her
+she had disappeared in the darkness. &quot;Here I am,&quot; she called; &quot;come,
+it's some one ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Plunging on, in the darkness, Kelson at last found Lilian. She was
+sitting on a chair under a tree, by the side of a man, who was lying,
+curled up, on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's had nothing to eat for two days, and has Bright's Disease,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg announced. &quot;Can't we do something for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two gentlemen told me just now,&quot; the man on the ground groaned, &quot;that
+if I stayed here for a couple of hours&mdash;they would pass by again and
+guarantee to cure me. I reckoned there was no cure for Bright's Disease,
+when it is chronic, like it is in my case; but they laughed, and said,
+'We can&mdash;or at least&mdash;shall be able to cure anything.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What were the two gentlemen like?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could I tell?&quot; the man moaned. &quot;I couldn't see their faces any more
+than I can see yours&mdash;but they talked like you. Twang&mdash;twang&mdash;twang&mdash;all
+through their noses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sounds as if it might be Hamar and Curtis,&quot; Kelson remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's it!&quot; the man ejaculated. &quot;'Amar. I heard the other fellow call
+him by that name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long ago is it since they were here?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't say, perhaps ten minutes. I've lost count of time and
+everything else, since I've slept out here. They talked of going to the
+Serpentine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had better try and find them,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you had the money couldn't you get shelter for the night,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said. &quot;It must be awful to lie out here in the cold, feeling
+ill and hungry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dare say some place would take me in,&quot; the man muttered, &quot;only I
+couldn't walk&mdash;at least no distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! here's five shillings,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;put it somewhere
+safe&mdash;and try and hobble to the gates. If they haven't closed them, you
+will be all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five shillings!&quot; the man gasped; &quot;that's&mdash;it's no good&mdash;I can't count.
+I've no head now. Thank you, missy! God bless you. I'll get something
+hot&mdash;something to stifle the pain.&quot; He struggled on to his knees, and
+Lilian Rosenberg helped him to rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could you be so foolish as to touch him,&quot; Kelson said, as they
+started off down a path, they hoped would take them to the Serpentine.
+&quot;You may depend upon it, he was swarming with vermin&mdash;tramps always
+are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very probably, but I run just as much risk in a 'bus, the twopenny
+tube, or a cinematograph show. Besides, I can't see a human being
+helpless without offering help. Listen! there's some one else groaning!
+The Park is full of groans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What she said was true&mdash;the Park was full of groans. From every
+direction, borne to them by the gently rustling wind, came the groans of
+countless suffering outcasts&mdash;legions of homeless, starving men and
+women. Some lay right out in the open on their backs, others under
+cover of the trees, others again on the seats. They lay
+everywhere&mdash;these shattered, tattered, battered wrecks of
+humanity&mdash;these gangrened exiles from society, to whom no one ever
+spoke; whom no one ever looked at; whom no one would even own that they
+had seen; whose lot in life not even a stray cat envied. Here were two
+of them&mdash;a man and a woman tightly hugged in each other's embrace&mdash;not
+for love&mdash;but for warmth. Lilian Rosenberg almost fell over them, but
+they took no notice of her. Every now and then, one of them would emerge
+from the shelter of the trees, and cross the grass in the direction of
+the distant, gleaming water, with silent, stealthy tread. Once a tall,
+gaunt figure, suddenly sprang up and confronted the two adventurers; but
+the moment Kelson raised his stick, it jabbered something wholly
+unintelligible, and sped away into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A scene like this makes one doubt the existence of a good God,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It makes one doubt the existence of anything but Hell,&quot; Kelson said.
+&quot;Compared with all this suffering&mdash;the suffering of these thousands of
+hungry, hopeless wretches&mdash;the bulk of whom are doubtless tortured
+incessantly, with the pains of cancer and tuberculosis, to say nothing
+of neuralgia and rheumatism&mdash;Dante's Inferno and Virgil's Hades pale
+into insignificance. The devil is kind compared with God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you are right,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;I never thought the
+devil was half as bad as he was painted. The Park to-night gives the lie
+direct to the ethics of all religions, and to the boasted efforts of all
+governments, churches, chapels, hospitals, police, progress and
+civilization. There is no misery, I am sure, to vie with it in any pagan
+land, either now or at any other period in the world's history.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True,&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;and why is it? It is because civilization has
+killed charity. Giving&mdash;in its true sense&mdash;if it exists at all&mdash;is
+rarely to be met with&mdash;giving in exchange&mdash;that is, in order to
+gain&mdash;flourishes everywhere. People will subscribe for the erection of
+monuments to kings and statesmen, or to well-known and, often,
+richly-endowed charitable institutes, in exchange for the pleasure of
+seeing, in the newspapers, a list of the subscribers' names, and
+themselves included amongst those whom they consider a peg above them
+socially; or in exchange for votes, or notoriety, they will give
+liberally to the brutal strikers, or outings for poor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose, by the poor, you mean the pampered, ill-mannered and
+detestably conceited County Council children,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg chimed
+in. &quot;I wouldn't give a farthing to such a miscalled charity, no&mdash;not if
+I were rolling in riches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I think you would be right,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;But for these really
+poor Park refugees it is a different matter. Obviously, no one will make
+the slightest effort to work up the public interest on their behalf,
+simply because they are labelled 'useless.' They belong nowhere&mdash;they
+have no votes&mdash;they are too feeble to combine&mdash;they are even too feeble
+to commit an atrocious murder; consequently, for the help they would
+receive, they could give nothing in return. By the bye, I doubt if they
+could muster between them a pair of suspenders&mdash;a bootlace&mdash;a
+shirt-button, or even a&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg caught him by the arm. &quot;Stop,&quot; she said, &quot;that's
+enough. Don't get too graphic. What's the matter with that tree?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were now close beside the banks of the Serpentine; the moon had
+broken through its covering of black clouds, and they perceived some
+twenty yards ahead of them, a tall, isolated lime, that was rocking in a
+most peculiar manner.</p>
+
+<p class="cs" style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;"><a name="ILLUSTRATION3" id="ILLUSTRATION3" /><img src="images/image3.jpg" width="441" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THEY GAZED FASCINATED]" /><br />
+THEY GAZED FASCINATED</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII" />CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Though the wind was nothing more than the usual night breeze of early
+autumn, the lime-tree was swaying violently to and fro, as if under the
+influence of a stupendous hurricane. Lilian Rosenberg and Kelson were so
+fascinated that they stood and watched it in silence. At last it left
+off swaying and became absolutely motionless. They then noticed, for the
+first time, that there were three figures standing under its branches,
+and that one of the figures was a policeman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hide quickly,&quot; Kelson whispered, &quot;those two are Hamar and Curtis.
+Quick, for God's sake&mdash;or they will see you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg hid behind an elm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; Kelson called out, advancing to the group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why it's you, Matt!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;Hamar said you would come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Said I would come! How the deuce did he know?&quot; Kelson exclaimed. &quot;I
+didn't know myself till the moment before I started.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I willed you,&quot; Hamar explained; &quot;as soon as I got back to my rooms
+after the Show, a voice said in my ears&mdash;I heard it distinctly&mdash;'Be at
+the Serpentine&mdash;the south bank&mdash;underneath a lime-tree&mdash;you will know
+which&mdash;at twelve to-night.' I looked round&mdash;there was no one there.
+Naturally, concluding this was a message from the Unknown I hastened off
+to Curtis, who was in his digs&mdash;and needless to say&mdash;eating, and having
+dragged him away with me in a diabolical temper&mdash;I then sought you.
+Where were you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Taking a walk. I felt I needed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone! Are you sure you weren't out with some girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems as if I'm not the only liar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said to herself
+in her place of concealment. &quot;What would Shiel say to that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph! I don't know if I ought to believe you,&quot; Hamar remarked. &quot;Did
+you feel me willing you to come here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rather!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;That is why I came. I seemed to hear your voice
+say 'To Hyde Park&mdash;to Hyde Park&mdash;the Serpentine&mdash;the Serpentine.'&quot; Then
+sinking his voice he whispered, &quot;What's up with the policeman, he looks
+deuced queer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's in a trance. We found him like this,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;He is
+undoubtedly under the control of the Unknown. I expect it to speak
+through him every moment. Get ready to take down all he says. I've come
+prepared,&quot; and he handed Kelson and Curtis, each, a pencil and a
+reporter's notebook.</p>
+
+<p>He had hardly done so, when the policeman&mdash;a burly man well over six
+feet in height, who was standing bolt upright as if at &quot;attention,&quot; his
+limbs absolutely rigid, his eyes wide open and expressionless&mdash;began to
+speak in a soft, lisping voice that the trio at once identified with the
+voice of the Unknown&mdash;the voice of the tree on that eventful night in
+San Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The great secret of medicine&mdash;the secret of healing&mdash;will now be
+revealed to you,&quot; the voice said. &quot;Pay heed. In cases of tumours and
+ulcers take a young seringa, lay it for half an hour over the stomach of
+the afflicted person, then plant it with the mumia, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> either the
+hair, blood, or spittle of the sick person, at midnight. As soon as the
+seringa begins to rot, the ulcer will heal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In phthisis pulmonalis, the mumia of the sick person should be planted
+with a cutting of the catalpa, after the latter has been subjected for
+some minutes to the breath of the diseased person. As soon as the
+cutting shows signs of decay, the sick person will be cured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In diabetes, plant the mumia of the patient with a bignonia, and as
+soon as the latter begins to rot, the diabetes will go.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In appendicitis, cover the stomach of the sick person with a piece of
+raw beef, until the sweat enters it. Then give the meat to a cat, and as
+soon as the latter has eaten it, the patient will recover.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What becomes of the cat?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The appendicitis is transferred to it,&quot; the voice explained. &quot;It should
+be killed at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cancer take the sea wrack Torrek Mendrek&mdash;a weed of deep mauve
+colour streaked with white. It must be boiled for three hours in clear
+spring water (3 ozs. of wrack to half a pint of water), and then let to
+cool. When quite cold, a dessert-spoon of it should be taken by the
+sufferer every four hours&mdash;and at the end of two days the disease will
+have completely disappeared. The wrack is to be found at the twenty
+fathom level, six miles west-south-west of the Scilly Isles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Bright's disease, the mumia of the afflicted should be planted at 1
+a.m., with a cutting of sassafras, after the latter has been slept on,
+for one whole night, by the sufferer. As soon as the sassafras begins to
+rot, the patient will be cured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In dropsy, place a hare, that has been strangled, over the diseased
+portion of the body, and let it remain there for one hour. Then bury the
+hare, together with the mumia of the sick person, and as soon as the
+hare begins to decay, the patient will recover.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In jaundice and liver diseases (apart from sarcoma), plant the mumia of
+the afflicted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of black walnut, and as soon as
+the latter begins to decay, the sufferer will get well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In all skin diseases, the mumia of the patient must be planted, at
+midnight, with a cutting of hickory, and when the latter begins to rot
+the disease disappears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In all fevers, the mumia must be planted, at 3 a.m., with laurel
+cuttings, after the latter have been placed under the bed of the patient
+for one night. As soon as the cuttings show signs of rotting, the fever
+abates.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In acute inflammations, diseases of the heart, rheumatism, and lumbago,
+the mumia must be buried, at midnight, with a raven that has been
+drowned, and placed on a chair by the left side of the patient for one
+night. As soon as the raven begins to rot, the patient will be fully
+restored to health.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cases of insanity, hysteria, and nervous diseases the mumia of the
+sufferer must be planted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of white poplar, and
+as soon as the latter shows evidences of decay, the afflicted will get
+well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cases of hypochondria, and melancholia, the mumia of the sufferer
+must be planted, at 4 a.m., with a crocus, and as soon as the latter
+begins to rot, the disease will depart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In every case it will be necessary to prelude the performance with the
+following invocation&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Oh most powerful and prescient Unknown, before whom the greatest of
+the Atlanteans prostrate themselves. That was in the Beginning, that is
+now and always will be. I conjure thee by the magic symbols of the
+club-foot, the hand with the fingers clenched, and the bat, in this the
+magical year of Kefana, to extend to me thy wonderful powers of healing.
+Rena Vadoola Hipsano Eik Deoo Barrinaz.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lisping voice ceased, and, with a convulsive start, the policeman
+came to himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; he said, in his natural gruff tones, rubbing his eyes. &quot;I must
+have 'dropped off.' Who are you? What are you doing in the Park at this
+time of night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been watching you!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It is a bit of a phenomenon to
+see a London bobby asleep on his beat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to hear him talking in his sleep too,&quot; Curtis added.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't know I was talking,&quot; the policeman muttered. &quot;It all comes of
+being too many hours on duty. What have you got those note-books out
+for? Not been taking down anything about me, have you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Show us out of the Park and you'll hear no more about it,&quot; Hamar said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we'll give you half a sovereign into the bargain,&quot; Kelson chimed
+in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Follow me then,&quot; the policeman said. &quot;I'll take you to one of the side
+entrances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Hamar exclaimed as they passed the tree behind which Lilian
+Rosenberg was hiding, &quot;I smell scent&mdash;and what is more I recognize it.
+It is Violette de mer&mdash;the scent that&mdash;Rosenberg uses! You were with her
+this evening!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear I wasn't!&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I bought some scent in Regent
+Street this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph,&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;I have my doubts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence till they came to a small iron gate, where the
+policemen left them, whilst he went to the lodge for the keys; and all
+the while Kelson was in terror, lest Hamar should catch sight of Lilian
+Rosenberg, who had kept close behind them, and was now standing, but a
+few yards away, trying to conceal her identity and escape notice.</p>
+
+<p>But the policeman on his return with the keys called out to her, and
+Kelson, fearing that she might be either taken in charge for loitering
+there, in apparently suspicious circumstances, or made to remain in the
+Park all night&mdash;neither of which contingencies he could possibly
+permit&mdash;at once came forward, and explained that she was a friend of
+his.</p>
+
+<p>The policeman was satisfied. The sight of another half-sovereign had
+rendered him more than polite, and, without saying a word, he let them
+all out together.</p>
+
+<p>The moment they were in the street, Hamar turned on Kelson, white with
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So,&quot; he said, &quot;I was right after all&mdash;liar! fool! You would risk all
+our lives for a few hours' flirtation with this silly girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it's only flirtation, Leon, what does it matter?&quot; Curtis interposed.
+&quot;For goodness' sake shut up wrangling and let's get home. I'm starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall have something to say to you to-morrow morning,&quot; Hamar
+remarked, in an undertone, to Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I to you,&quot; was the furious reply. &quot;I shall not forget the
+disrespectful way in which you have just spoken of me, in alluding to
+the scent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She signalled to a taxi, and giving Kelson a friendly good-night, jumped
+into it and was speedily whirled away.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, the evening had been a disappointment. She had wanted to
+see the Unknown&mdash;the awful thing that had inspired Kelson and his
+colleagues with such unmitigated horror&mdash;and instead she had seen only
+an obsessed policeman&mdash;a cataleptic &quot;copper&quot;&mdash;who, had he not spoken in
+a strangely uncanny voice, would certainly have seemed to her absolutely
+ordinary.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Hamar's displeasure, she was not in the slightest degree
+disturbed. He would never dare say anything to her. And after all that
+had occurred he would never venture to &quot;sack her.&quot; All the same she
+hated him. There was just sufficient in her conduct to make the name he
+had called her by applicable&mdash;therefore her bitterest wrath and
+indignation were aroused against him. He had behaved unpardonably. She
+could kill him for it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll just show him,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;what that uncivil tongue of
+his can do. He shall see that it can do him infinitely more harm than
+all Kelson's love-making. For one thing I'll spoil his chances with
+Gladys Martin; and&mdash;I wonder if I could make use of what I know about
+him, as a means of getting friendly again with Shiel. At all events I'll
+try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With this object in view she went round to Shiel's lodgings, and was
+informed by the landlady that Shiel was ill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing serious I hope?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has been,&quot; the landlady replied, &quot;but he is better now. It all came
+through his not taking proper care of himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I see him, do you think?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know,&quot; the landlady grumbled. &quot;He's in a very touchy mood&mdash;no
+one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
+your trying,&quot; she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in Lilian
+Rosenberg's fingers.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered. Shiel
+was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had very
+considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some resentment,
+he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation for his health.
+She put his room straight and dusted the furniture, got tea for him, and
+when she had completely won him over by these kindly actions, and made
+him beg her pardon for ever having spoken harshly to her, she broached
+the subject all the while uppermost in her mind&mdash;the subject of Hamar
+and Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her,&quot; she said. &quot;All he
+wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
+the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He is
+tremendously taken with her of course&mdash;her physical beauty, which he had
+the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he had seen,
+appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't give in to
+him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; Shiel said feebly; &quot;why in six months' time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; she added, &quot;that if the final stage is reached no woman
+will be safe&mdash;the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
+mercy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How inconceivably awful!&quot; Shiel exclaimed. &quot;Surely there is some way of
+stopping them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is only one way,&quot; Lilian said slowly, &quot;the union between the
+three must be broken&mdash;they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may be sure they will take good care not to do that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be too sure,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;Matthew Kelson is very
+fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
+Hamar!&quot; Shiel asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you will&mdash;you will save Gladys Martin after all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian did not reply at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty,&quot; she
+said, evasively, &quot;poverty like this!&quot; and she glanced round the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't ask her to!&quot; Shiel exclaimed. &quot;Whilst I have been lying in bed,
+ill, I have thought of many things&mdash;and have come to the conclusion I
+have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult for me to earn
+enough to keep one person in comfort&mdash;and I've lost all hope of ever
+earning enough to keep two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, if you don't ask her,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;there's one thing,
+she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out of it.
+If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit&mdash;a girl that would be a
+real 'pal' to you&mdash;a girl that would help you to win fame!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII" />CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHOM WILL HE MARRY?</h3>
+
+
+<p>Had Lilian Rosenberg been able to see the effect of her conversation
+upon Shiel after she had left him, she would have been disappointed. He
+had, prior to this interview with Lilian Rosenberg, as he told her, made
+up his mind to abandon all idea of marrying Gladys Martin; and there is
+a possibility that had her name not been mentioned, had she not been
+recalled so vividly to his mind, he would have adhered to that
+resolution&mdash;at all events so long as he refrained from seeing her. But
+such is human nature&mdash;or at least man's nature&mdash;that directly Lilian
+Rosenberg had left him, Shiel's love for Gladys burst out with such
+wild, invigorated force that it swept reason and everything else before
+it. Gladys! He could think of nothing else! Every detail in her
+appearance, every word she had spoken, came back to him with exaggerated
+intensity. Her beauty was sublime. There was no one like her, no one
+that could inspire him with such a sense of ideality, no one that could
+lead him on to such dizzy heights of greatness. It was all nonsense to
+say, as Lilian Rosenberg had said, there were just as many good fish in
+the sea as had ever come out of it&mdash;there was only one Gladys. Hamar
+should never marry her&mdash;he would marry her himself. She must be told at
+once of Hamar's infamous designs. A mad desire to see her came over
+him, and disregardful of the doctor's orders that he should remain in
+bed several more days, he got up, and dressing as fast as his weak
+condition would allow him, took a taxi and drove to Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the Cottage, at Kew, he found Gladys at home, and to his
+great joy, alone.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that appeals to a woman more than a sick man, and
+Shiel, in coming to Gladys in his present condition, had unwittingly
+played a trump card. Had he appeared well and strong she would probably
+have received him none too cordially&mdash;for she was very tired of men just
+then; but the moment her eyes alighted on his thin cheeks and she saw
+the dark rings under his eyes, pity conquered. This man at least was not
+to blame&mdash;he was not of the same pattern as other men, he was not like
+so many men whose adulations had grown fulsome to her, and&mdash;he was
+totally unlike Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>In very sympathetic tones she inquired how he was, and on learning that
+he had been sufficiently ill to be kept in bed, asked why he had not
+told her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunty and I would have called to see you,&quot; she said, &quot;and brought you
+jelly and other nice things. Who waited on you, had you no nurse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fearful lest he should give her the impression he was speaking for
+effect, or trying to trade on her feelings (Shiel was one of those
+people who are painfully exact), he told her as simply as he could just
+how he had been placed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But why come here,&quot; Gladys demanded, &quot;when you were told to stay in bed
+till the end of the week. It is frightfully risky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel then explained to her the purport of his visit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it was to warn me, to put me on my guard against Hamar, that you
+disobeyed the doctor's orders,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel nodded. &quot;You are not displeased, are you?&quot; he asked nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am displeased with you for thinking so little of yourself,&quot; Gladys
+said, &quot;and more than obliged to you for thinking so much of me. You know
+I only consented to marry Mr. Hamar to save my father&mdash;and you say he no
+longer has the power to work spells?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe that to be a fact,&quot; Shiel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then he lied to me!&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;He threatened that unless I saw
+him as often as he wished, and went with him wherever he wanted, and a
+good many more things, he would inflict my father with every conceivable
+disease. You are quite sure your information is correct?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, thank God!&quot; Gladys said with a great sigh of relief. &quot;I shall
+know how to act now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will break off your engagement?&quot; Shiel inquired eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I can't do that!&quot; Gladys said sadly. &quot;I've promised to marry Mr.
+Hamar, and, therefore, marry him I must.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Promises made under such conditions are mere extortions, they don't
+count.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear they do,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;I've never yet broken my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then there's no hope for me,&quot; Shiel gasped. &quot;I must go&mdash;it maddens me
+to see you the affianced bride of that devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rose to go, but had hardly gained his feet, when his strength utterly
+failed and he collapsed. Gladys helped him into a chair, and then flew
+for some brandy. In the hall, she met her aunt, who had just returned
+from an afternoon call. In a few words she explained what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor young man,&quot; Miss Templeton said. &quot;I thought he looked very ill the
+last time I saw him. And he came here solely to benefit you! Well, you
+have a good deal to answer for, and your face is not only your own
+misfortune, but other people's too. But it will never do for your father
+to see Mr. Davenport. He went off in a very bad temper this morning, and
+if he comes back and finds him here, there'll be a scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton and Gladys consulted together for some minutes, and then
+decided to send for a taxi and have Shiel conveyed back to his rooms,
+Miss Templeton accompanying him.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton knew that Shiel was poor, but like most people who have
+lived in comfortable surroundings all their lives, she had no idea of
+what poverty was like&mdash;the poverty of a seven-and-sixpenny a week room
+in a back street; and when she saw it she nearly swooned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why this is a slum!&quot; she ejaculated as the taxi stopped next door to a
+fried fish shop in a narrow street swarming with children sucking bread
+and jam, and rolling each other over in the gutters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't wonder the man is ill here!&quot; she said to herself, as the door
+of the house they stopped at opened and she snuffed the atmosphere. &quot;The
+place reeks&mdash;and&mdash;oh! gracious! is this the landlady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet the woman was ordinary enough&mdash;the type of landlady one sees in all
+back streets&mdash;greasy face, straggling hair, dirty blouse, black hands,
+bitten fingernails, short skirts, prodigious feet, a grubby child
+clinging on to her dress and every indication of the speedy arrival of
+another.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you're 'is mother hain't you, mum?&quot; she said, gaping at Miss
+Templeton's rather fashionable clothes in open-mouthed wonder. &quot;I told
+'im 'ee ought not to go out, but 'ee never 'eeds what I says.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton, though not particularly flattered at being taken for
+Shiel's mother&mdash;since, like most ladies of mature age, she wished to be
+regarded as much younger&mdash;nevertheless, thought it better not to
+disillusion the woman. The poor, she told herself, often have very
+decided views on propriety. With the woman's aid she got Shiel upstairs,
+and, as he was too feeble to undress himself, despite his protestations,
+helped to disrobe him. She had thought, when she first saw the slum, of
+returning to Kew at once, but she did no such thing. She stayed with
+Shiel; persuaded the landlady to make him some gruel (which proved to be
+a sorry mess, but had at least the advantage of being hot), and bribed
+one of the children to fetch the doctor. Shiel nearly died. Had it not
+been for the careful nursing and good food provided by Miss Templeton,
+who visited him every day, he would never have turned the corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The poor boy is terribly fond of you,&quot; Miss Templeton said to Gladys.
+&quot;In his delirium he talked of nothing but saving you from Leon
+Hamar&mdash;from that devil Leon Hamar&mdash;and if one can place any reliance at
+all, on the ravings of a sick man, a devil, Leon Hamar undoubtedly is.
+What a pity it is Shiel hasn't money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These remarks were naturally not without effect on Gladys, and she could
+not help growing more and more interested in the man, whose love for
+her had proved so deep-rooted and ideal, that he had practically
+sacrificed his life, in an attempt to serve her. Finally, she found
+herself awaiting her aunt's daily report of his illness with an anxiety
+that was almost acute.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, John Martin came home one evening in a rare state of
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you think!&quot; he exclaimed, throwing a bundle of letters on the
+table, &quot;one of Dick's speculations has turned out trumps, after all. He
+had invested several thousands of pounds&mdash;in Shiel's name&mdash;in
+enamel-ivorine, the new stuff for stopping teeth, which looks exactly
+like part of the teeth. I remember I thought it an absurd venture at the
+time, but for once in a way I was wrong&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ahem!&quot; interrupted Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There has been a sudden boom in the patent, every dentist is using it,
+and, as a consequence, the shares have risen enormously. I've heard from
+Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand pounds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good heavens!&quot; Miss Templeton ejaculated, &quot;and Gladys has bound herself
+to Hamar! I suppose,&quot; she said afterwards, when John Martin and she were
+alone together, &quot;that you would not have any objection to Shiel now, if
+Gladys were free to marry him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not!&quot; John Martin said, &quot;certainly not, I always liked Shiel.
+A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one usually meets
+nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an impossibility.
+Gladys is stubbornness itself&mdash;when once she has made up her mind to do
+a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; Miss Templeton said, &quot;wait and see. I think I can see a possible
+way out of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She had learned much from Shiel in his &quot;wanderings.&quot; He had constantly
+alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson&mdash;and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
+compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact&mdash;namely
+through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
+the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
+greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg&mdash;and it was from these
+statements that she finally received an inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel&mdash;it had always been her custom to
+read between the lines. &quot;Now,&quot; she argued, &quot;if Kelson were so easily
+influenced by Lilian Rosenberg, who was young and attractive, it was
+almost a <i>sine qu&acirc; non</i> that he was in love with her,&quot; and as marriage
+was one of the eventualities strictly forbidden to the trio in the
+compact&mdash;&quot;they must neither quarrel nor marry,&quot; Shiel had
+exclaimed&mdash;here was their chance. Kelson must marry Lilian Rosenberg,
+and by so doing, break the compact and overwhelm the trio in some sudden
+and dire catastrophe. But the marriage must take place within six
+months' time. How could that be arranged? Could Lilian Rosenberg be
+bribed or persuaded into it? for of course Miss Templeton being a
+woman&mdash;albeit an old maid&mdash;had at once divined that Lilian Rosenberg was
+in love with Shiel&mdash;that she did not care a straw for Kelson, and that
+to marry the latter she would need some very strong inducement. And the
+only inducement she could think of was Lilian's genuine love for Shiel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, it is upon this one weakness of Lilian's that I must work,&quot; she
+said to herself. &quot;It is the only way I can see of saving Gladys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Resolved at any rate to experiment upon these lines, she lost no time in
+seeking out Lilian Rosenberg, who received her very coldly and was
+distinctly rude.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have my affairs to do with you? Who sent you here?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humanity!&quot; Miss Templeton replied. &quot;I have come entirely of my own
+accord to plead the cause of one who is seriously ill&mdash;possibly dying!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seriously ill!&mdash;possibly dying!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said incredulously,
+nevertheless, turning pale. &quot;Mr. Davenport is surely not as bad as all
+that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When did you see him last?&quot; Miss Templeton asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fortnight ago,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I have been inundated with
+work the past two weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've not heard that he's had a relapse,&quot; Miss Templeton said,
+&quot;and is now in a most critical condition! He has something on his mind,
+and the doctor assures me that whilst he is still worrying over that
+something, there is no chance of his recovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what it is&mdash;the something?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg asked, the
+white on her cheeks intensifying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Miss Templeton said slowly, and trying to appear calm. &quot;He is
+very worried about Miss Martin's engagement to Mr. Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why, pray?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because he knows all about Mr. Hamar&mdash;and the compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has told you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has he been as ill as that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day before
+yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;Can
+you believe what a man says in delirium?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In this instance I feel sure you can,&quot; Miss Templeton replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
+Davenport?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton thought for a moment. &quot;Because,&quot; she said at last, &quot;he is
+in love with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you sure of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?&quot; and she snapped
+her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think she may care for him a very great deal some day&mdash;she has begun
+to care for him already!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
+Davenport. He is practically starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was&mdash;but he's not now. He's come into money.&quot; And she explained
+about the fifty thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, &quot;that accounts
+for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some one
+who had been fond of him all along&mdash;in the days when he hadn't a
+halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should feel very sorry for that person,&quot; Miss Templeton said, &quot;but
+setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness&mdash;it would be wrong for him
+to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which you say it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which I am sure it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, supposing it is&mdash;what does it concern me? Why tell me all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
+about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
+can accomplish all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I do,&quot; Miss Templeton said, briskly. &quot;I believe I am right in
+saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you&mdash;that you can make him do pretty
+well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on to
+propose and insist on his marrying you at once&mdash;or at all events before
+the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the Compact
+will be broken!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may be,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, &quot;but where, pray, should I
+come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&quot; Miss Templeton replied, slowly, &quot;why, because by marrying a man
+you don't care a snap for, you would save the life of a man&mdash;I am quite
+sure, you care a very great deal for.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX" />CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE END AND &quot;THE BEYOND&quot;</h3>
+
+
+<p>It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's extraordinary,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;how fond I am of Shiel. I
+used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of anyone....
+The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with him, to give
+him up to that soft little cat&mdash;Gladys Martin! If it weren't for this
+illness&mdash;if I could only persuade myself that he isn't as ill as Miss
+Whatever-her-name-is&mdash;said, I shouldn't think twice&mdash;I should let things
+be&mdash;but as I feel sure he is really ill&mdash;dangerously ill&mdash;and the only
+chance of his recovery lies in the possibility of his marrying Martin&mdash;I
+must deliberate. Shall I or shall I not? If it were any other woman I
+shouldn't so much mind&mdash;but&mdash;Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is
+one hope, however, namely&mdash;that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
+her&mdash;and&mdash;and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would be!
+But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because&mdash;because&mdash;well there&mdash;just like my
+infernal luck&mdash;I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even if there
+were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could. But what
+is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
+Martin&mdash;and&mdash;I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to settle
+is&mdash;Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can marry
+Shiel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
+and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another. In
+the end&mdash;very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she had
+ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have tea with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large mushroom
+hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that face belonged
+to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had a colossal
+weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have tea with you? Of course I will,&quot; he said. &quot;But we must be careful.
+Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow in a taxi,
+and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+laughed. &quot;I'm not! I've found him out&mdash;he's all talk. But do as you
+will&mdash;get your taxi and I'll walk on&mdash;we'll have tea in my new flat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was so delighted he hardly knew if he stood on his head or his
+heels. &quot;You are prettier than ever,&quot; he said, as the taxi-door shut and
+they sped away. &quot;I declare there seems no limit to your beauty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only because you're partial,&quot; she said. &quot;I shall grow ugly one day.
+Perhaps&mdash;soon.&quot; With a savage energy, she set to work to completely
+overcome him. With a languishing expression in her eyes&mdash;eyes, which she
+made use of mercilessly, without giving him a moment's respite&mdash;she
+watched his whole being vibrate with love and adoration.</p>
+
+<p>They had hardly entered the drawing-room of her flat when he threw
+himself at her feet, and poured forth his worship of her in the most
+extravagant phrases.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here, Mr. Kelson,&quot; she said at length, withdrawing the hand it
+seemed as if he would never leave off kissing, &quot;this is all very well;
+but I daresay you make love to countless other girls in this same
+fashion. How can I tell if you are really serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't I look as if I am?&quot; he cried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One can never judge correctly by looks,&quot; she replied; &quot;they are
+terribly deceptive. You are very emphatic in your avowals of love, but
+you say nothing about marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you do care for me! Jerusalem! How happy I should be if only I
+thought that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Think it, then,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;and let us come to an
+understanding. Can you afford to keep a wife&mdash;keep her, as I should
+expect to be kept&mdash;plenty of new dresses, jewelry, theatres, balls,
+motors, Ascot, Henley, Cowes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon I could do all that,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I've just over a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank, and with this 'cure'
+business, I'm taking on an average ten thousand per week. I would settle
+a hundred thousand on you, and make you a handsome allowance&mdash;a thousand
+a week&mdash;more if you wanted it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said after a slight pause, during which Kelson
+had again seized her hand and was kissing it convulsively, &quot;to quote one
+of your Americanisms&mdash;I reckon I'll fix up with you. On one condition,
+however.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that,&quot; Kelson murmured, still kissing her feverishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That we marry a week to-day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson dropped her hand as if he had been shot. &quot;We can't!&quot; he cried.
+&quot;The Compact!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, damn the Compact!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said coolly. &quot;You marry me
+then&mdash;or not at all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are joking&mdash;you know what the Compact means!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know what you think it means. For my own part I don't see that you
+have the slightest reason to fear. The Unknown cannot really harm you.
+All you have to do is to turn religious. Anyhow you must risk it&mdash;that
+is to say, if you want me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will lead to a quarrel with Hamar,&quot; Kelson said desperately. &quot;The
+Firm will dissolve&mdash;and I shan't get a cent more money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll be content with what you have in the bank now. We can live on the
+interest of fifty thousand. The hundred thousand you will, of course,
+settle on me at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was silent. She taunted him, she ridiculed him; she at last lost her
+temper with him&mdash;whereupon he succumbed. The marriage should take place
+at a registry office within the week.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There'll be no time for a trousseau!&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, hang the trousseau!&quot; she said. &quot;I shall have the hundred thousand
+pounds. And now for a word of advice. Be sure that you do not let Hamar
+get any inkling of our approaching marriage, and be most careful to
+avoid doing anything that might arouse his suspicions. It isn't that I'm
+afraid of him&mdash;but I don't want rows&mdash;I'm sick to death of them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can rely on me to be careful, darling!&quot; Kelson said, kissing her
+on the lips. &quot;I'll be discretion itself,&quot; and so he meant to be. All the
+same&mdash;as is the case with every lover&mdash;every lover worthy of the name of
+lover&mdash;who loves with all the full, ripe vigour of genuine passion, his
+heart played havoc with his head; and he was blind to everything save
+visions of his beloved. In other circumstances this would not have
+mattered very much, but with Hamar's lynx eyes continually watching him,
+it was certain to lead to disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ed!&quot; Hamar said to Curtis one day. &quot;Matt's been getting into mischief.
+I know the symptoms well. He can't look me in the face, and every now
+and then, when he fancies my attention is attracted elsewhere, I catch
+him peeping furtively at me as if he were frightened out of his life I
+should ferret out some secret. It would be deplorable if now that we
+have got so near the end of the Compact, we should be held up by some
+idiotic blunder&mdash;some nonsensical love affair of his. I wonder whether
+it's Rosenberg or some other girl. Will you find out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I?&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;I'm not his keeper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Come be reasonable. You want to be a
+Cr&oelig;sus&mdash;so that you can eat and drink your head off&mdash;don't you! Well!
+You will! You will be one of the three wealthiest men in the world&mdash;you
+will have the world at your feet, if only you stick to me for the next
+seven months: till we have passed the seventh stage. If you don't&mdash;if
+either you or Matt deliberately quarrel with me, or marry&mdash;then, as I've
+dinned into your ears a thousand times, the Compact will be broken,
+and&mdash;not only that, but some frightful catastrophe will wipe us off.
+Now will you do what I ask? Come&mdash;a dinner with me every night this
+week, at the Piccadilly&mdash;champagne&mdash;and no vegetables!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; Curtis said sulkily, &quot;for the good of the cause I suppose I
+must, but I hate spying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two nights later in a private room at the Piccadilly, after dinner, when
+the champagne and liqueurs had got into Curtis's head and he was leaning
+back in his chair, smiling and silly, Hamar suddenly said, &quot;Ed! you
+remember what I told you&mdash;about watching Kelson. Have you discovered
+anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shupposing I have,&quot; Curtis replied, &quot;shupposing I haven't&mdash;whatch
+then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, but I know you have,&quot; Hamar said, striving to hide his eagerness.
+&quot;Come, tell me, another liqueur&mdash;I'll square it with the Unknown&mdash;it
+won't hurt you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't it!&quot; Curtis gurgled. &quot;Wont'ch it! I'll tell you everything.
+No&mdash;nothingsh, I mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar when once he had smelt a rat, was not easily put off. He
+coaxed, and coaxed, and eventually succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leonsh!&quot; Curtis said, with a sudden burst of drunken confidence.
+&quot;Leonsh! it's worse than either you or I shuspected. I caught them alone
+this morning&mdash;in my offish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them! Rosenberg and Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yesh, of course, shilly! I told Matt I was going out. He thought I
+had&mdash;so into the room I came&mdash;quite unshuspected, unobsherved. She was
+sitting on hish knees, cuddling&mdash;and he was putting a ring on her
+finger. 'Four more days, darling,' shays he, 'and we are married!
+Jerushalem! Damn the Compact and damnsh Hamar!' 'Hamar doesn't
+shuspect, does he?' Rosenberg shays. 'Not a bit&mdash;not in the slightest,'
+old Matt replieshes, 'why it is I who amsh brave now.' Then he kisshes
+her, and fearing they would detect my presence, I slipsh quietly out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you swear this is true?&quot; Leon said, his voice trembling with
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll schwear it!&quot; Curtis answered, &quot;but you look crossh. Whatsh the
+matter, Leon? <i>God! What's the matter!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, as Kelson was rising from his chair in front of the fire
+to gaze, for the hundredth time that evening, into the eyes of Lilian
+Rosenberg's portrait on the mantelshelf, the door of his room flew open
+and in staggered Curtis&mdash;white, wet and bloated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great heavens!&quot; Kelson cried. &quot;What the deuce have you been doing to
+yourself? You look a perfect devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am one!&quot; Curtis groaned. &quot;I am one, Matt! I've given your show away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My show away! Why, what the deuce do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In a string of broken sentences Curtis explained what had happened. &quot;I'm
+damned sorry, Matt, old man,&quot; he pleaded. &quot;It was the drink that did
+it&mdash;I didn't know what I was saying till it was too late&mdash;till I saw
+Leon's face&mdash;and that cleared my brain&mdash;brought me to myself. It was
+hellish. I remember the moment I mentioned the word marriage&mdash;he sprang
+up from his chair, and as he hurried out, I heard him mutter, 'I'll go
+to her straight&mdash;I'll&mdash;' Matt, old man, he meant mischief. I'm certain
+of it. Come with me to her flat&mdash;for God's sake&mdash;COME.&quot; And catching
+hold of Kelson, who leaned against the mantelshelf, dazed and
+stupefied, he dragged him into the street.</p>
+
+<p>To revert to Hamar. Curtis's information had transformed him. He was,
+now, another creature. Prior to his conversation with Curtis, he had
+suspected, at the most, that Kelson might be contemplating a secret
+engagement to Lilian Rosenberg&mdash;but a hasty marriage&mdash;a marriage in a
+few days' time&mdash;he had never dreamt that Kelson could be as mad as that.
+It was outrageous! It was abominable! It was sheer wholesale homicide!
+At all costs the marriage must be stopped. And mad with rage, Hamar
+dashed out of the hotel, and calling a taxi, drove direct to Lilian
+Rosenberg's flat.</p>
+
+<p>He found her alone&mdash;alone&mdash;and with a strange expression in her eyes&mdash;an
+expression he had never noticed in them before. She was in the act of
+examining a magnificent diamond ring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're quite out of breath,&quot; she said coolly, &quot;didn't you come up by
+the lift?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to talk business,&quot; Hamar panted. &quot;It's no use looking like
+that. I know your secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My secret!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, opening her eyes and simulating
+the greatest unconcern, &quot;what secret? I don't understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, you do!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;you understand only too well&mdash;you
+deceitful minx. Had I only been smart&mdash;I should have given you the sack
+months ago. This marriage of yours with Kelson shall not come off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My marriage with Mr. Kelson!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, turning a trifle
+pale. &quot;I really don't know what you are talking about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You do!&quot; Hamar shouted, his fury rising. &quot;You do! You know all about
+it. You were seen sitting on his knee this morning, and all your
+conversation was overheard. I have found out everything. And I tell you,
+you shan't marry him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shan't marry him!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said with provoking coolness.
+&quot;Whoever thinks I want to marry him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He does&mdash;I do!&quot; Hamar shouted&mdash;his voice rising to a scream. &quot;You've
+hoodwinked me long enough&mdash;you hoodwink me no longer. You've encouraged
+him from the first&mdash;made eyes at him every time you've seen him&mdash;taken
+advantage of my absence to prowl about the passages to waylay him&mdash;had
+him round to your rooms and visited him in his. You've no sense of shame
+or honour&mdash;you've broken your promises to me&mdash;you're a liar!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else Mr. Hamar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, her eyes glittering.
+&quot;When you've quite finished, perhaps&mdash;you'll kindly go and leave me in
+peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go! Leave you in peace!&quot; Hamar shouted. &quot;Damn you, curse your
+impertinence! Go! I'll not budge an inch till I wring from you an
+oath&mdash;a solemn binding oath, that you'll break off your engagement with
+Kelson at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really, Mr. Hamar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;I cannot put up with quite
+so much noise. Will you go, or shall I ring for the porter to turn you
+out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She moved in the direction of the bell as she spoke, but before she
+could touch it Hamar had intercepted her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop this foolery!&quot; he said catching hold of her wrist, &quot;I'm in grim
+earnest&mdash;the lives of all three of us are at stake&mdash;jeopardized through
+you&mdash;through your infernal greed and selfishness. Do you hear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please let go my wrist,&quot; she said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't!&quot; he shouted. &quot;I'll squeeze, crush it, break it! Break you,
+too, unless you swear to break off your marriage!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll swear nothing,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said faintly. &quot;You're a brute.
+Let me go or I'll cry for help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She screamed, but before she could repeat the scream, Hamar had her by
+the throat&mdash;and then blind with passion and before he fully realized
+what he was about, he had shaken her to and fro&mdash;like a terrier shakes a
+rat&mdash;and had dashed her on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes he stood rocking with passion, and then, his eyes
+falling on the inanimate form at his feet, he gave a great gasping cry
+and bent over it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God in Heaven!&quot; he ejaculated, &quot;she's dead! I've killed her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was still bending over her&mdash;still feeling her lifeless pulse, still
+trying to resuscitate her&mdash;feebly wondering how he had killed her,
+feverishly debating the best course to pursue&mdash;when Curtis and Kelson
+burst in on him.</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of Lilian Rosenberg's lifeless body both men started back.
+&quot;Great God! Hamar!&quot; Curtis gasped. &quot;What have you done to her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing!&quot; Hamar said, turning a ghastly face to them. &quot;I&mdash;I found her
+like this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Liar!&quot; Kelson shouted beside himself with fury. &quot;Liar! We heard her
+scream. Look at your hands&mdash;there's blood on them! You've killed her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before Curtis could stop him he sprang at Hamar, and the next moment
+both men were rolling on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call for the police, Ed!&quot; Kelson gasped, &quot;the police&mdash;or&mdash;&quot; But before
+he could utter another syllable, walls, floor and ceiling shook with
+loud, devilish laughter. There was then silence&mdash;enthralling,
+impressive, omnipotent silence&mdash;the electric light went out&mdash;and the
+room filled with luminous, striped figures.</p>
+
+<p class="cs"><a name="ILLUSTRATION4" id="ILLUSTRATION4" /><img src="images/image4.jpg" width="416" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES]" /><br />
+THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14317 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14317 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14317)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sorcery Club, by Elliott O'Donnell
+
+
+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 Sorcery Club
+
+Author: Elliott O'Donnell
+
+Release Date: December 10, 2004  [eBook #14317]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SORCERY CLUB***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Nathan Strom, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14317-h.htm or 14317-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h/14317-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SORCERY CLUB
+
+by
+
+ELLIOTT O'DONNELL
+
+Author of _Byways of Ghostland_, _Werwolves_,
+_Dreams and Their Meanings_, _Some Haunted Houses of England
+and Wales_, _Scottish Ghost Tales_, _Haunted Houses of London_, etc., etc.
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+8 Paternoster Row, E.C.
+
+1912
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!" KELSON SHRIEKED]
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+    II THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+   III LEARNING TO SIN
+
+    IV THE TESTS
+
+     V THE INITIATION
+
+    VI THE FIRST POWER
+
+   VII SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+  VIII TWO DREAMS
+
+    IX LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+     X HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+    XI LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+   XII THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+  XIII THE MODERN SORCERY CO. LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+   XIV SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+    XV HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+   XVI HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+  XVII THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+ XVIII STAGE THREE
+
+   XIX A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+    XX THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+   XXI THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+  XXII THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+ XXIII LOVE
+
+  XXIV THE SUBPOENA
+
+   XXV CURTIS IN A NEW RÔLE
+
+  XXVI IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+ XXVII THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+XXVIII WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+  XXIX THE END AND 'THE BEYOND'
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF," KELSON SHRIEKED (frontispiece)
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+THEY GAZED FASCINATED
+
+THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of
+vegetables--it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller,
+of man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that
+the French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not,
+Confucius alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the
+Chinese by the same factor.
+
+It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a
+second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion to any
+literature saving a financial gazette or the stock and shares column
+of a daily, that nothing would have induced him to get within touching
+distance of a book save the risk of a severe wetting. Now, to his
+unutterable disgust, he found himself surrounded by the things he
+loathed. Books ancient--very ancient, judging by their bindings--and
+modern--histories, biographies, novels and magazines--anything from
+ten dollars to five cents, and all arrayed with most laudable tact
+according to their bulk and condition. But Hamar was neither to be
+tempted nor mollified. He frowned at one and all alike, and the
+colossal edition of Miss Somebody or Other's poems--that by reason of
+its magnificent cover of crimson and gold occupied a most prominent
+position--met with the same vindictive reception as the tattered and
+torn volumes of Whittier stowed away in an obscure corner.
+
+Backing still further into the entrance of the store for a better
+protection from the rain, which, now falling heavier and heavier, was
+blown in by the wind, Hamar collided with a stand of books, with the
+result that one of them fell with a loud bang on the pavement.
+
+A man, evidently the owner of the store, and unmistakably a Jew,
+instantly appeared. Picking up the book, and wiping it with a dirty
+handkerchief, he thrust it at Hamar.
+
+"See!" he said, "you have damaged this property of mine. You must
+either buy it or give me adequate compensation."
+
+"What!" Hamar cried, "compensation for such rubbish as that? Why all
+your books together are not worth five dollars. Indeed I've seen twice
+as many sold at a sale for half that amount. You can't Jew me!"
+
+The two men eyed each other quizzically.
+
+"Perhaps," the owner of the store observed slowly, "perhaps some of
+your ancestors were once Yiddish. In which case there ought to be a
+bond of sympathy between us. You may have that book for a nickel.
+What, no! Your cheeks are hollow, your fingers thin. A nickel is too
+much for you. I will take your chain in exchange."
+
+"And leave me the watch!" Hamar retorted, with a grim smile. "You are
+a philanthropist--not a storekeeper."
+
+"I should leave you nothing!" the Jew laughed.
+
+"There's no watch there! See!" and he pointed to the concave surface
+of the watch-pocket. "I noticed its absence at once. It's been keeping
+you alive for some days past. I'll give you four dollars on the
+chain--and you may have the book!"
+
+"The book's no good to me!" Hamar grunted. "The money is. Here! hand
+me over the four dollars and you can have the chain. It's eighteen
+carat gold and worth at least ten dollars."
+
+"Then why not take it to some one who will give you ten dollars!"
+sneered the Jew. "Because you know better. You're no greenhorn. That
+chain is fifteen carat at the most, and there's not a man in this city
+who would give you more than four dollars for it."
+
+"Very well, then!" Hamar said sulkily. "I agree. No! the money first."
+
+The Jew dived deep down into his trouser pocket, and, after foraging
+about for some seconds, produced a handful of greasy coins, out of
+which he carefully selected the sum named.
+
+Hamar, who had been watching him greedily, grabbed the coins, bit them
+with his teeth, and rang them on the counter. With an air of relief he
+then slipped his watch-chain into the outstretched palm before him,
+remarked upon the fact that the rain had suddenly ceased, and prepared
+to take his departure.
+
+"Here's the book!" the Jew ejaculated, whilst his face became suffused
+with a smirk. "Don't go without it. Now! there's no knowing but what
+we may not have further dealings with one another. I'm a
+money-lender--I've a place down-stairs--I take all sorts of
+things--all sorts of things. On the strict Q.T. mind. Sabez!"
+
+In another moment Hamar found himself standing on the wet pavement,
+nursing the four dollars in his waistcoat pocket with one hand, and
+mechanically clutching the despised volume with the other. Had he ever
+acted upon impulse, he would most certainly have hurled the book into
+the gutter; but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion that it
+would be better to dispose of it less obstrusively.
+
+It was now evening, and having tasted nothing since mid-day, he
+realized, for at least the hundredth time that week, that he was
+hungry. The touch of the dollars, however, only made him smile. He
+could eat his full for twenty-five cents and yet live well for another
+four days. And, besides, he still had a tie-pin and a fur coat. He
+might get a dollar on the one and two, if not two and a half, on the
+other; which would carry him through till the end of the week when
+something else might turn up--something which would not involve too
+hard work and would just keep him clear of jail. He turned sharply
+down Montgomery Street, crossed Kearney Street, and slipped
+noiselessly through the side doorway of a restaurant, in a
+suspicious-looking alley, not a hundred yards distant from the
+gorgeously illuminated Palace Hotel. Here, within five minutes, he was
+served with as good a meal as one could get in San Francisco for the
+money--and if the table linen was not as clean as it might have been,
+the food was not a whit the less excellent for that. At least so Hamar
+thought; and it was not until there was nothing left to eat that he
+left off eating. When he thought no one was looking in his direction,
+he popped the despised book under his chair and rose to go. Before he
+had gone ten yards, however, one of the waiters came running after
+him.
+
+"Hi, sir, stop, sir!" the fellow cried. "You've left something
+behind!" And in spite of Hamar's denials the officious menial
+persisted the book was his. In the end Hamar was obliged to submit.
+He took the book, and rewarded the waiter with curses.
+
+Hamar next tried to dispose of it down the area of a Chinese laundry;
+but a policeman saw him, and he only escaped being taken up on
+suspicion, by parting with a dollar. This was the climax. He did not
+dare make any further attempt to dispose of the book, but, with bitter
+hatred in his heart, tucked it savagely under his arm, and made direct
+for his room in 115th Street.
+
+To his annoyance--for under the circumstances he preferred to be
+alone--he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They
+were Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues
+at Meidler, Meidler & Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had
+been thrown out of work when the firm had "smashed." Since that affair
+Hamar had studiously avoided them. It was true he had once been as
+friendly with them as he deemed it politic to be friendly with any
+one; but now--they were out of employment, and in danger of
+starvation. That made all the difference. He did not believe in
+poverty encouraging poverty, any more than he believed in charity
+among beggars. He had nothing to share with them, not even a thought;
+and resolving to get rid of his quondam friends as soon as possible,
+he confined his welcome to a frown.
+
+"Hulloa! what's the matter?" Kelson exclaimed. "When a man frowns like
+that, it usually means he is crossed in love."
+
+"Or has an empty stomach, which amounts to the same thing," Curtis
+interposed. "Come--let the sun loose, Leon! We've good news for
+you!--haven't we, Matt?"
+
+Kelson nodded.
+
+"What is it, then?" Hamar grunted. "Have you both got cancer?"
+
+"No! We've come to borrow from you!"
+
+"Then you've come to the wrong shop! I'm about done, and unless
+something turns up mighty quick I shall clear out."
+
+"For good?"
+
+"I don't count on being a ghost nor yet an angel," Hamar said; "when
+we've done here, I reckon we've done altogether!"
+
+"I shouldn't have thought suicide was in your line," Curtis remarked.
+"More Matt's. I should have credited you with something more
+original."
+
+"Original!" Hamar snarled. "I defy any man to be original when he
+hasn't a cent, and his stomach contains nothing but air. Give me
+money, give me food--then, perhaps, I'll be original."
+
+"You don't mean to say you're cleared out of grub!" Kelson and Curtis
+cried in chorus. "We've come to you as our last hope. We've neither of
+us tasted anything since yesterday."
+
+"Then you'll taste nothing again to-day--at least as far as I'm
+concerned," Hamar jeered. "I tell you I'm broke--haven't as much as a
+crumb in the room; and I've pawned everything, save the clothes you
+see me in!"
+
+"And yet you can buy books--unless--unless you stole it!" Curtis said,
+eyeing with suspicion the volume Hamar had thrown on the table.
+
+"Buy it! Not much!" Hamar cried quickly. "It's one I've had all my
+life. Belonged to my grandfather. I took it with me to-night to see
+what I could raise on it."
+
+"And no one would have it? I should guess not," Kelson said, drawing
+it towards him. "Why it's got a new label inside--S. Leipman! I know
+him. He's slick even for a Jew. This looks as if it belonged to your
+grandfather, Leon. If I'm not real mistaken you bought the book
+to-night. There's something in it you thought you could make capital
+of. Trust you for that. Now I wonder what it was!"
+
+"You're welcome to see!" Hamar sneered. "Perhaps you'd like some
+water!"
+
+"Water! Why water?"
+
+"Well, instead of tea or whisky to help digest the book. Besides, it's
+the only thing I have to offer you."
+
+"Look here, Leon," Curtis interrupted; "what's the good of behaving
+like this? We are all in the same boat--starving--desperate. So let us
+lay our heads together and see if we can't think of something--some
+way out of it."
+
+"A Burglary Company Limited, for instance!" Hamar sneered. "No! I'm
+not having any. I've neither tools nor experience. The San Francisco
+police handle one roughly, so I'm told, and hard labour isn't to my
+liking."
+
+"There are other things besides burglary!" Curtis said in tones of
+annoyance. "We might work a fake."
+
+"If I work anything of that sort," Hamar said hastily, "I work alone.
+Think of something else."
+
+"I tell you Matt and I are pretty well desperate," Curtis cried, "and
+if we don't think of something soon, we shan't be able to think at
+all. We've tried our level best to get work--we've answered every
+likely and unlikely advertisement in the papers--and all to no
+purpose. So if Providence won't help us we must help ourselves.
+Robbery, burglary, fakes, anything short of murder--it's all the same
+to us now--we're tired of starving--dead sick of it. We would do
+anything, sell our very souls for a meal. My God! I never imagined how
+terrible it is to feel so hungry. You appear to be interested, Matt.
+What is it?"
+
+"Why, look here, you fellows!" Kelson said slowly. "This book is all
+about a place called Atlantis that is said to have existed in the
+Atlantic Ocean between America and Ireland, and to have been deluged
+by an earthquake owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants. They
+practised sorcery."
+
+"Practised foolery," Hamar said. "It's tosh--all tosh! Wickedness is
+only a matter of climate--and there's no such thing as sorcery."
+
+"So I thought," Kelson replied; "but I'm not so sure now. The author
+of this book writes darned sensibly, and is apparently at no loss for
+corroborative testimony. He was a professor too. See! Thomas Henry
+Maitland, at one time Professor of English at the University of Basle
+in Switzerland. There's an asterisk against his name and a footnote in
+very old-fashioned handwriting--the 's's' are all 'f's,' and half the
+letters capitals. Listen--
+
+    "'Thomas Maitland, despite the remonstrances of his friends,
+    visited Spain. By order of the Holy Inquisition he was arrested,
+    May 5, 1693, on a charge of practising sorcery, and burned alive
+    at the Auto da Fé, in the Grand Market Square, Madrid; having in
+    the interim been subjected to such tortures as only the subtle
+    brains of the hellish inquisitors could devise. On receipt of a
+    message from him, delivered in his supernatural body, we attended
+    his execution, and can readily testify that he suffered no pain,
+    although the torments endured by those around him were pitiable to
+    behold.
+
+    "(Signed) GEORGE RICHARD POOL, Physician; and ROBERT JAMES FOX,
+    Merchant.
+
+    "Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts; August 1, 1693.'"
+
+"Rot!" Hamar said savagely; "don't waste time reading such bunkum."
+
+"It may be bunkum, but if it takes away his mind from his stomach let
+him go on," Curtis interposed. "It's very obvious you haven't arrived
+at our pitch of starvation yet, Leon, or you would welcome anything
+that would make you forget it even for a moment. Let's hear some more,
+Matt! Go on, tell us something. How to make coyottes out of paraffin
+paint, or convert a Sunday pair of pants into a glistening harem
+skirt! Anything that won't remind us of food."
+
+Thus encouraged Kelson slowly turned over the pages of the book. "I
+see it was printed and published for--I presume that means by--A.
+Bettesworth and J. Batley in Pater-noster-Row, London, England, in
+1690. Basle, London, Boston, Madrid! The author seems to have had
+wandering on the brain. By the bye, Leon, with your features you could
+easily work off a fake as 'the Wandering Jew.' There's money in
+it--people will swallow anything in that line now."
+
+"I don't see how it would profit you anyhow," Hamar snarled. "Leave my
+features alone and go on with your reading."
+
+Kelson chuckled--here was one way at least in which he could
+occasionally get even with Hamar. Hamar's features were Yiddish, and
+the Yids were none too popular in California.
+
+"Oh, all right!" he said; "if the subject is so painful I'll try and
+avoid it in future; but it's odd how some things--for instance, murder
+and noses--will out. Let me see, what have we here? 'Discovery of
+ancient books, manuscripts, etc., relating to Atlantis.' Apparently,
+Thomas Maitland, when shipwrecked on an island, called Inisturk, off
+Mayo, in Ireland, found a wooden chest of rare workmanship--he had
+seen, he says, similar ones in Egypt and Yucatan--containing some very
+ancient books--curiously bound, and some vellum manuscripts, which,
+after an infinite amount of labour, he managed to translate. The
+books, he says, were standard histories, biographies, and scientific
+works on occultism--all published in Banchicheisi, the capital of
+Atlantis--and the manuscripts, he affirms, had been transcribed by one
+Coulmenes, who believed himself to be the only survivor of a
+tremendous submarine earthquake that had destroyed the whole of
+Atlantis. The manuscripts included a diary of the events leading up to
+the catastrophe--even to the meals! How about this?--'Sunrise on the
+day of Thottirnanoge in the month of Finn-ra. Breakfasted on cornsop,
+fish (Semona, corresponding to salmon), fruit, and much sweet milk.'"
+
+"For God's sake, don't!" Curtis groaned. "Skip over that part. The
+very mention of grub makes the gnawing pain in my stomach ten times
+worse."
+
+"You're different to me then!" Hamar grinned; "I love to think of it.
+My word, what wouldn't I give to be in Sadler's now. Roast beef--done
+to a turn, eh! As only Sadler knows how! Potatoes nice and brown and
+crisp! Horseradish! Greens! Boiled celery! Pudding under the meat!
+Beer!--What, going?"
+
+Curtis had risen from the table with his fingers crammed in his ears.
+"There's a fat splice of the devil in you to-night, Leon!" he panted.
+"I've had enough of it. I'm off. Come on, Matt. If you want us, you
+know where to find us--only if we don't get something to eat
+soon--you'll find us dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+For some time after Kelson and Curtis had left him, Hamar lolled back
+in his seat, lost in thought. Thought, as he told himself repeatedly,
+should be the poor man's chief recreation--it costs nothing: and if
+one wants a little variety, and the walls of one's rooms are tolerably
+thick, one can think aloud. Hamar often did, and derived much
+enjoyment from it.
+
+"I'm convinced of one thing," he suddenly broke out; "I'd rather be
+hungry than cold. One can, in a measure, cheat one's stomach by
+chewing leather or sucking pebbles, but I'll be hanged if one can kid
+one's liver. It's cold that does me! A touch of cold on the liver! I
+could jog along comfortably on few dollars for food--but it's a fire,
+a fire I want! The temperature of this room is infernally low after
+sunset: and half a dozen coats and three pairs of pants don't make
+up for half a grateful of fuel. Hunger only makes me think of
+suicide--but cold--cold and a chilled liver--makes me think of crime.
+Yes, it's cold! Cold that would make me a criminal. I would
+steal--burgle--housebreak--cut the sweetest lady's throat in
+Christendom--for a fire!
+
+"There! that little outbreak has relieved me. Now let me have a look
+at the book."
+
+He dragged the volume towards him, and despite the feeling of
+antagonism with which it had inspired him, and despite the cynical
+attitude he had, up to the present, adopted towards the supernatural,
+he speedily became engrossed. On a few leaves, somewhat clumsily
+inserted between the cover and first page of the book, Hamar read an
+account, presumably in the author's own penmanship, of how he, Thomas
+Maitland, after being shipwrecked, had remained on Inisturk Island for
+a fortnight before being rescued, and had spent the greater portion of
+that time in examining the books, etc., in the chest he had found--his
+only food--shell-fish and a keg of mildewy ship's biscuits.
+
+He was taken, so the account ran, by his rescuers, on the barque
+_Hannah_, to London, where he lived for five years. His lodgings were
+in Cheapside, and it was there that he compiled his work on Atlantis,
+having obtained his subject matter from the Atlantean books he had
+managed to bring with him, and which, after an enormous amount of
+perseverance and labour, he had translated into English. Though these
+books were subsequently destroyed in a big fire that demolished the
+entire street, luckily for him, he had sent his MS. to the publishers,
+Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley, a week or so before the conflagration
+broke out; so that he was, at any rate, spared the loss of his own
+arduous and invaluable work.
+
+The publishers did not accept the MS. at once. At that time there were
+very severe laws in operation against anything savouring of witchcraft
+and magic, and as the manuscript dealt at length with these subjects,
+and in a manner that left no doubt whatever that he, Thomas Maitland,
+had practised sorcery extensively, Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were
+forced to consider whether it would be injurious to them to publish
+it. Mrs. Bettesworth was eventually consulted--as indeed she always
+was, on extraordinary occasions--and her interest in the MS. being
+roused, she decided in its favour. Within a week of its publication,
+however, it was suppressed by law; all the copies saving three
+presentation ones to the author, which he successfully concealed, were
+destroyed; Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were put in the stocks on
+Ludgate Hill and fined heavily, and he, Thomas Maitland, was ordered
+to be arrested, flogged and imprisoned.
+
+"But," wrote Maitland, "I was not to be caught napping. My previous
+adventures and hairbreadth escapes had rendered me unusually wary, and
+perceiving a number of people, among whom were two or three sheriff's
+officers, approaching my house, I at once interpreted their mission,
+and climbing through a trap-door leading on to the roof of the
+building, nimbly made my way to the end of the row, and slipping down
+a waterpipe easily eluded my enemies. London, however, being now too
+hot to hold me, I booked passage on board the _Peterkin_, a Thames
+trading vessel of some eighty tons, and sailed for Boston. My flight
+had been so hasty that I brought very little with me--nothing in fact
+except the clothes I stood in--a stout winter suit of home-spun brown
+cloth, a cloak, and a pair of good, strong leather leggings--a purse
+of fifty sovereigns (all I had), a knife, pistol and two copies of my
+precious book, the third copy, alas! I had left behind in my hurry."
+
+After giving a few unimportant details as to his life on board ship,
+Maitland went on to say:--
+
+"Owing to a succession of storms the _Peterkin_ was driven out of her
+course, and after narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces on the
+Florida reefs, Lat. 24-1/2° N., Long. 82° W., we ran ashore with the
+loss of only two lives--the second mate and cabin boy--on the Isthmus
+of Yucatan, close to the estuary of a river.[1] Here we were forced to
+spend nearly a year, during which time I made several journeys of
+exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one
+of my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found
+myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once
+recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity,
+elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set
+to work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other
+vegetable growth adhering to it, discovered a superscription in
+Atlantean dialect to the effect that the image had been set up there
+by one Hullir--to commemorate the destruction of Atlantis, of which
+catastrophe Hullir believed himself and his family, _i.e._ his wife
+Ozilmeave and daughters, Taramoo and Nikétoth, and the crew of his
+yacht, the _Chaac-molré_ (ten in number), the sole survivors.
+
+"Here, then, to my unutterable joy, was strong corroborative evidence
+of the great disaster narrated in detail in the manuscripts I had
+found in Inisturk Island. The existence of Atlantis was now thoroughly
+substantiated. On all sides of me I stumbled across further evidences
+of these early settlers. Here, standing in bold outline on a slight
+eminence, was a stone edifice adorned with symbolical carvings of
+eggs, harps, mastodons, triangles, and numerous other objects, all of
+which were capable of interpretation, and indicated that the building
+was a temple to some god.
+
+"I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity in many of the
+things I saw--notably in the sphinx, idols and symbols--to many I had
+seen in Egypt, and to some extent in Ireland, and I at once set to
+work to draw up a careful analogy between the languages of those
+countries.
+
+"The word Banchicheisi[2] I found to contain the Celtic ban, a barrow;
+and Coptic isi, plenty; whilst I recognized in the words Coulmenes,[3]
+the Celtic Coul, a man's name, _i.e._ Finn, son of Coul; in
+Thottirnanoge, the Coptic Thoth, _i.e._ name of ancient Egyptian
+deity, and Erse Tirnanoge, the name of the wife of Oisin, the last of
+the Feni; in Chaac-molrée[4] the Coptic deity, ré; in Ozilmeave,[5]
+the Celtic Meave, a girl's name; in Taramoo,[6] the Celtic Tara, a
+girl's name; and in Nikétoth,[7] toth, the Erse technical form of
+feminine gender; and comparing the alphabets I traced a very striking
+likeness between the Atlantean--
+
+"[Atlantean: a] (a) and the Gaelic or Erse [Erse: A]
+[Atlantean: B] (B) and the Coptic [Coptic: B]
+[Atlantean: d] (d) and Erse [Erse: D]
+[Atlantean: g] (g) and Erse [Erse: g]
+[Atlantean: T] (T) and Coptic [Coptic: T]
+
+"and many of the other letters. To the Atlantean
+
+"[Atlantean: C, O, E, Z][8]
+
+"I could, however, find no likeness.
+
+"From all these similarities, _i.e._ in architecture, symbols,
+letters, and words, I could come to no other conclusion than that
+there was some strong connecting link between Atlantis and ancient
+Ireland and Egypt.
+
+"Assuredly this great link could not have been merely due to stray
+survivors of the great catastrophe! Was it not much more probable that
+the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Egypt had originally migrated
+from Atlantis, carrying its language, and ways and customs with them?
+Moreover, since the Atlanteans were so deeply versed in magic and
+everything appertaining to the occult, this migration would account
+for the mysticism that has always been so closely associated with
+Egypt and Ireland, and for the psychic faculty so strongly observable
+in the inhabitants of these two countries.
+
+"I was highly satisfied--I had proved much and my discoveries had
+upset many of the theories advanced by the modern sages. I could now
+positively assert that the wisdom of the world came not from the East
+but from the West. It was to the golden West--to Banchicheisi, capital
+of Atlantis, that humanity owed its knowledge of the sciences and
+arts, and of all things good and evil. Eden, if Eden existed at all,
+was not in Asia, it was in Atlantis; and the Deluge, that is recorded
+in the Hebrew Bible, and is traditional in the histories of nearly
+every tribe and nation, was none other than the mighty inrush of the
+ocean over Atlantis, due to some abnormal submarine earthquake.
+
+"Of what eventually became of the Atlanteans whose relics I had so
+opportunely alighted upon, I could only surmise.
+
+"The last record I found was on a tablet set up by Nikétoth. On this
+she spoke of the death of Hullir and Ozilmeave, of the inter-marriage
+of the crew of the _Chaac-molré_ with native women; of the consequent
+growth of the colony; and of her determination to leave it, and,
+accompanied by a chosen few, to push her way further inland.[9]
+
+"The anxiety of my comrades to leave the continent, perforce put an
+end to my explorations, and in the beginning of the year 1692--exactly
+ten months after our landing--the _Peterkin_ was refloated.
+
+"This time nothing happened to impede our progress, and in April of
+the same year, we sighted Boston. Here I remained for some months,
+making many new friends, and studying magic and sorcery. But the love
+of travel had laid so strong a hold on me that I again took to a
+roving life. I set sail for Spain in November 1692; landed at Corunna,
+and made my way to Madrid, where I arrived on January 1, 1693."
+
+For the rest, Hamar had to turn to Messrs. Fox and Pool's addendum,
+_i.e._ the footnote that Matt Kelson had read aloud.
+
+Hamar was now inclined to regard the book in a very different light.
+What he had read seemed to him to be set down in too simple,
+straightforward, and, at the same time, detailed a manner to be other
+than true. Up to the present he had not believed in ghosts and
+witches, for the very simple reason that--like all sceptics--he had
+never inquired into the testimony respecting them. He had pooh-poohed
+the subject, because every one he knew pooh-poohed it, and also
+because it had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But
+provided he thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in
+anything--in Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or
+any other creed; and granted the book he had in his hands was
+really written by Maitland, and Maitland was _bona fide_ (which Hamar
+saw no reason to doubt), and granted, also, that Maitland was sane and
+logical--which from his writing he certainly appeared to be--then
+there was a certain amount in the volume that in Hamar's opinion
+was "a find." Needless to say, he referred to the magic of the
+Atlanteans--the art through the practice of which they had got in
+touch with the Powers that could endow them with riches. The actual
+history of Atlantis--once he was satisfied there had been such a
+place--did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly, and I
+append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent and
+disinterested readers.
+
+The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world--they
+existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their
+mariners and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom
+their novelists wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore
+Cooper and Mayne Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful
+stories about the Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they
+believed that, in the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that
+some of these Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst
+others--neither benevolent nor malevolent--were merely neutral. To the
+benevolent creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in
+the world (_i.e._ certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals,
+insects, and pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and
+agreeable in the human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the
+arts and sciences--in a word all that in any degree affected the
+welfare of mankind; and to the malevolent creative Powers they
+attributed all that was noxious in creation; all that was harmful to
+man, and detrimental to his moral and physical progress (_i.e._
+diseases, and all savage and filthy passions); all races of low
+intelligence, viz. Paleolithic and Neolithic man--and all those born
+with black or red skins (those colours being particularly significant
+of the malignant Occult Elements); all destructive animals; (_i.e._
+reptiles such as the teleosaurus, steneosaurus, etc.; birds, such as
+the ptereodactyl, vulture, eagle, etc.; mammals, such as the cave
+lion, cave tiger, etc.; fish, such as the shark, octopus, etc.); and
+all ugly and venomous insects.
+
+These earliest records show that at one time the physical and
+superphysical world were in close touch; all kinds of spirits--trolls,
+pixies, nymphs, satyrs, imps, Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.--mixing
+freely with living human beings; but that as the population increased
+and civilization evolved, superphysical manifestations became more and
+more rare, until finally they became restricted to certain conditions
+dependent on time and locality.[10]
+
+Up to this period there had been no state religion--no temples in
+Atlantis. If any one wished for a particular favour from the Occult
+Powers--for example, from the Rabsés, the Occult Powers of music; the
+Brakvos, the Occult Powers of medicine; or the Derinas, the Occult
+Powers of love, they retired to some secluded spot and held direct
+intercourse with these Powers. The idea of praying to an invisible
+being--who might or might not hear them--never entered their minds;
+they were far too matter of fact for that--and it was not until
+superphysical manifestations had become confined to a very select few,
+that the plan of erecting public buildings in spots frequented by the
+spirits, so that all who wished could assemble there and communicate
+with them, was proposed and put into operation. In these buildings,
+however, the spirits did not choose always, to appear to
+order--sometimes they quitted the spot where the edifice had been
+erected; sometimes they would only appear there periodically; and
+sometimes, out of perversity, they would appear when least expected.
+But whether occult manifestations really took place in these buildings
+or not, those assembled to see them were persuaded by those in charge
+of the building, who saw thereby an opportunity of making money, that
+the spirits were actually there; and in due time these buildings
+became known as temples, and their showmen as priests. Every temple
+was dedicated to an individual spirit--one to the Spirit Bara-boo;
+another to the Spirit Karaboro, and so on; whilst in the absence of
+genuine spirit manifestations, prayers, incantations and rituals,
+invented by the priests, always attracted a large concourse of people
+to these temples, and finally proved a greater source of attraction
+than the spirits themselves.
+
+It was to gain favours from the Occult Powers that donations from the
+public were at first invited, then demanded; and the priests in this
+manner accumulated vast fortunes. Later on, too, there sprang up, in
+connection with these temples, colleges for the training of young
+men--invariably selected from the wealthy classes--to the priesthood;
+and from the parents of these youthful aspirants large fees, which in
+course of time became exorbitant, were extracted, thereby furnishing
+another source of revenue to the priests. The most famous colleges for
+the training of priests in Atlantis were those of Bara-boo-rek[11] at
+Keisionwo, Karaboro-rek at Diniangek, and Ballygarap-rek at Tijimin.
+
+It was in the reign of Barrahneil,[12] fifty-first sovereign of the
+Dynasty of Shaotak, that the evocation of spirits (from which modern
+spiritualism takes its origin) commenced. Barrahneil was most eager to
+see a superphysical manifestation. Being of a somewhat poetical turn
+of mind he was particularly enamoured of fairies, and in the hope of
+seeing one, constantly frequented their favourite haunts, _i.e._
+woods, caves, and lonely isolated habitations. But all to no
+purpose--they never would manifest themselves to him. At last, he lost
+patience. Against the advice of his oldest and most trusty
+counsellors, and accompanied by one or two of his favourite courtiers,
+he went to an excessively lonely spot in the heart of a desert, and
+besought spirits--spirits of any sort--he did not care what--to
+manifest themselves. To his surprise--for he had grown extremely
+sceptical--an Occult form, half man and half beast,[13] materialized.
+It informed them that it was Daramara, _i.e._ in Atlantis, the
+Unknown--that it had no beginning and no end, and that it would remain
+an impenetrable mystery to them during their existence in the physical
+sphere, but would be fully revealed to them when they passed over into
+Malanok--one of the superphysical planes. On this, and on several
+subsequent occasions, when it manifested itself to them, it gave them
+instructions with regard to evocation, and described to them the tests
+they must undergo before they could acquire the great powers the
+Unknown was able to bestow on them, namely, (1) second sight; (2)
+divining other people's thoughts and detecting the presence of waters
+and metals; (3) thought transference, _i.e._ being able to transmit
+messages, irrespective of distance, from one brain to another without
+any physical medium; (4) hypnotism; (5) the power to hold converse
+with animals; (6) invisibility, _i.e._ dematerializing at will; (7)
+walking on, and breathing under, water; (8) inflicting all manner of
+diseases and torments; (9) curing all kinds of diseases; (10)
+converting people into beasts and minerals; (11) foretelling the
+future by palmistry, pyromancy, hydromancy, astrology, etc.; (12)
+conjuring up all manner of spirits antagonistic to men's moral
+progress, _i.e._ Vice Elementals--Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.
+
+Taking every care to observe the greatest secrecy, Barrahneil caused a
+full account of these interviews with Daramara, together with all the
+instructions the latter had given him, to be transcribed in a book,
+which he called _Brahnapotek_[14]--or the _Book of Mysteries_; and
+which he kept sealed and guarded in a room in his palace.
+
+During his lifetime no one held communication with Daramara saving
+himself and his friends, but after his death the secret of black magic
+leaked out; countless people sought to acquire it, and ultimately the
+practice of it became universal. But the Atlanteans little knew the
+danger they were incurring. The spirits they conjured up--though at
+first subservient, that is to say, mere instruments--at length
+obtained complete dominion over them--the whole race became steeped in
+crime and vice of every kind--and so horrible were the enormities
+perpetrated that, fearful lest Man should be entirely obliterated the
+benevolent Occult Powers, after a desperate struggle with the
+malevolent Occult Powers, succeeded, by means of a vast earthquake, in
+submerging the Continent and hurling it to the bottom of the Atlantic
+Ocean, where, what remains of it, now lies. This catastrophe took
+place in the reign of Aboonirin, twentieth sovereign of the Dynasty of
+Molonekin--three thousand years after the reign of Barrahneil.
+
+So ran the history of Atlantis, or at least all of it that need be
+quoted for the elucidation of this story. That Black Magic--the Black
+Art of the Atlanteans was by no means dead--Hamar felt convinced, and
+if Maitland could resuscitate it--why could not he? At any rate he
+might try. He could lose nothing by giving it a trial--at least
+nothing to speak of--the outlay on chemicals would be a mere
+song--whereas, on the other hand, what might he not gain! He eagerly
+perused the tests--the test he must impose upon himself before he
+could get in touch with the Unknown, and acquire the magic
+powers--which, according to Thomas Maitland, were copied from the
+original Brahnapotek, and including a preface, ran as follows:
+(_Preface_) "It is essential that the person desirous of being
+initiated into the Black Art--the Art of communicating with the
+Unknown (Daramara) in order to acquire certain great powers, should
+dismiss from his mind all ideas of moral progress, and wholly
+concentrate on the bettering of his material self--on acquiring riches
+and fame in the physical sphere. His aspirations must be entirely
+earthly, and all his affections subordinate to his main desire for
+wealth and carnal pleasures. Having acquired this preliminary
+psychological stage, for one clear week he must give himself up
+entirely to the breaking of all the conventionalities of morality with
+which society is hedged in. He must practice every kind of
+deception--lie, cheat and steal, and go out of his way to seek an
+opportunity to avenge any personal injury; and if his mind is
+earnestly and wholly concentrated on acquiring knowledge of the Black
+Art no bodily mishap will befall him. During this time of probation he
+must will himself to dream, at night, of all the deeds he had it in
+his mind to do, during the day; when he will know, by his visions, to
+what extent he is progressing. At the end of the week he must apply
+the tests to see if he is in a ripe state to proceed.
+
+    "The tests--
+
+    "No. 1. At midnight, when the moon is full, place a mirror, set in
+    a wooden frame, in a tub of water, so that it will float on the
+    surface with its face uppermost. Put in the water fifteen grains
+    of bicarbonate of potash, and sprinkle it with three drops of
+    blood, not necessarily human If the reflection of the moon in the
+    mirror then appear crimson, the test is satisfactorily
+    accomplished.
+
+    "No. 2. At midnight, when the moon is full, take a black cat, place
+    it where the moonbeams are thickest, sprinkle it with three drops
+    of blood, not necessarily human, and rub its coat with the palm of
+    the hand. Sparks will then be given out, and if those sparks
+    appear crimson the test is satisfactorily done.
+
+    "No. 3. Take a human skull--preferably that of some person who has
+    met with an unnatural end, pour on it a single drop of fresh,
+    human blood--place it on a couch, and go to sleep with the back
+    part of the head resting on it. If you are awakened, at the second
+    hour after midnight, by hearing a great commotion close at hand,
+    and the room is then discovered to be full of crimson light, the
+    test is satisfactorily fulfilled.
+
+    "No. 4. Take half a score of the berries of enchanter's
+    nightshade,[15] two ounces of hemlock leaves in powder, and one
+    ounce of red sorrel leaves. Heat them in an oven for two hours,
+    pound them together, in a mortar, and at midnight boil them in
+    water. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, remove them from
+    the fire and stand them in a dark place; and if the experiment is
+    to prove satisfactory, three bubbles of luminous green light will
+    rise simultaneously from the water and burst.
+
+    "No. 5. In the above preparation after the test described, soak a
+    hazel twig, fashioned in the shape of a fork. On meeting a child
+    hold the fork with the V downwards in front of its face, and if
+    the child exhibits violence and signs of terror, and falls down,
+    the experiment is successful.
+
+    "No. 6. Take a couple of handfuls of fine soil from over the spot
+    where some four-footed animal has recently been buried. Put it in
+    a tin vessel, mix with it three ounces of assafoetida and one
+    drachm of quassia chips, to which add a death's-head moth
+    (_Acherontia atropos_). Heat the vessel over a wood fire for three
+    hours. Then remove it and place it on the hearth, rake out the
+    fire and make the room absolutely dark. Keep watch beside the
+    vessel, and if, at the second hour after midnight, any strange
+    phenomena occur, the test will be known to have been
+    satisfactorily executed.
+
+    "(_Addendum_) If any of these tests fail the candidate must wait
+    for six months before giving them a further trial, and he must
+    occupy the interim by training his thoughts in the manner already
+    prescribed. But if, on the other hand, the tests have been
+    successfully performed, he can proceed with the rites appertaining
+    to the Black Art."
+
+Hamar had read so far when, with a gesture of impatience, he closed
+the book. "What a fool I am!" he exclaimed, "to waste my time with
+such stuff!... But Maitland writes in such a devilish convincing way!
+Jerusalem! Any straw is good enough for the drowning man, and if
+witchcraft and sorcery with motors dashing by every second and the
+whole air alive with wireless and telephones, is a bit beyond my
+comprehension, what then? All I care about is money--and I'll leave no
+stone unturned to get it. If it were possible for man to get in touch
+with Daramara--the Unknown--Devil, or whatever else it chooses to call
+itself--I'll call it an angel if it only gives me money--twenty
+thousand years ago--why shouldn't it be possible to get in touch with
+it now? Anyhow as I said before, I'll have a try. As far as the
+preliminary stage is concerned, I fancy I'm pretty well fixed. My mind
+is occupied right enough with things of this world--I don't give a
+cent for anything belonging to another--and if only I had half a dozen
+souls, I'd sell them right away now, for less than twenty thousand
+dollars--a damned sight less. As for these tests--foolish isn't the
+word for them--but it won't cost much just to try them.... Now,
+according to Thomas Maitland, the ceremony of calling up the Unknown
+stands a far greater chance of success if there are three human beings
+present ... but, of course, if there is any truth in this business,
+I'd rather keep the secret of it to myself. However, if I try alone,
+the Unknown may not come to me, and then I shall have had all the
+trouble of going through the tests for nothing!... Ah! now I see! If
+the other two get more of the profits than I think necessary--I can
+make use of my newly acquired Occult Power to--to dissolve
+partnership! Ha! ha! I could--I could trick the Unknown if it comes to
+that. Trust a Jew to outwit the Devil! I'll just look up Kelson
+and--Curtis."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 1: The river referred to by Maitland is the river
+  Lagartos, which was then (1691) unnamed.]
+
+  [Footnote 2: For chiche compare the ancient Maya or Yucatan word
+  Chicken-Itza (_i.e._ name of town in Yucatan where excavations are
+  now taking place--1912).]
+
+  [Footnote 3: For Menes compare Mayan Menes, wise men.]
+
+  [Footnote 4: Compare Mayan Chaac-mol, a leopard.]
+
+  [Footnote 5: Compare Ozil, Mayan for well-beloved.]
+
+  [Footnote 6: Moo, Mayan for Macaw.]
+
+  [Footnote 7: Niké, woman's name in Mayan.]
+
+  [Footnote 8: Recent (1912) discoveries of statues in Easter Island
+  still further corroborate the sinking of Atlantis.
+
+  The Atlantean character [C] resembles the Easter Island [C] (C)
+          "         "     [O]     "        "      "       [O] (O)
+          "         "     [E]     "        "      "       [E] (E)
+          "         "     [Z]     "        "      "       [Z] (Z)
+
+  It will be noticed that all the Atlantean characters are
+  distinguished by additional curling strokes.]
+
+  [Footnote 9: In all probability she was the founder of Chicken-Itza,
+  the capital of Yucatan.]
+
+  [Footnote 10: Types of Elementals still to be met with in certain
+  localities (vide _Byeways of Ghostland_, published by Rider & Son).]
+
+  [Footnote 11: Compare Egyptian ré.]
+
+  [Footnote 12: Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil
+  was the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is
+  every possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to
+  Ireland, carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic--to which
+  might be traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.]
+
+  [Footnote 13: Probably a Vice Elemental.]
+
+  [Footnote 14: All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were
+  founded on it.]
+
+  [Footnote 15: Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in
+  botany as _Circæa_. It is found in damp, shady places and was used
+  to a very large extent in mediæval sorcery.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LEARNING TO SIN
+
+
+Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the
+Popes hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are
+wont to entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there
+were no massive granite steps flanked with equally massive
+pillars--such as herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare
+glass bow-windows looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast
+betiled hall, with rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak
+staircases; no frescoed ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk
+draperies; and no sweet perfumery--only the smell, if one may so
+suddenly sink to a third-class expression--only the smell of rank
+tobacco and equally rank lager beer. No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis
+resided within a stone's throw of the five cent baths in Rutter
+Street--and that was the nearest they ever got to bathing. Their suite
+of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by eight feet, which
+served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir, kitchen,
+bedroom, and--from sheer force of habit, I was about to add bathroom;
+but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs and
+chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
+furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
+reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
+six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes--a pair of
+discarded overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck
+wrap, a yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round
+and rather rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited
+number of culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most
+important. Its handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for
+frying, roasting and boiling, did duty for a teapot and a slop-basin.
+They had no crockery. They had only one thing in abundance--namely,
+air; for the lower frame of the window having long lacked glass in it,
+a couple of pages of the _Examiner_, fixed in it, flapped dismally
+every time the wind came blowing down 216th Street.
+
+They had not lived there always. In the palmy days of work, before the
+firm smashed, they had aspired to what might properly be called
+diggings; and, moreover, had "digged" in respectable surroundings. It
+was the usual thing--the thing that is happening always, every hour of
+the day, in all the great cities of the world--starvation, through
+lack of employment. Civilization still shuts its eyes to everyday
+poverty. Who knows? Who cares? Who is responsible? No one. Is there a
+remedy? Ah! that is a question that requires time. Time--always time!
+Time for the politician, and time for the starving ones! Half the
+world thinks, whilst half the world dies; and the cause of it all is
+time--too much, a damned sight too much--time!
+
+But Kelson and Curtis could not grumble. They had their room--bare,
+dirty and well-ventilated--for next to nothing. Fifty cents a week!
+And they could furnish it as they pleased. Fancy that! What a
+privilege! They were glad of it all the same--glad of it in preference
+to the streets; and probably, when asleep, they thought of it as home.
+But on leaving Hamar's, that evening, they had fully resolved to
+convert their little room into a cemetery. What else could they do?
+What can any one do who has no money and no prospect of getting any,
+and who has reached the pitch of acute hunger? He has passed the stage
+of wanting work, because, if work were offered to him, he would not be
+in a fit state to do it--he would be too weak. Too weak to work! What
+a phenomenon! Yes--to all those who have never missed a day's meals.
+To others--no! They can understand--and understand only too well--the
+really poor who have long ceased to eat, cannot work--they are beyond
+it.
+
+When Curtis and Kelson staggered down the stairs of the house where
+Hamar lodged, they realized that unless something turned up pretty
+soon, it would be too late--they would be past the stage of caring for
+anything--too feeble to do anything but lie on the ground and pray
+that death would come quickly.
+
+"Home?" Kelson inquired, as they emerged on to the pavement.
+
+"Hell!" Curtis answered, and Kelson, taking it for granted that the
+terms were synonymous, at once headed for their garret.
+
+"Don't walk so confoundedly fast," Curtis gasped; "this pain in my
+side is like a hundred stitches rolled in one. It fairly doubles me
+up. Ease down a bit, for heaven's sake!"
+
+Kelson obeyed, and presently came to a dead halt before a
+dingy-looking restaurant. Both men leaned against the window and gazed
+wolfishly at the food. A warm, foetid rush of air from under the
+grating at their feet tickled their nostrils and mocked their hunger
+with a mockery past endurance. Arranged on the window-sill was a
+miscellaneous collection of very smeary plates and dishes, containing
+an even more miscellaneous collection of food. A half-consumed ham,
+with more than a mere suspicion of dirt on its yellowish-white fat;
+some concoction in a bowl that might have been brawn made from some
+peculiarly liverish pig, or--from one of the many homeless mongrels
+that roam the streets at night; a pile of noxious-looking mussels,
+side by side with a glistening mass of particularly yellow whelks; a
+round of what purported to be beef--very fat and very underdone; some
+black shiny sausages, and a score or so of luridly red polonies. A
+similar assortment was to be seen on the counter behind which lolled
+an anæmic girl, in a dirty cotton blouse, and a much soiled sky-blue
+skirt.
+
+A month ago such an exhibition would have been an offence in the
+fastidious eyes of Messrs. Kelson and Curtis; but now it was
+otherwise. Their stomachs would have refused nothing short of garbage.
+
+"Matt!" Curtis's hands had left off clutching at his belt and were now
+hanging by his side; the fingers twitching to and fro in a manner that
+fascinated Kelson. "Matt! Is there any logic in our starving?"
+
+"None, excepting that we haven't a cent between us!" Kelson rejoined.
+
+"I know that," Curtis went on slowly, "but--I mean--why should we
+starve when all this grub is within two inches of us! It's
+unreasonable--it's intolerable."
+
+"Doesn't the smell of it satisfy you?" Kelson replied, attempting to
+force a smile, and failing dismally.
+
+"D--n the smell!" Curtis cried. "It's the ham I want. I'd give my soul
+for a good munch at it. And just look at that tea, too! Don't you see
+it steaming over there? What wouldn't I give for just one cup! Ten
+minutes more and it may be too late. The pain will come on again--and
+it will be very doubtful if I shall ever get home. I'm close on the
+stage when one begins to digest one's own stomach. Curse it! I won't
+starve any longer! Matt! she's in there all by herself!"
+
+"So I've been thinking," Kelson murmured, glancing uneasily up and
+down the street. "Still she's a girl, Ed!"
+
+"That's just it!" Curtis whispered; "it is because she is a girl. If
+she were a man, in our present condition we shouldn't stand a chance.
+Come! It's this or dying in the gutters. It's our one and only chance.
+Let's go in--have a feed--take what we can and make a bolt for it. If
+she tries to stop us we can settle her right enough."
+
+"Without being too rough! There's no need to be too rough with her,
+Ed."
+
+"I shouldn't stick at much!" Curtis answered. "Occasions like these
+don't admit of chivalry. Come along! It's the ham I'm after."
+
+Curtis shuffled forward as he spoke, and the next moment Kelson and he
+were standing in front of the counter.
+
+The girl eyed Curtis very dubiously and it is more than likely would
+have refused to serve him had he been alone. But her expression
+changed on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who
+seldom fail to meet with the approval of women--there was a something
+in him they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined
+that something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now.
+
+"What do you want?" she inquired shortly.
+
+"Ham! Give me some of that ham over there, miss, and a cup of tea!
+Bread too!" Curtis cried eagerly. "Do you know what it is to have a
+twist on, miss? I have one on now--so please give us a full
+twenty-five cents' worth."
+
+Kelson said nothing, but his eyes glistened, and the girl wondered as
+she passed him the polonies.
+
+Both men ate as they had never eaten before, and as they would not have
+eaten now had they paid any attention to the advice of hunger experts.
+However, they survived, and when they could eat no more they leaned
+back in their chairs to enjoy the sensation of returning--albeit,
+slowly returning--strength.
+
+Curtis was the first to make a move. "Matt," he murmured, "we've about
+sat our sit. We'd better be off. You go and say a few nice words to
+the girl and make pretence of paying. I'll secure the ham--there's
+still a good bit left--and anything else I can grab. The moment I do
+this, throw these chairs on the ground so that the girl will fall over
+them when she makes a dash for me, which she is certain to do. We will
+then head straight away for 216th Street. Don't look so scared or she
+will think there is something up. She has never taken her eyes off you
+since we sat down!"
+
+"She's rather a nice girl!" Kelson said. "I wish I didn't look quite
+such a blackguard--and--I wish I hadn't to be quite such a blackguard.
+Who'll pay for all this? Will she?"
+
+"We shan't, anyway," Curtis sneered. "Come, this is no time to be
+sentimental. It was a question of life and death with us, and we've
+only done what any one else would do in our circumstances. The girl
+won't lose much! Are you ready?"
+
+Curtis rose, and Kelson, who was accustomed to obey him, reluctantly
+followed suit. A look almost suggestive of fear came into the girl's
+eyes as they encountered those of Curtis, and she shot a swift glance
+at an inner door. Then Kelson spoke, and as she turned her head
+towards him, her lips parted in a sort of smile.
+
+"Nice night, miss, isn't it?" Kelson said, halting half-way between
+the counter and the chairs. "Aren't you a bit lonely here all by
+yourself?"
+
+"Sometimes," the girl laughed. "But my mother's in the room there,"
+and she nodded in the direction of the closed door. "And one can't be
+dull when she's about. She's that there active as a rule, there's no
+keeping her quiet--only just at present"--here she glanced
+apprehensively at Curtis--"she's recovering from ague. Gets it every
+year about this time. Your friend seems to have kind of taken a fancy
+to our ham!"
+
+Kelson looked at Curtis and his heart thumped. Curtis's right hand was
+getting ready to spring at the ham, whilst his left was creeping
+stealthily along the counter in the direction of a loaf of bread.
+Kelson slowly realized that an acute crisis in both their lives was at
+hand, and that it depended on him how it would end. He had never
+thought it possible to feel as mean as he felt now. Besides, his
+natural sympathy with women tempted him to stand by the girl and
+prevent Curtis from robbing her. He was still deliberating, when he
+saw two long dark objects, with lightning rapidity, swoop down on the
+plates and dishes. There was a loud clatter, and the next moment the
+whole place seemed alive with movement.
+
+A voice which in his confusion he did not recognize at once
+shouted--and seemingly from far away--"Quick, you fool, quick! Fling
+down the chairs and grab those sausages!" Whilst from close beside
+him--almost, he fancied, in his ears--came a wild shriek of "Mother!
+Mother! We are being robbed!"
+
+Had the girl appealed to him to help her it is more than likely that
+Kelson, who was even yet undecided what course to adopt, would have
+offered her his aid; but the instant she acted on the defensive his
+mind was made up; a mad spirit of self-preservation swept over
+him--and dashing the chairs on the ground at her feet, he seized the
+sausages, and flew after Curtis.
+
+Ten minutes later, Curtis and Kelson, their arms full of spoil,
+clambered up the staircase of their lodgings, and reeled into their
+room.
+
+"Look!" Curtis gasped, sinking into the chair. "Look and see if we are
+followed!"
+
+"There's no one about!" Kelson whispered, peering cautiously out of
+the window. "Not a soul! I don't believe after that first rush across
+Rutter Street, any one noticed us. To leave off running was far the
+best thing to do. You are a perfect genius, Ed. I wonder if this sort
+of thing--er--thieving--is dormant in most of us? I say, old fellow, I
+wish I hadn't looked at that book of Hamar's. Do you know, directly I
+took it up, an extraordinary sensation of cunning came over me; and I
+declare, when I put it down, I felt it would take very little to make
+me a criminal!"
+
+"We're both criminals now--in the eyes of the law--anyway!" Curtis
+said. "And now we've got so far there's no alternative but to go on!
+It's easier for a hundred camels to pass through the eye of a needle
+than for a clerk to get work, that's a fact. The markets are
+hopelessly overstocked--no one wants us! No one helps us! No one even
+thinks about us. The labouring man gets pity and cents galore--we get
+nothing!--nothing but rotten pay whilst we work, and when we're out of
+work, dosshouses or kerbstones. D--n clerks, I say. D--n everything!
+There's no justice in creation--there's no justice in anything--and
+the only people who prate of it are those who have never known what it
+is to want. Say, when shall we take the next lot?"
+
+"When we're obliged, not before!" Kelson said. "Or rather, you do as
+you like--and I'll do the same."
+
+"Well, I'm not going to commit suicide anyhow," Curtis sneered. "We
+haven't the money to buy poison--and I've no mind to drown myself or
+cut my throat--they're too painful! If we don't go on doing what we've
+done to-night, what are we going to do?"
+
+"Trust to luck," Kelson sighed.
+
+"All right--you trust to luck--but I won't trust any more in
+Providence, and that's a fact," Curtis retorted. "We've been done
+enough. Now I'm for doing other people. Good-night."
+
+He tumbled into the makeshift bed as he spoke; and in a few minutes,
+worn out after the unwonted exertions of the evening, both men were
+fast asleep.
+
+They were at breakfast next morning--real _déjeuner à la
+carte_--sausages, bread, water--and they were doing ample justice to
+it, when some one rapped at the door. For a few seconds there was
+silence. Their hearts stood still. Had they been followed, after all?
+Was it the police? Some one spoke--and they breathed again. It was
+Hamar.
+
+"This looks like starving, I must say!" Hamar exclaimed, as he sniffed
+his way into the room and sat on the bed. "Why, from what you fellows
+told me last night I thought you were cleared out. And here you are,
+stuffing like roosters! You look a bit surprised to see me, but you'll
+look more surprised, I reckon, when I tell you what brings me here.
+You remember that book?"
+
+Kelson and Curtis nodded.
+
+"Well," Hamar went on. "I read it after you left last night, and I've
+come to the conclusion that there's something in it that may be of use
+to us."
+
+"Us!" Curtis ejaculated.
+
+"Yes! Us!" Hamar mimicked. "It contains full particulars of how we can
+get in touch with certain Occult Powers--that can give us money or
+anything else we want!"
+
+"Rot, of course!" Curtis said.
+
+"You say that now. But, listen to me," Hamar replied. "Since I've read
+that book, I believe there's a lot more in Occultism than people
+imagine. You may recollect the name of the author of the book--Thomas
+Maitland? Well! to begin with, he impresses me as being truthful; and
+he not only believed in Magic but he practised it. If he hadn't gone
+into details I shouldn't think anything of it, but he's so darned
+thorough, and tells you exactly what you've got to do to get in touch
+with the Occult Powers and to practise sorcery. He learned it all from
+that old MS. he found, written by an Atlantean; and the Atlanteans, he
+says, were adepts in every form of Occultism. I tell you, this chap
+himself scoffed at it at first; and it was more out of curiosity, he
+says, than because he was convinced, that he began to experiment. He
+afterwards came to the conclusion that the Atlanteans were no fools.
+What they had written about the Occult was absolutely correct--there
+was another world, and it was possible to get in touch with it. Now,
+if Thomas Maitland was able to practise sorcery, why can't we? There
+was a gap of close on twenty thousand years between his time and that
+of Atlantis, and there's not much more than two hundred years between
+his day and ours. But, of course, if you're going to pooh-pooh the
+whole thing I won't trouble to tell you any more!"
+
+"Well, Leon," Kelson ejaculated, "magic and sorcery do seem a trifle
+out of date, don't they? Could any one look out of the window at what
+is going on in the streets below, and at the same time believe in
+fairies and hobgoblins? Still the book made a bit of an impression on
+me, so that I'm inclined to agree with you. Anyway, go ahead! Ed is
+agreeable, aren't you, Ed?"
+
+Curtis gave a sulky nod. "I'm not averse to anything that may put us
+in the way of a livelihood," he said.
+
+Hamar, somewhat appeased, briefly informed them of the tests and other
+preliminaries necessary for the acquirement of the Black Art, and
+without more ado proposed that they--the three of them--should form a
+Syndicate and call it the Sorcery Company Limited. "To begin with," he
+said, "we might sell tricks and spells, and later on tackle something
+more subtle. Why, we could soon knock all the jugglers and doctors on
+the head--and make a huge fortune."
+
+"That is to say if it isn't all humbug!" Curtis observed.
+
+"Well--do you or don't you think it worth trying?" Hamar cut in. "You
+call me a Jew--but Jews, you know, have a tolerably cool head, and a
+keen faculty for business. They don't touch anything unless it is
+pretty certain to bring them in money. Will you try?"
+
+"Y-e-s!" Curtis said slowly; "I'll try."
+
+"And you, Matt?" Hamar queried. "We must have three."
+
+"I don't mind trying," Kelson replied. "I expect it will be only a
+try."
+
+"That settles it, then!" Hamar cried. "Now, we'll get to business. To
+begin with we're all wholly occupied with things of this world--money
+chiefly!"
+
+"Sometimes music!" Curtis said sententiously.
+
+"And sometimes girls," Kelson joined in. "Music's a pose on Ed's part.
+I don't believe he really cares a bit for it. He's far too material."
+
+"Just what I want him to be!" Hamar laughed. "Girls are material
+enough too--especially when you take them out to supper. Anyhow, money
+is our first consideration, isn't it?"
+
+To this there was general assent.
+
+"The preliminary requirement is fixed then," Hamar said. "Now for the
+week of wild oats! Lying, stealing, cheating--anything to counteract
+the code of Moses! Let's take them in turn. Lying won't trouble us
+much. Every one lies. Lying is the stock-in-trade of doctors, lawyers,
+sky pilots, storekeepers--"
+
+"And dentists!" Curtis chimed in.
+
+"And shop girls!" Kelson added.
+
+"All women--rich as well as poor!" Hamar went on. "Lying is woman's
+birthright. She lies about her age, her looks, her clothes--everything.
+With a lie she sends callers away, and when she is in the mood,
+entertains them with lies. Women are born liars, but they are not the
+only liars. In these days of keen competition every one lies--every
+editor, publisher, undertaker, piano-tuner, dustman--they couldn't live
+if they didn't. Moreover lying is natural to us all. Every child lies
+as soon as it can speak; and education merely teaches him to lie the
+more effectually. Lying comes just as natural as sweating--"
+
+"Or kissing," Kelson interrupted.
+
+"Or any of the other so-called vices," Hamar continued. "So we can
+manage that all right. As to cheating--having nothing to cheat
+with--according to instructions we've got to keep in with each other,
+so present company is excepted--we must pass over that. Now--how about
+thieving!"
+
+"Never done any yet, so can't say," Curtis exclaimed.
+
+"Nor I either," Kelson put in rather hurriedly.
+
+"Well, I didn't suppose you had!" Hamar laughed; "though, after all,
+more than half the world does thieve--all employers steal labour from
+their employés, all tradesmen steal a profit--the wholesale man from
+the middleman--the middleman from the retailer. Every Government
+thieves. Look at England--righteous England! At one time or another
+she has stolen land in every part of the world. But theft is an ugly
+word. When statesmen steal it's called diplomacy, when the rich steal
+it's called kleptomania or business, and it's only when the poor steal
+that stealing is termed theft. We who have every excuse--we who are
+starving--will be content with--that is to say--we will only
+take--just enough to keep us alive--a few lumps of sugar, a handful of
+raisins, or a loaf of bread. How about that?"
+
+"I might manage that," Curtis said. "I might--but I don't want to get
+caught."
+
+"And you, Matt?"
+
+"I don't mind stealing food so much," Kelson said. "In the face of so
+much wealth--and waste too--it seems a bigger sin to starve than to
+steal a loaf of bread."
+
+"The lying and stealing are fixed then," Hamar laughed. "What you have
+to do, too, is to make the most of every opportunity you can find of
+doing people--present company excepted--bad turns."
+
+"I don't see how--in our present condition--we can do any one much
+harm," Curtis remarked. "We haven't even the means to buy a tin sword,
+let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
+instead."
+
+"Possibly--but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!"
+Hamar said. "Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given
+you, and we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TESTS
+
+
+Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door
+and walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.
+
+"I see we are all right so far," he said. "I wondered whether I should
+find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death.
+Have you experimented?"
+
+"We have," Curtis said. "We've done our best. In what way, we prefer
+not to say."
+
+"Perhaps there is no need," Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf
+which bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's
+feet which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A
+handsome overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his
+attention; but that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been
+there on the occasion of his last visit.) "But you had better dry up
+now, Ed," he continued somewhat caustically, "or there'll be no chance
+of forming the Sorcery Society; it will be dissolved before it's
+started. There's no need to ask if you've tried to carry out
+instructions as to thoughts, I see it--in your faces. I could never
+have believed one experimental week in badness would have made such a
+difference to your looks."
+
+"You told us to try hard!" Kelson murmured, "and naturally we did. I
+reckon you've done the same by your expression. I should hardly have
+known you."
+
+"It shows pretty clearly," Curtis said, "what a lot of bad is latent
+in most people; and that the right circumstances only are needed to
+bring it out. Starvation, for instance, is calculated to bring out the
+evil in any one--no matter whom. But what puzzles me, is how we have
+escaped being caught!"
+
+"That's a good sign," Hamar said. "It bears out what is written in the
+book. If you give your whole mind to doing wrong during this trial
+week you'll meet with no mishap. But you must be heart and soul in it.
+Hunger made us--hunger has been our friend."
+
+"What do you mean?" Curtis said.
+
+"Why," Hamar replied, "if we hadn't been well-nigh starving we
+shouldn't have been able to carry out the instructions quite so
+thoroughly."
+
+"Have you, too, stolen?" Curtis queried.
+
+"I have certainly appropriated a few necessaries," Hamar said shortly,
+"but I mean to stop now. We have higher game to fly at. Now, with
+regard to the tests. I have not been idle I can assure you. I have
+secured all the requisites. The mirror and black cat I--well, er--to
+use a conventionalism that comes in rather handy--the mirror and
+cat--I picked up. The skull I borrowed from a medical I know--the
+moth--er--from some one's private collection--and the elderberries,
+hemlock and chemicals I obtained from a drug store man in Battery
+Street with whom I used to deal. The moon will be full to-night so
+that we may as well begin. Will you come round to my room at
+eleven-thirty?"
+
+They promised; and Hamar, as he took his departure, again glanced at
+the handsome fur coat hanging on the door.
+
+He was hardly out of hearing when Curtis looked across at Kelson. "Do
+you think he recognised it!" he whispered. "You may bet he did, and he
+had only just stolen it himself! However, it's his own fault. He told
+us to lie and steal, and we've done his bidding."
+
+"We have indeed!" Kelson sighed; "at least you have. For my part I'd
+rather be content with food!"
+
+"Well, I needed clothes just as much as food!" Curtis snarled. "If I
+went about naked I should only be sent to prison--that's the law. It
+punishes you for taking clothes, and it punishes you for going without
+them. There's logic for you!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson spent the rest of the day indoors; and at night
+sallied forth to Hamar's.
+
+The solitary attic--if one could thus designate a space of about three
+square feet--which comprised Hamar's lodging--had the advantage of
+being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper--at least a
+skyscraper for that part of the city. From its window could be seen,
+high above the serried ranks of chimney-pots on the opposite side of
+the street, those two newly erected buildings: William Carman's chewing
+gum factory in Hearnes Street, and Mark Goddard's eight-storied
+private residence in Van Ness Avenue; and, as if this were not enough
+architectural grace for the eye to dwell on, glimmering away to the
+right was the needle-like spire of Moss Bates's devil-dodging
+establishment in Branman Street; whilst, just behind it, in saucy
+mocking impudence, peeped out the gilded roof of the Knee Brothers'
+recently erected Cinematograph Palace.
+
+All this and more--much more--was to be seen from Hamar's outlook, and
+all for the sum of one dollar and a half per week. When Curtis and
+Kelson entered, the room was aglow with moonlight, and Hamar and the
+black cat were stealthily regarding one another from opposite corners
+of the room. From far away--from somewhere in the very base of the
+building, came the dull echo of a shout, succeeded by the violent
+slamming of a door; whilst from outside, from one of the many deserted
+thoroughfares below, rose the frightened cry of a fugitive woman.
+Otherwise all was comparatively still.
+
+"You're a bit early!" was Hamar's greeting, "but better that than
+late. Everything is ready, and all we've got to do is to wait till
+twelve. Sit down."
+
+They did as they were bid. Presently the cat, forsaking its sanctuary,
+and ignoring Curtis's solicitations, glided across the floor, and
+climbing on to Kelson's knee, refused to budge. The trio sat in
+silence till a few minutes before midnight, when Hamar rose, and,
+selecting a spot where the moonbeams lay thickest, placed thereon the
+tub of water, in which--with its face uppermost--he proceeded to float
+a small mirror, set in a cheap wooden frame. He then calmly produced a
+pocket knife.
+
+"What's that for?" Kelson inquired nervously.
+
+"Blood!" Hamar responded. "One of us must spare three drops. The
+conditions demand it--and after all the ham and sausages you two have
+eaten I think one of you can spare it best. Which of you shall it be?
+Come, there's no time to lose!"
+
+"Matt has more blood than I have!" Curtis growled; "but why not the
+cat?"
+
+"It would spoil our chances with it for the other experiment," Hamar
+said. "It's a sulky, cross-grained brute, and would give us no end of
+trouble. Besides it can bite. Look here, let's draw lots!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson were inclined to demur; but the proposed method was
+so in accordance with custom that there really did not seem any
+feasible objection to raise to it. Accordingly lots were drawn--and
+Hamar himself was the victim. Curtis laughed coarsely, and Kelson hid
+his smiles in the cat's coat. A neighbouring clock now began to strike
+twelve.
+
+"Look alive, Leon!" Curtis cried, nudging Kelson's elbow. "Look alive
+or it will be too late. The Unknown is mighty particular to a few
+seconds. Let me operate on you. I've always fancied I was born to use
+the knife--that I've really missed my vocation. You needn't be
+afraid--there's no artery in the palm of your hand--you won't bleed to
+death."
+
+Thus goaded, Hamar pricked away nervously at his hand, and, after
+sundry efforts, at last succeeded in drawing blood; three drops of
+which he very carefully let fall in the tub.
+
+"I wish it was light so that we could see it," Curtis whispered in
+Kelson's ear. "I believe Jews have different coloured blood to other
+people."
+
+Though Kelson was apprehensive, Hamar did not appear to have heard;
+his whole attention was riveted on the mirror, on the face of which
+was a reflection of the moon.
+
+"I knew nothing would happen," Curtis cried, "you had better wipe your
+knife or you'll be arrested for severing some one's jugular. Hulloa!
+what's up with the cat?"
+
+Hamar was about to tell him to be quiet when Kelson caught his arm.
+"Look, Leon! Look! What's the brute doing? Is it mad?" Kelson gasped.
+
+Hamar turned his head--and there crouching on the floor, in the
+moonlight, was the cat, its hair bristling on end and its green eyes
+ablaze with an expression which held all three men speechless. When
+they were at last able to avert their eyes a fresh surprise awaited
+them; the reflection of the moon in the mirror was red--not an
+ordinary red--not merely a colour--but red with a lurid luminosity
+that vibrated with life--with a life that all three men at once
+recognized as emanating from nothing physical--from nothing good.
+
+It vanished suddenly, quite as suddenly as it had come; and the
+reflection of the moon was once again only a reflection--a white,
+placid sphere.
+
+For some seconds no one spoke. Hamar was the first to break the
+silence. "Well!" he exclaimed, drawing a long breath; "what do you
+think of that!"
+
+"Are you sure you weren't faking?" Curtis said.
+
+"I swear I wasn't," Hamar replied; "besides could any one produce a
+thing like THAT? The cat didn't think it was a fake--it knew what it
+was right enough. Besides, why are your teeth chattering?"
+
+"Why are yours?" Curtis retorted; "why are Matt's?"
+
+"Shall we try the second?" Hamar asked.
+
+"No!" Kelson and Curtis said in chorus. "No! We've had enough for one
+night. We'll be off!"
+
+"I think I'll come with you," Hamar said, "after what has happened I
+don't quite relish sleeping here alone--or rather with that cat.
+Hi--Satan, where are you?"
+
+Satan was not visible. It had probably hidden under the bed, but as no
+one cared to look, its whereabouts remained undiscovered.
+
+With the coming of the sun, the terrors of the night wore off, and the
+trio separated. Hamar would on no account accept his friends'
+invitation to breakfast on the sausages and ham they had run such
+risks in procuring; he made hasty tracks for a snug restaurant in
+Bolter's Street, where he had a sumptuous repast for a dollar; and
+then slunk home.
+
+Shortly before midnight all three met again, and at once commenced
+preparations for the second test. The question arose as to who should
+hold Satan. They all had vivid recollections of the cat's behaviour
+the previous night; consequently no one was anxious to officiate.
+Finally they drew lots, and fate settled on Curtis. An exciting chase
+now began. Satan, demonstrating his resentment of their treatment of
+him, at every turn, knocked over a water bottle, ripped the skin of
+Kelson's knuckles, and made his teeth meet in the fleshy part of
+Curtis's thumb.
+
+"Hulloa! what are you up to?" Curtis savagely demanded, as Hamar
+thrust a cup at him.
+
+"Hold your hand over it!" Hamar said sharply. "Don't suck it! We want
+blood for this test and for the next."
+
+"I wish the brute had bitten you!" Curtis snarled; "then, perhaps, you
+wouldn't be so precious keen on economics. You did right to name it
+Satan! and if it doesn't attract devils nothing will. I'm not going to
+touch it again. See if you can hold the beast by yourself, Matt! It
+seems to be less afraid of you than of either of us."
+
+Kelson called out: "Puss!", and the cat at once came to him.
+
+As it was now striking twelve, Hamar carefully shook three drops of
+Curtis's blood from the cup on to Satan's back, while he instructed
+Kelson to rub the animal's coat with the palm of the hand. Kelson
+cautiously obeyed. There was a loud crackling and a shower of sparks,
+of the same lurid red colour as the reflection in the mirror on the
+previous night, flew out into the enveloping darkness.
+
+"That will do!" Hamar observed quietly. "Test two is satisfactorily
+accomplished. We must be riper for Hell than we imagined. There is no
+need for you fellows to stay any longer. I can manage the third test
+alone."
+
+As soon as his colleagues had gone and he felt assured they were no
+longer within hearing, Hamar took a saucer from the mantelshelf,
+filled it half full of milk, and poured into it some colourless liquid
+out of a tiny phial labelled poison.
+
+"Here pussy," he called out, softly. "Pretty pussy, come and have your
+supper! Pussy!"
+
+And Satan, unable to resist the tempting sight of the milk, crept out
+of his hiding-place and quite unsuspiciously dipped his tongue into
+the saucer and lapped. Hamar, in the meanwhile went to a box at the
+foot of the bed and produced a sack. Then he slipped on his boots and
+coat, and opening the door of a cupboard near the head of the bed
+fetched out a small spade.
+
+He was now ready; and--so was pussy.
+
+"That paves the way for test six," Hamar observed; "no one can say I
+am a waster--I make use of everything--and every one;" and so saying
+he tumbled the cat into the sack and hurried out.
+
+Some half-hour later he had returned to his room, and was busily
+engaged making preparations for test three. Letting a drop of Curtis's
+blood fall on the skull, he put the latter under his pillow, and
+retired to rest. He had slept for little over an hour, when he awoke
+with a start. The muffled sound of hammering--as of nails in a
+coffin--was going on all around him, and occasionally it seemed to him
+that something big and heavy stalked across the floor; but in spite of
+the fact that the room was illuminated with a red glow--the same lurid
+red as had appeared in tests one and two--nothing was to be seen. The
+phenomena lasted five or six minutes and then everything was again
+normal. Hamar was so terrified that he lay with his head under the
+bedclothes till morning, and vowed nothing on earth would persuade him
+to sleep in that room again. But sunlight soon restored his courage,
+and by the evening he was quite eager to go on with the next test. He
+had some difficulty in persuading any one to allow him the use of an
+oven for so pernicious a mixture as nightshade and hemlock; but at
+last he over-ruled the objections of some good-natured woman--the
+mother of one of the office boys at his former employer's--and test
+four proved as successful as the previous three. The preliminary part
+of test five was also successfully accomplished; but in carrying out
+the second part of it, Hamar all but met with disaster. He was walking
+along Kearney Street with the specially prepared hazel twig carefully
+concealed beneath his coat, when just opposite Saddler's jewelry
+store, he came across a child standing by itself. The nearest person
+being some fifty yards away, and no policeman within sight, Hamar
+concluded this was too good an opportunity to be lost. He whipped out
+the twig, and held it, in the manner prescribed, in front of the
+child. The effect was instantaneous. The child turned white as death,
+its eyes bulged with terror, and opening its mouth to its full extent
+it commenced to shriek and yell. Then it fell on the pavement; and
+clutching and clawing the air, and foaming at the mouth rolled over
+and over. People from every quarter flocked to the spot, and judging
+Hamar, from his proximity to the child, to be responsible for its
+condition, shouted for the police. The latter, however, arrived too
+late. Hamar, whose presence of mind had only left him for the moment
+seeing a bicycle leaning against a store door, jumped on it and soon
+put a respectable distance between himself and the crowd.
+
+That night the trio met once more in Hamar's room for test six. There
+was a wood fire in the grate, and on it a tin vessel containing the
+prescribed ingredients. Somewhat unpleasantly conspicuous amongst
+these ingredients were the death's-head moth, and the soil from
+Satan's grave. As soon as the mixture had been heated three hours, the
+vessel was removed, the fire extinguished, and the room made
+absolutely dark. Then the three sat close together and waited.
+
+On the stroke of two every article in the room began to rattle, whilst
+out of the tin vessel flew a blood red moth. After circling three
+times round each of the sitter's heads, the moth flew back again into
+the vessel, and the silence that ensued was followed by a soft tapping
+at the window, and the appearance of something, that resembled a big
+tube filled with a thick, pale blue fluid, made up of a mass of
+distinct veins. This tube floated into the room, and passing close to
+the three sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared
+in the wall, behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had
+broken, terminated the phenomena--the room again becoming pitch dark.
+But the three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
+manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
+huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+
+San Francisco possesses one great advantage--you can easily get out of
+it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
+turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair
+as any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to
+one side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs
+can be traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of
+vines and weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and
+climbing to its heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the
+Coast Range--like a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay,
+sparkling and dancing in the sunlight--steamers flashing their path on
+its bosom; and tiny white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the
+city, its houses, small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas
+boxes; whilst the slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here
+and there are thick clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is
+partly hidden from view by a peak, which rises directly to the west,
+and is separated from that on which one is standing by a deep and
+thickly wooded valley. Descending, by means of a narrow winding path,
+one passes through dense clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash,
+and walnut trees, whose strong lateral branches afford ample
+protection from the sun, and at the same time furnish playgrounds to
+innumerable bright-eyed squirrels. Further down one comes upon gentle
+elms, succeeded by sassafras and locust--these, in their turn,
+succeeded by the softer linden, red bud, catalpa, and maple; and at
+the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom of the valley, wild
+shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and white poplars. Still
+following the path down the vale, in a southerly direction, one, at
+length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by
+trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and there, a
+gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip tree of
+some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and profuse
+blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and splendour;
+there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall and
+slender silver birch. The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most
+part, grass--soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green. The silence
+is such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San
+Francisco can be little over six miles distant. Though one may strain
+one's ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional
+tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of
+birds. It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so
+impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot
+essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.
+
+The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen--and the
+conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be
+a new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in
+opposition to Jupiter,[16] Hamar and his confederates had to wait
+exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests,
+before they could proceed.
+
+Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis
+and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and
+bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in
+hiding, they commenced operations.
+
+On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was
+clearly defined. This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner
+circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next
+drawn. In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the
+first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the
+seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven
+most malignant diseases. Within the second circle, and using the same
+centre, was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each
+part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and
+third circles, were written the names of the seven types of spirits
+most antagonistic to man's moral progress.[17]
+
+Hamar had brought with him a sack--the same he had used to transport
+Satan's corpse--and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby,
+that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was
+tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.
+
+"It's a good thing there is no member of the Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near," Kelson exclaimed,
+eyeing Hamar resentfully. "Wouldn't a mouse or a rat have done as
+well?"
+
+"No!" Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the
+ground; "the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat.
+I got the poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just
+as much as you do."
+
+"How are you going to do it?" Kelson asked.
+
+Hamar pointed to a chopper. "The conditions say with steel," he said;
+"only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
+other way. Now help me with the fire."
+
+Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
+well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
+tin saucepan.
+
+With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle;
+and the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then
+poured into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic
+acid, 1 ounce of verdigris, 1-1/2 ounces of hemlock leaves, 1/2 ounce
+of henbane, 3/4 ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of
+opium, 1 ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of
+poppy-seed, 1/2 ounce of assafoetida, and 1/2 ounce of parsley. As
+soon as the saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar
+threw into it two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.
+
+"Where on earth did you get all those horrors?" Curtis asked,
+shrinking away from the bag which had held them.
+
+"Here," Hamar said laconically. "It's extraordinary what a lot of
+nasty things there are amid so much apparent beauty. I say apparent,
+because Nature is a champion faker. You have only to rake about in
+these bushes and you'll find snakes galore, whilst under pretty nearly
+every stone are centipedes. Like both of you, who never by any chance
+poke your noses outside the city, I fancied snakes and centipedes were
+confined to the prairies. But I know better now. Besides, where do you
+think I found the toads? Why, in the cellars under Meidlers'!"
+
+"What, our late governor's?" Kelson cried.
+
+Hamar nodded. "Yes!" he said; "under the very spot where we used to
+sit. The water's a foot deep in that cellar, and if there are as many
+toads in the cellars of the other houses in the block, then Sacramento
+Street has a corner in them. I'm going to be executioner now, so look
+the other way, Matt!"
+
+Kelson needed no second bidding; and sticking his fingers in his ears,
+walked to some little distance. When Hamar called him back, the deed
+was accomplished--the conditions prescribed in the rites had been
+observed--the tabby was in the saucepan on the fire, and its blood had
+been besprinkled on each of the seven sectors of the circle.
+
+"We must now take our seats on the ground," Hamar said; "I'd better be
+in the centre--you, Matt, on the right, and you, Ed, on the
+left--allowing three clear feet between us."
+
+Hamar showed them how to sit--with legs crossed and arms folded.
+
+For some minutes no one spoke. The wind rustled through the bushes and
+an owl hooted. Kelson, feeling the night air cold, drew his overcoat
+tightly around and the others followed suit. Then Curtis said--
+
+"Do you really think there's anything in it, Leon? Aren't we fools to
+go on wasting our time like this?"
+
+To which Hamar replied: "Shut up! You were frightened enough doing the
+tests!"
+
+From afar off, away on the shimmering bosom of the bay came the faint
+hooting of a steamer.
+
+"That's the _Oleander_!" Kelson murmured.
+
+"Rot!" Curtis snapped. "How do you know? You can't tell from this
+distance. It might be the _Daisy_, or the _San Marie_, or any other
+ship."
+
+Kelson made no reply; Hamar blew his nose, and once again there was
+silence.
+
+The effect of the moonlight had now become weird. From the trees and
+bushes crept legions of tall, gaunt shadows, and whilst some of these
+were explicable, there were others that certainly had no apparent
+counterparts in any of the natural objects around them. Even Curtis,
+in spite of his scoffing, showed no inclination to examine them too
+closely; but kept his face resolutely turned to the more cheery light
+of the fire. The soft, cool, sweet-scented air gradually acted as an
+anæsthetic, and Kelson and Curtis were almost asleep, when Hamar's
+voice recalled them sharply to themselves.
+
+"It's just two!" he said. "Sit tight and listen while I repeat the
+incantation, and for goodness' sake keep cool if anything happens.
+Remember we are here with an object--namely--to get everything we can
+out of the Other World."
+
+"Trust you for that!" Curtis sneered; "but all the same nothing's
+going to happen."
+
+"I am not sure of that," Hamar said, and after a brief pause began to
+repeat these words[18]--
+
+    "Morbas from the mountains,
+    Where flow malignant fountains.
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vampires from the passes,
+    Where grow blood-sucking grasses,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vice Elementals pretty
+    Give ear unto our ditty
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Planetians, forms so fearful,
+    We inform you, eager, tearful,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Clanogrians, things of sorrow.
+    Postpone not till to-morrow,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Barrowvians, shades seclusive,
+    Be not to us exclusive,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Earthbound spirits of the Dead
+    Approach with grim and noiseless tread--
+      We are ready for you--Come!"
+
+He then got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six
+drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux
+vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former
+position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground,
+the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a
+long pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson
+and Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted
+to him.
+
+Hamar then cried: "Creastie havoonen balababoo!"; which Hamar
+explained was Atlantean for "devil of the damned appear!"
+
+"He won't!" Curtis muttered, "because he doesn't exist. There are
+devils--Meidler Brothers were devils--but there is no one devil! It's
+all----" He suddenly stopped and an intense hush fell upon them all.
+
+A cloud obscured the moon, the fire burned dim, and the gloom of the
+amphitheatre thickened till the men lost sight of each other. A cold
+air then rose from the ground and fanned their nostrils. Something
+flew past their heads with an ominous wail; whilst from the direction
+of the fire came a hollow groan.
+
+"The advent of the Unknown," Hamar murmured, "shall be heralded in by
+the shrieking of an owl, the groaning of the mandrake--there is
+mandrake in the saucepan--the croaking of a toad--we haven't had that
+yet!"
+
+"Yes, there it is!" Kelson whispered--and whilst he was speaking there
+came a dismal croak, croak, and the swaying and crying of an
+ash--"Hush!"
+
+They listened--and all three distinctly heard the swishing of a
+slender tree trunk as it hissed backwards and forwards. Then, a cry so
+horrid, harsh and piercing that even the sceptical, sneering Curtis
+gave vent to an expression of fear. Again a hush, and increasing
+darkness and cold. Kelson called out--
+
+"Don't do that, Leon."
+
+"I'm not doing anything," Hamar said testily. "Pull yourself
+together." A moment later he said to Curtis, "It's you, Curtis. Shut
+up. This is no time for monkeying."
+
+"You are both either mad or dreaming," Curtis replied. "I haven't
+stirred from my seat. Hulloa! What's that? What's that, Leon?
+There--over there! Look!"
+
+As Curtis spoke they all three became conscious of living things
+around them--things that moved about, silently and surreptitiously and
+conveyed the impression of mockery. The hills, the valley, the trees
+were full of it--the whole place teemed with it--teemed with silent,
+subtle, stealthy mockery. The senses of the three men were now keenly
+alive, but a dead weight hung upon their limbs and rendered them
+useless. And as they stared into the gloom, in sickly fear, the
+firelight flickered and they saw shadows, such as the moon, when low
+in the heaven, might fashion from the figure of a man; but yet they
+were shadows neither of man, nor God, nor of any familiar thing. They
+were dark, vague, formless and indefinite, and they quivered--quivered
+with a quivering that suggested mockery.
+
+Suddenly the shadows disappeared; the flickering of the flames ceased;
+and in the place of the fire appeared a seething, writhing mass of
+what looked like white luminous snakes. And in the midst of this mass
+sprang up a cylindrical form, which grew and grew until it attained a
+height of ten or twelve feet, when it remained stationary and threw
+out branches. And the three men now saw it was a tree--a tree with a
+sleek, pulpy, semi-transparent, perspiring trunk full of a thick,
+white, vibrating, luminous fluid; and that it was laden with a fruit,
+in shape resembling an apple, but of the same hue and material as the
+trunk. Spread out on the ground around it, were its roots, twitching
+and palpitating with repulsive life, and bare with a bareness that
+shocked the senses. It was so utterly and inconceivably unlike what
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson had imagined the Unknown--and yet, withal, so
+monstrous (not merely in its shape but in its suggestions), and so
+vividly real and livid, that they were not merely terrified--they were
+stricken with a terror that rendered them dumb and helpless. And as
+they looked at it, from out the trunk, shot an enormous thing--white
+and glistening, and fashioned like a human tongue. And after pointing
+derisively at them, it withdrew; whereupon all the fruit shook, as if
+convulsed with unseemly laughter. They then saw between the foremost
+branches of the tree a big eye. The white of it was thick and pasty,
+the iris spongy in texture, and the pupil bulging with a lurid light.
+It stared at them with a steady stare--insolent and quizzical. Hamar
+and his friends stared back at it in fascinated horror, and would have
+continued staring at it indefinitely, had not Hamar's mercenary
+instincts come to their rescue. He recollected that time was pressing,
+and that unless he got into communication with the strange thing at
+once, according to the book, it would vanish--and he might never be
+able to get in touch with it again. Thus egged on, he made a great
+effort to regain his courage, and at length succeeded in forcing
+himself to speak. Though his voice was weak and shaking he managed to
+pronounce the prescribed mode of address, viz.:--"Bara phonen etek
+mo," which being interpreted is, "Spirit from the Unknown, give ear to
+me." He then explained their earnest desire to pay homage to the
+Supernatural, and to be initiated into the mysteries of the Black Art.
+When Hamar had concluded his address, the anticipations of the three
+as to how it would be answered, or whether it would be answered at
+all--were such that they were forced to hold their breath almost to
+the point of suffocation. If the Thing _could_ speak what would its
+voice be like? The seconds passed, and they were beginning to prepare
+themselves for disappointment, when suddenly across the intervening
+space separating them from the Unknown, the reply came--came in soft,
+silky, lisping tones--human and yet not human, novel and yet in some
+way--a way that defied analysis--familiar. Strange to say, they all
+three felt that this familiarity belonged to a far back period of
+their existence, no less than to a more modern one--to a period, in
+fact, to which they could affix no date. And, although a perfect unity
+of expression suggested that the utterance of the Thing was the
+utterance of one being only, a certain variation in its tones, a
+rising and falling from syllable to syllable, led them to infer that
+the voice was not the voice of one but of many.
+
+"You are anxious to acquire knowledge of the Secrets associated with
+the Great Atlantean Magic?" the voice lisped.
+
+"We are!" Hamar stammered, "and we are willing to give our souls in
+exchange for them."
+
+"Souls!" the voice lisped, whilst trunk and branches swayed lightly,
+and the air was full of silent merriment. "Souls! you speak in terms
+you do not understand. To acquire the secrets of Black Magic, all you
+have to do is to agree that during a brief period--a period of a few
+months, you will live together in harmony; that you will make use of
+the powers you acquire to the detriment of all save yourselves; that
+you will never allow your minds to revert to anything spiritual;
+and--that you will abstain from--marrying."
+
+"And if we succeed in carrying out the conditions?" Hamar asked.
+
+[Illustration: THE INITIATION]
+
+"Then," the voice replied, "you will retain free, untrammelled
+possession of your knowledge."
+
+"For how long?" Curtis queried.
+
+"For the natural term of your lives--that is to say, for as long as
+you would have lived had you never been initiated into the secrets of
+magic."
+
+"And if we fail?"
+
+"You will pass into the permanent possession of the Unknown."
+
+"Does that mean we shall die the moment we fail?" Kelson inquired
+timidly.
+
+"Die!" the voice lisped. "Again you speak in terms you do not
+understand. You may be sent for."
+
+"You say--in perfect harmony." Hamar put in. "Does that mean without a
+quarrel, however slight?"
+
+"It means without a quarrel that would lead to separation. The moment
+you disunite the compact is broken."
+
+"What advantages will the secrets bring us?" Hamar inquired. "Can we
+gain unlimited wealth?"
+
+"Yes!" the voice replied. "Unlimited wealth and influence."
+
+"And health?"
+
+"So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
+perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?"
+
+"I am ready if you fellows are," Hamar whispered.
+
+"I am!" Curtis cried. "Anything is better than the life we are living
+at present."
+
+"And I, too," Kelson said. "I agree with Ed."
+
+"Very well then," the voice once more lisped. "Each of you take a
+fruit and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot
+back out of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't
+be afraid, step up here and help yourselves--one apiece--mind, no
+more." And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree
+and everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.
+
+"Come on!" Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. "Don't waste time.
+You've decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps.
+I'll go first," and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and
+began to eat it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.
+
+"I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad," Curtis muttered, with a
+retch.
+
+"And I, too," Kelson whispered. "It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I
+am, will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?"
+
+What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
+them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it
+repelled but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as
+the voice--as enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their
+former positions on the ground, and the voice once again addressed
+them.
+
+"The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use
+of the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
+sorcery--you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
+practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period
+of your compact, _i.e._ twenty-one months, and at the end of every
+three months--when a fresh stage is reached--you will receive fresh
+powers.
+
+"In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
+receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
+presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
+thoughts.
+
+"In the second stage--exactly three months from to-day--you will
+receive the gift of second-sight; the power of separating your
+immaterial from your material body and projecting it, anywhere you
+will, on the physical plane; and, to a large extent, you will be
+enabled to circumvent gravity. Thus you will be able to perform all
+manner of jugglery tricks--tricks that will set the whole world
+gaping. Profit by them.
+
+"In the third stage you will possess the secrets of invisibility; of
+walking on the water; of breathing under the water; of taming wild
+beasts; and of understanding their language.
+
+"In the fourth stage you will understand how to inflict all manner of
+diseases, and work all sorts of spells; such, for instance, as
+bewitching milk, causing people to have fits, bad dreams, etc. You
+will also know how to create plagues--plagues of insects, or of any
+other noxious thing.
+
+"In the fifth stage you will possess absolute knowledge of the art of
+medicine and be able to cure every ailment.
+
+"In the sixth stage you will acquire the power of producing vampires
+and werwolves from the human being, and of transforming people from
+the human to any animal guise.
+
+"In the seventh and final stage you will be given the complete mastery
+of every art and science--including astrology, astronomy, necromancy,
+etc.; and for this stage is reserved the greatest power of
+all--namely, the complete dominion over woman's will and affections.
+The powers of creating life, and of extending life beyond the now
+natural limit, and of avoiding accidents, will never be conferred on
+you. Neither shall you learn, not at least during your physical
+existence--who or what we are, or the secrets of creation.
+
+"Each successive stage will cancel the preceding one--that is to say,
+the powers you have acquired in the first stage will be annulled on
+your arriving at the second stage, and so on. But if you carry out
+your compact faithfully--that is to say, if at the end of the
+twenty-one months you are still united--all the powers you have held
+hitherto, in the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and
+remain in your possession permanently. Have you anything to say?"
+
+"Yes!" Hamar answered; "I fully understand all you have explained to
+us and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
+serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
+much--but I must say, it seems very remote--the prospect of gaining
+such tremendous powers--powers that will give us practically
+everything we want--save youth--"
+
+"Youth you will never regain," lisped the voice. "And elixirs of life,
+surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
+planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn
+the most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people
+youthful in appearance."
+
+"Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?" Kelson nerved himself to
+ask.
+
+"They will be revealed to you in various ways--sometimes when asleep.
+You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
+time to-morrow."
+
+"And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money," Curtis remarked.
+
+"No!" the voice replied, "you will not be in want of money. Have you
+anything more to ask?"
+
+No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
+rustling of the wind. The darkness then lifted; but nothing was to be
+seen--nothing save the trees and bushes, moon and stars.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 16: This is a very sinister sign in astrology, denoting
+  the presence of evil influences of all kinds.--(_Author's note._)]
+
+  [Footnote 17: According to Atlantean ideas these spirits were:--Vice
+  Elementals; Morbas (or Disease Elementals); Clanogrians (or
+  malicious family ghosts, such as Banshees, etc.); Vampires;
+  Barrowvians, _i.e._ a grotesque kind of phantasm that frequents
+  places where prehistoric man or beast has been interred; Planetians,
+  _i.e._ spirits inimical to dwellers on this earth that inhabit
+  various of the other planets; and earthbound spirits of such dead
+  human beings as were mad, imbecile, cruel and vicious, together with
+  the phantasms of vicious and mad beasts, and beasts of
+  prey.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+  [Footnote 18: They are a literal translation of the Atlantean by
+  Thos. Maitland, and are very nearly identified with forms of spirit
+  invocation used in Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and among the Red
+  Indians of North and South America.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FIRST POWER
+
+
+After their rencontre with the Unknown, Hamar and his companions did
+not get back to their respective quarters till the sun was high in the
+heavens, and the streets of the city were beginning to vibrate with
+the rattle and clatter of traffic.
+
+"It's all very well--this wonderful compact of ours," Curtis grumbled,
+"but I'm deuced hungry, and Matt and I haven't a cent between us. As
+we went all that way last night to oblige you, Leon, I think it is
+only fair you should stand us treat. I'll bet you have some nickels
+stowed away, somewhere, in those pockets of yours--it wouldn't be you
+if you hadn't! What do you say, Matt?"
+
+"I think as you do," Kelson replied. "We've stood by Leon, he should
+stand by us. How much have you, Leon?"
+
+"How much have you?" Curtis echoed, "come, out with it--no jew-jewing
+pals for me."
+
+"I might manage a dollar," Hamar said ruefully, as the prospect of a
+good meal all to himself, at his favourite restaurant, faded away.
+"Where shall we go?"
+
+Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of
+prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.
+He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty
+woman, and something--a kind of intuition he had never had
+before--told him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented
+with her present situation; that she was engaged to be married to a
+pen driver at Hastings & Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she
+had a mother, of over seventy, whom she kept. All this came to Kelson
+like a flash of lightning.
+
+Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped
+Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm,
+and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.
+
+The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by
+two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas. It
+still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.
+
+"What's the good of coming to a place like this?" Hamar demanded, as
+soon as he had freed himself from Kelson's clutches. "We can't get
+breakfast here."
+
+"Matt's mad, that's what's the matter with him," Curtis added in
+disgust. "Let's get out."
+
+He turned to go--then, halted--and stood still. He appeared to be
+listening. "What's up with you?" Hamar asked. "Both you fellows are
+behaving like lunatics this morning--there's not a pin to choose
+between you."
+
+"They're playing cards, that's all," Curtis said. "Can't you hear
+them?"
+
+Hamar shook his head. "Not a sound," he said. "Just look at Matt!"
+
+While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the
+bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner
+that was peculiar to him--a manner seldom without effect upon girls of
+his class--"I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?
+Jerusalem! Haven't I met you somewhere before?"
+
+The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled. "As like as
+not," she said. "I go pretty near everywhere! What do you want?"
+
+"Well!" Kelson soliloquized; "breakfast is what we are particularly
+anxious for--but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!"
+
+"Then why did you come here?" the girl queried.
+
+"Because of you! Simply because of you," Kelson replied. "You
+hypnotized me!"
+
+"That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast," the girl
+laughed, "though we don't provide them as a rule before nine. Indeed,
+the management have only just decided--this morning--on providing them
+at all."
+
+"How odd!"
+
+"Why odd?" the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her
+curls before a mirror.
+
+"Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment! Had I
+come here yesterday it would have been useless. As I said, you
+hypnotized me. Evidently fate intended us to meet."
+
+"Do you believe in fate?" the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I
+believe in nothing--least of all in men!"
+
+"You say so!" Kelson observed, before he knew what he was saying. "And
+yet you have just got engaged to one. But you've got a bad attack of
+the pip this morning, you have had enough of it here--you want to get
+another post."
+
+The girl ceased doing her hair and eyed him in amazement. "Well!" she
+said. "Of all the queer men I've ever met you are the queerest. Are
+you a seer?"
+
+"No!" Hamar observed, suddenly joining in. "He's only very hungry,
+miss. Hungry body and soul! hungry all over. And so are we."
+
+"Well, then, go into the room over there," the girl cried, pointing in
+the direction of a half-open door, "and breakfast will be brought you
+in half a jiffy."
+
+"Who's that playing cards?" Curtis asked.
+
+"How do you know any one is playing cards?" the girl queried with an
+incredulous stare. "You can't see through walls, can you?"
+
+"No! and I'm hanged if I can explain," Curtis said, "I seem to hear
+them. There are two--one is called Arnold, and the other Lemon, or
+some such name, and they are rehearsing certain card tricks they mean
+to play to-night."
+
+"That's right," the girl said, "two men named Arnold and Lemon are
+here. They were playing all last night with two of the clerks in
+Willows Bank, in Sacramento Street, and they cleared them out of every
+cent. You knew it!"
+
+"No! I didn't," Curtis growled, "I don't lie for fun, and I'm just as
+much in a fog, as to how I know, as you are. Let's have breakfast now,
+and we'll look up these two gents afterwards, if they haven't gone."
+
+"Your friend's a brute, I don't like him," the girl whispered to
+Kelson. "Let him lose all he's got--you stay out here."
+
+"Nothing I should like better," Kelson said, "it's a bargain!"
+
+The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
+bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
+Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
+directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
+building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
+drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.
+
+"It's a funny thing," one of them exclaimed, "we can't be allowed to
+sit here in peace--when there's so much spare space in the house."
+
+"We beg your pardon for intruding," Curtis said, "but my friend and I
+came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri
+way, and don't often get the chance to run up to town."
+
+"Farmers, are you!" the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
+both closely. "You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were
+also wanting to have a game--would you care to join us?"
+
+"By all means," Curtis at once exclaimed. "What do you play?"
+
+"Poker!" the man said, "Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
+which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen
+before, though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute." He
+then proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick,
+the secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.
+
+"I wouldn't give you a cent for it!" Curtis snapped. "Any one can see
+how it is done."
+
+"You can't!" the man retorted, turning red. "I'll wager twenty dollars
+you can't." Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He
+had seen through it at a glance--there appeared no difficulty in it at
+all; and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the
+day before, he would have utterly failed.
+
+"Now," he said, "give me the money,"--and the man complied with an
+oath.
+
+"Any more tricks?" Curtis asked complacently.
+
+"I know heaps," the man rejoined. "There's one you won't guess--the
+seven card trick."
+
+He did it. And so did Curtis.
+
+"Well I'm----" the man called Lemon ejaculated.
+
+"He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
+Prince and Slipper, Arnold!"
+
+Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.
+
+"Why!" he said, "that's the simplest of all! See!" And it was done.
+"You two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not
+shine to-night. How about a game of Don?"
+
+Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
+out, "It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve.
+You've some up yours, too, Arnold--the deuce of clubs and the deuce of
+hearts. Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears
+on the backs. I'll show you how." He told the cards correctly--there
+was no gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.
+
+"What are you, anyway?" Lemon asked; "tecs?"
+
+"Never mind what we are!" Curtis said savagely. "We know what you
+are--and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay
+us to hold our tongues?"
+
+"Pay you!" Lemon hissed. "Why, damn you--nothing. We're not bankers.
+All we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else."
+
+"That might not be so easy as you imagine," Hamar interposed. "We
+would make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to
+terms? We'll not be over exorbitant--and consider the convenience of
+not having to shift your quarters."
+
+"Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,"
+Lemon said. "Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these.
+Farmers, indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do
+you want?"
+
+After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
+dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
+means dissatisfied with their bargain.
+
+They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
+engaged in a desperate _tête-à-tête_ with the young lady at the bar,
+who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the
+room her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
+o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
+such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
+rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
+allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.
+
+On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first
+of all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
+themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took
+rooms at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's
+boot store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob
+Hill dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde--of the
+bonanza and railroad set--and making eyes at all the pretty wives and
+daughters they met, cogitated fresh devices for making money. As they
+sauntered across Pacific Avenue, in the direction of Californian
+Street, Kelson suddenly gave vent to a whistle.
+
+"What the deuce is wrong with you?" Hamar exclaimed. "Seen your
+grandmother's ghost?"
+
+"No! but I've seen the inner readings of that lady yonder," Kelson
+replied, indicating with a jerk of his finger a fashionably dressed
+woman walking towards them on the other side of the road. "The deuce
+knows how it all comes to me, but I know everything about her, just
+the same as I did with the girl in the dive--though I've never seen
+her before. She is the wife of D.D. Belton, the cotton magnate, who
+lives in a big, white house at the corner of Powell Street--and a
+beauty, I can assure you. Supposed to be most devoted to her husband,
+she is now on her way to keep an appointment with the Rev. J.T.
+Calthorpe of Sancta Maria's Church in Appleyard Street, with whom she
+has been holding clandestine meetings for the past six months."
+
+"Whew!" Hamar ejaculated. "You speak as if it was all being pumped
+into you by some external agency--automatically."
+
+"That's just about what I feel!" Kelson said, "I feel as if it were
+some one else saying all this--some one else speaking through me. Yet
+I know all about that woman, just as much as if I had been acquainted
+with her all my life!"
+
+"It's the first power," Hamar said excitedly, "the power of
+divination. It takes that form with you, and the form of card tricks
+with Ed--with me nothing so far."
+
+"But what shall I do?" Kelson cried. "How can I benefit by it?"
+
+"How can't you?" Curtis growled. "Why, blackmail her! If it is true,
+she will pay you anything to keep your mouth shut. If once you can
+tell a woman's secret, your future's made. All San Francisco will be
+at your mercy--God knows who'll escape! After her at once, you idiot!"
+
+"Now?" Kelson gasped.
+
+"Yes! Now! Follow her to Calthorpe's and waylay her as she comes out.
+You can refer to us as witnesses."
+
+"I feel a bit of a blackguard," Kelson pleaded.
+
+"You look it, anyway," Curtis grinned. "But cheer up--it's the
+clothes. Clothes are responsible for everything!"
+
+After a little persuasion Kelson gave in, but he had to make haste as
+the lady was nearly out of sight. She took a taxi from the stand
+opposite Kitson's hotel, and Kelson took one, too. Two hours later,
+raising his hat, he accosted her as she stood tapping the pavement of
+Battery Street with a daintily shod foot, waiting to cross. "Mrs.
+Belton, I think," he said. The lady eyed him coldly.
+
+"Well!" she said, "what do you want? Who are you?"
+
+"My name can scarcely matter to you," Kelson responded, "though my
+business may. I have been engaged to watch you, and am fully posted as
+to your meetings and correspondence with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe."
+
+"I don't understand you," the lady said, her cheeks flaming. "You have
+made a mistake--a very serious mistake for you."
+
+For a moment Kelson's heart failed. He was still a clerk, with all the
+humility of an office stool and shining trousers' seat thick on him,
+whilst she was a _grande dame_ accustomed to the bows and scrapes of
+employers as well as employed.
+
+Several people passed by and stared at him--as he thought--suspiciously,
+and he felt that this was the most critical time in his life, and
+unless he pulled through, smartly in fact, he would be done once and
+for all. If he didn't make haste, too, the woman would undoubtedly
+call a policeman. It was this thought as well as--though, perhaps,
+hardly as much as--the look of her that stimulated Kelson to action.
+He hated behaving badly to women; but was this thing, dressed in a
+skirt that fitted like a glove and showed up every detail of her
+figure--this thing with the paint on her cheeks, and eyebrows, and
+lips--artistically done, perhaps, but done all the same--this thing
+all loaded with jewellery and buttons--this thing--a woman! No! She
+was not--she was only a millionaire's plaything--brainless,
+heartless--a hobby that cost thousands, whilst countless men such as
+he--starved. He detested--abominated such luxuries! And thus nerved he
+retorted, borrowing some of her imperiousness--
+
+"Do you deny, madam, that for the past two hours you've been sitting
+on the sofa of the end room of the third floor of No. 216, Market
+Street, flirting with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe, whom you call
+'Mickey-moo'; that you gave him a photo you had taken at Bell's Studio
+in Clay Street, specially for him; that you gave him five greenbacks
+to the value of one hundred and fifty dollars, and that you've planned
+a moonlight promenade with him to-morrow, when your husband will be in
+Denver?"
+
+"Don't talk so loud," the lady said in a low voice. "Walk along with
+me a little and then we shan't be noticed. I see you do know a good
+deal--how, I can't imagine, unless you were hidden somewhere in the
+room. Who has employed you to watch me?"
+
+"That, madam, I can't say," Kelson truthfully responded.
+
+"And I can't think," the lady said, "unless it is some woman enemy.
+But, after all, you can't do much since you hold no proofs--your word
+alone will count for nothing."
+
+"Ah, but I have strong corroborative evidence," Kelson retorted. "I
+have the testimony of at least two other people who know quite as much
+as I do."
+
+"Adventurers like yourself," the lady sneered. "My husband would
+neither believe you nor your friends."
+
+"He would believe your letters, any way," said Kelson.
+
+"My letters!" the lady laughed, "You've no letters of mine."
+
+"No, but I know where the correspondence that has passed between you
+and the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is to be found. He has sixty-nine letters
+from you all tied up in pink ribbon, locked up in the bottom drawer of
+the bureau in his study at the Vicarage. Some of the letters begin
+with 'Dearest, duckiest, handsomest Herby'--short for Herbert; and
+others, 'Fondest, blondest, darlingest Micky-moo!' Some end with 'A
+thousand and one kisses from your loving and ever devoted Francesca,'
+and others with 'Love and kisses ad infinitum, ever your loving,
+thirsting, adoring one, Toosie!' Nice letters from the wife of a
+respectable Nob Hill magnate to a married clergyman!"
+
+The lady walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone.
+"I can't understand it," she panted; "somebody has played me false."
+
+"As the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is on his way to Sacramento, where he has
+to remain till to-morrow," Kelson went on pitilessly, "it will be the
+easiest thing in the world to get those letters. I have merely to call
+at the house and tell his wife."
+
+"And what good will that do you?" the lady asked.
+
+"Revenge! I hate the rich," Kelson said. "I would do anything to
+injure them."
+
+"You are a Socialist?"
+
+"An Anarchist! But come, you see I know all about you and that I have
+you completely in my power. If once either your husband or Mrs.
+Calthorpe gets hold of those letters--you and your lover would have a
+very unpleasant time of it."
+
+"You're a devil!"
+
+"Maybe I am--at all events I'm talking to one. But that's neither here
+nor there. I want money. Give me a thousand dollars and you'll never
+hear from me again."
+
+"Blackmail! I could have you arrested!"
+
+"Yes, and I would tell the court the whole history of your intrigues!
+That wouldn't help you,"--and Kelson laughed.
+
+"Could I count on you not molesting me again if I were to pay you?"
+the lady said mockingly.
+
+"You could."
+
+"Do you ever speak the truth?"
+
+"You needn't judge every one by your own standard of morality--the
+standard set up by the millionaire's wife," Kelson said. "I swear that
+if you pay me a thousand dollars I will never trouble you again."
+
+The lady grew thoughtful, and for some minutes neither of them spoke.
+Then she suddenly jerked out: "I think, after all, I'll accept your
+proposal. Wait outside here and you shall have what you want within an
+hour."
+
+"Not good enough," Kelson said, "I prefer to come with you to your
+house and wait there."
+
+The lady protested, and Kelson consented to wait in the street outside
+her house, where, eventually, she delivered the money into his hands.
+
+"I've kept my word," she said, "and if you're half a man you'll keep
+yours."
+
+Kelson reassured her, and more than pleased with himself, made for the
+hotel, where the three of them were now stopping.
+
+This was merely a beginning. Before the day was out he had secured two
+more victims. No woman whose character was not without blemish was
+safe from him--his wonderful newly acquired gift enabling him to
+detect any vice, no matter how snugly hidden. And this wonderful power
+of discernment brought with it an expression of mystery and
+penetration which, by enhancing the effect of the power, made the
+application of it comparatively easy. Kelson had only to glide after
+his victim, and with his eyes fixed searchingly on her, to say,
+"Madam, may I have a word with you?"--and the battle was more than
+half won--the women were too fascinated to think of resistance.
+
+For example, shortly after his initial adventure, he saw a very
+smartly dressed woman in Van Ness Avenue peep about furtively, and
+then stop and speak to a little child, who was walking with its nurse.
+Divination at once told him everything--the lady was the mother of the
+child, but its father was not her legitimate husband, W.S. Hobson, the
+millionaire mine owner.
+
+When Kelson courteously informed her he was in possession of her
+secret--a secret she had felt positively certain only one other person
+knew, she went the colour of her pea-green sunshade and attempted to
+remonstrate. But Kelson's appearance, no less than his marvellous
+knowledge of her life, and character dumbfounded her--she was simply
+paralysed into admission; and before he left her, Kelson had added
+another thousand dollars to his hoard.
+
+That evening, close to the Academy of Science in Market Street, he saw
+a lady get out of a taxi and quickly enter a pawnbroker's. Her whole
+life at once rose up before him. She was Ella Crockford, the wife of
+the Californian Street Sugar King, and, unknown to her husband, she
+spent her afternoons at a gambling saloon in Kearney Street, where she
+ran through thousands.
+
+She was now about to pledge her husband's latest present to her--a
+diamond tiara, one of the most notable pieces of jewellery in the
+country--in the hope that she would soon win back sufficient money at
+cards to redeem it.
+
+Kelson stopped her as she came out, and in a marvellously few words,
+proved to her that he knew everything. Her amazement was beyond
+description.
+
+"You must be a magician," she said, "because I'm certain no one saw me
+take my jewel-case out of the drawer--no one was in the room! And as I
+put it in my muff immediately, no one could have seen it as I left the
+house. Besides, I never told a soul I intended pawning it, so how is
+it possible you could know--and be able to repeat the whole of the
+conversation I had with Walter Le-Grand, to whom I lost so heavily
+last night? Tell me, how do you know all this?"
+
+But Kelson would tell her nothing--nothing beyond her own sins and
+misfortunes.
+
+"I have nothing to give you," she told him. "I dare not ask my husband
+for more money."
+
+"What, nothing!" Kelson replied, "When the pawnbroker has just
+advanced you fifty thousand dollars. You call that nothing? Be pleased
+to give me one thousand, and congratulate yourself that I do not ask
+for all your 'nothing.'" And as neither tears nor prayers had any
+effect, she was obliged to pay him the sum he asked.
+
+Flushed and excited with victory, and thinking, perhaps, that he had
+done enough for one day, Kelson took his spoils to a bank near the
+Palace Hotel, and for the first time in his career opened a banking
+account. As he was leaving the building he ran into Hamar, bent on a
+similar errand. The two gleefully compared notes.
+
+"I thought," Hamar said, "my turn would never come, and that I must
+have done something to get out of favour with the Unknown; but as I
+was sitting in the Pig and Whistle Saloon in Corn Street drinking a
+lager, I suddenly felt a peculiar throbbing sensation run up my left
+leg into my left hand, and the floor seemed to open up, and I saw deep
+below me, in a black pit, a skeleton clutching hold of a linen bag,
+full of coins. I could see the gold quite distinctly--Spanish doubles,
+none newer than the eighteenth century. I knew then that the Unknown
+had not forgotten me. 'Look here, boss,' I said to old man Moss--the
+proprietor, you know--'You're a bit of a juggins to go on working with
+so much money under here,'--and I pointed to the floor.
+
+"'I'm surprised at you, Hamar,' Moss said, cocking an eye at me, 'and
+lager, too!'
+
+"'No, old man!' I said, 'I'm not drunk. I'm sober and serious. You've
+got a cellar below here, haven't you?'
+
+"'Well, and what if I have!' Moss retorted, drawing a step closer and
+running his eyes carefully over me. 'What if I have! There's no harm
+in that, is there?'
+
+"'You keep all your stock down there,' I went on, 'and more beside. I
+can see a hat-pin with a gold nob, that's not your wife's, and a pair
+of shoes with dandy silver buckles, that's not intended for your wife,
+nohow.'
+
+"At that Moss made a queer noise in his throat, and I thought he was
+going to have a fit. 'What--what the devil are you talking about?' he
+gurgled.
+
+"'I wish I had had you with me--then, Matt, for you could have
+doubtless summed up the woman to him--she was a blank to me--I only
+divined one had been there. 'Yes, Mr. Mossy,' I said, 'you're a gay
+deceiver and no mistake! I know all about it!'
+
+"'Do you,' he said, eyeing me excitedly. 'Do you know all about it?
+I'm not so sure, but in order to avoid running any risks, drop your
+voice a bit and have a cocktail with me!'
+
+"He poured me out one, and I went on softly, 'Well, boss Moss,' I
+said, 'we'll leave the female out of the question for the present.
+Underneath this cellar of yours, is a pit.'
+
+"'I'm damned if there is!' Moss snorted; 'leastways, it's the first
+I've ever heard of it.'
+
+"'And in this pit,' I said, 'is the skeleton of a Spanish buccaneer
+called Don Guzman, who landed in this port on August 10, 1699, and
+after robbing and slicing up a family of the name of Hervada, who
+lived on the site of what is now the Copthorne Hotel, was hurrying off
+with all their money and jewels, when he fell into a pit, covered with
+brambles and briars, and broke his neck.'
+
+"'And you expect me to believe this cock and bull story,' Moss
+growled. 'Being out of a job so long has made you balmy.'
+
+"'It hasn't made me too balmy not to see through the way you deceive
+your wife, Moss,' I said. 'I'll bet she would think me sane enough if
+I were to tell her all I know. But I'll spare you if you will take me
+into your cellar and help me to do a bit of excavation there. But
+promise, mind you, that we will go shares in what we find.'
+
+"'Oh, I'll promise right enough,' Moss replied. 'I'll promise
+anything--if only to keep you from talking such moonshine.'
+
+"Well, in the end I prevailed upon him to accompany me, and we went
+into the cellar--just as I had depicted it--armed with a pick-axe and
+crowbar. Moss growling and jeering every step he took, and I, deadly
+in earnest.
+
+"'It's under here,' I said, halting over a flagstone in the corner of
+the vault. 'But before we do anything you had better hide that hat-pin
+and these shoes, or your missis will find them. She'll hear us
+scraping and come to see what's up.'
+
+"Moss, who was in a vile temper all the time, made a grab at the
+things, pricking his finger and swearing horribly. In the meanwhile I
+had set to work, and, with his aid, raised the stone. We dug for
+pretty nearly an hour, Moss calling upon me all the time to 'chuck
+it,' when I suddenly struck something hard--it was the skeleton and
+close beside it, was the bag. You should have seen Moss then. He was
+simply overcome--called me a wizard, a magician, and heaven alone
+knows what, and fairly stood on his head with delight when we opened
+the bag, and hundreds of gold coins and precious stones rolled out on
+the floor. He wanted to go back on his word then, and only give me a
+handful; but I was too smart for him, and swore I would tell his wife
+about the girl unless he gave me half. When we were leaving the
+cellar, of course, he wanted me to go first, so that he could follow
+with the pickaxe, but here again I was too sharp for him--and I got
+safely out of the place with my pockets bulging. I went right away to
+Prescott's in Clay Street, and let the lot go for three thousand
+dollars. I wonder how Curtis has got on!"
+
+They walked together to the hotel, and found Curtis busily engaged
+eating. "I've worked hard," he said, "and now I'm in for enjoying
+myself. I've made them get out a special menu for me, and I'm going to
+eat till I can't hold another morsel. I've starved all my life and now
+I intend making up for it."
+
+"Been successful?" Hamar asked, winking at Kelson.
+
+"Pretty well! Nothing to grumble at," Curtis rejoined, pouring himself
+out a glass of champagne. "First of all I went to Simpson's Dive in
+Sacramento Street, and started doing the tricks we discovered
+yesterday. Not a soul in the place could see through them, and I made
+about two hundred dollars before I left. I then had lunch."
+
+"Why you had lunch with us!" Hamar laughed.
+
+"Well, can't I have as many lunches as I like?" Curtis replied. "I had
+lunch, I say, at a place in Market Street, and there I read in a paper
+that Peters & Pervis, the tin food people, were offering a prize of
+three thousand dollars for a solution to a puzzle contained on the
+inside cover of one of their tins. I immediately determined to enter
+for it. I bought a tin and saw through the puzzle at once. Bribing a
+policeman to go with me to see fair play, off I set to Peters &
+Pervis'.
+
+"'I want to see your boss,' I said to the first clerk I saw.
+
+"'Which of them?' the clerk grunted, his cheeks turning white at the
+sight of the policeman.
+
+"'Either will do,' I replied, 'Peters or Pervis. Trot 'em up, time is
+precious.'
+
+"Away he went, but in a couple of minutes was back again, looking
+scared, 'They're both engaged,' he says.
+
+"'Then they'll have to break it off,' I responded, 'and mighty quick.
+I'm here to talk with them, so get a move on you again and give that
+message.'
+
+"If it hadn't been for the policeman I don't think he would have gone,
+but the policeman backed me up, and the clerk hurried off again; and
+in the end the bosses decided they had better see me. They looked
+precious cross, I can assure you, but before I had done speaking they
+looked crosser still.
+
+"'You say you've done that puzzle,'--they shouted--'the puzzle that
+has stuck all the mathematical guns at Harvard and Yale--you--a
+nonentity like you--begone, sir, don't waste our time with such humbug
+as that.'
+
+"'All right,' I said, 'give me some paper and a pen, and I'll prove
+it.'
+
+"'That's very reasonable,' the policeman chipped in, 'do the thing
+fair and square--I'm here as a witness.'
+
+"Well, with much grunting and grumbling they handed me paper and ink,
+and in a trice the puzzle was done; and it appeared so easy that the
+policeman clapped his hands and broke out into a loud guffaw. My eyes!
+you should have seen how the faces of Pervis and Peters fell, and have
+heard what they said. But it was no use swearing and cursing, the
+thing was done, and there was the policeman to prove it.
+
+"'We'll give you five hundred dollars,' they said, 'to clear out and
+say no more about it.'
+
+"'Five hundred dollars when you've advertised three thousand,' I
+cried. 'What do you take me for? I'll have that three thousand or I'll
+show you both up.'
+
+"'A thousand, then?' they said.
+
+"'No!' I retorted; 'three! Three, and look sharp. And look here,' I
+added, as my glance rested on some of the samples of their pastes they
+had round them, 'I understand the secrets of all these so-called
+patents of yours--there isn't one of them I couldn't imitate. Take
+that "Rabsidab," for instance. What is it? Why, a compound of
+horseflesh, turnips and popcorn, flavoured with Lazenby's sauce--for
+the infringement of which patent you are liable to prosecution--and
+coloured with cochineal. Then there's the stuff you label
+"Ironcastor,"'--but they shut me up. 'There, take your three thousand
+dollars, write us out a receipt for it, and clear.'"
+
+"Nine thousand dollars in one day! We've done well," Kelson
+ejaculated. "What's the programme for to-morrow?"
+
+"Same as to-day and plenty of it," Curtis said, pouring himself out
+another glass of champagne and making a vigorous attack on a chicken.
+"I think I'll let you two fellows do all the work to-morrow, and
+content myself here. Waiter! What time's breakfast?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+
+Curtis was as good as his word. The following day he remained indoors
+eating, and planning what he should eat, whilst Hamar and Kelson went
+out with the express purpose of adding to their banking accounts.
+
+In a garden in Bryant Street, Hamar saw a man resting on his spade and
+mopping the perspiration from his forehead. As he stopped mechanically
+to see what was being done, a cold sensation ran up his right leg into
+his right hand, the first and third fingers of which were drawn
+violently down. With a cry of horror he shrank back. Directly beneath
+where he had been standing, he saw, under a fifteen or sixteen feet
+layer of gravel soil--water; a huge caldron of water, black and
+silent; water, that gave him the impression of tremendous depth and
+coldness.
+
+"Hulloa! matey, what's the matter?" the man with the spade called out.
+"Are you looking for your skin, for I never saw any one so completely
+jump out of it?"
+
+"So would you," Hamar said with a shudder, "if you saw what I do!"
+
+"What's that, then?" the man said leering on the ground. "Snakes!
+That's what I always see when I've got them."
+
+"So long as you don't see yourself, there's some chance for you!"
+Hamar retorted. "What makes you so hot?"
+
+"Why, digging!" the man laughed; "any one would get hot digging at
+such hard ground as this. As for a little whippersnapper like you,
+you'd melt right away and only your nose would remain. Nothing would
+ever melt that--there's too much of it."
+
+Hamar scowled. "You needn't be insulting," he said, "I asked you a
+civil question, and I repeat it. What makes you so hot--when you
+should be cold--or at least cool?"
+
+"Oh, should I!" the man mimicked, "I thought first you was merely
+drunk; I can see quite clearly now that you're mad."
+
+"And yet you have such defective sight."
+
+"What makes you say that?" the man said testily.
+
+"Why," Hamar responded, "because you can't see what lies beneath your
+very nose. Shall I tell you what it is?"
+
+"Yes, tell away," the man replied, "tell me my old mother's got twins,
+and that Boss Croker is coming to lodge with us. I'd know you for a
+liar anywhere by those teeth of yours."
+
+"Look here," said Hamar drawing himself up angrily, "I have had enough
+of your abuse. If I have any more I'll tell your employers. It is
+evident you take me for a bummer, but see,"--and plunging his hand in
+his pocket he pulled it out full of gold. "Kindly understand I'm
+somebody," he went on, "and that I'm staying at one of the biggest
+hotels in the town."
+
+"I'm damned if I know what to make of you," the man muttered, "unless
+you're a hoptical delusion!"
+
+"Underneath where I was standing--just here,"--and Hamar indicated the
+spot--"is water. Any amount of it, you have only to sink a shaft
+fifteen feet and you would come to it."
+
+"Water!" the man laughed, "yes, there is any amount of it--on your
+brain, that's the only water near here."
+
+"Then you don't believe me?" Hamar demanded.
+
+"Not likely!" the man responded, "I only believe what I see! And when
+I see a face like yours holding out a potful of dollars, I know as how
+you've stolen them. Git!"--and Hamar flew.
+
+But Hamar was not so easily nonplussed; not at least when he saw a
+chance of making money. Entering the garden, and keeping well out of
+sight of the gardener, he arrived at the front door by a side path, and
+with much formality requested to see the owner of the establishment.
+The latter happening to be crossing the hall at the time, heard Hamar
+and asked what he wanted.
+
+Hamar at once informed him he was a dowser, and that, chancing to pass
+by the garden on his way to his hotel, he had divined the presence of
+water.
+
+"I only wish there were," the gentleman exclaimed, "but I fear you are
+mistaken. I have attempted several times to sink a well but never with
+the slightest degree of success. I have had all the ground carefully
+prospected by Figgins of Sacramento Street--he has a very big
+reputation--and he assures me there isn't a drop of water anywhere
+near here within two hundred feet of the surface."
+
+"I know better," Hamar said. "Will you get your gardener--who by the
+way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him--to dig where I
+tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination."
+
+The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. assented, and
+several gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were
+soon digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was
+found, and, indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few
+minutes it had risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.
+
+"I shall send an account of it to the local papers," Mr. B. remarked.
+"Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of
+my property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am"--and
+he, then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.
+
+After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque--rather in excess
+of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not
+have refrained from demanding much longer.
+
+In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the
+incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was
+so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel
+deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.
+
+At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but,
+nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed
+them with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to
+tell him to "dry up."
+
+"I began the morning," he commenced, "by accosting a very fashionably
+dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.
+Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater,
+the Biscuit King of Nob Hill, and that she was carrying in her big
+seal-skin muff a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald butterfly, a
+silver-backed hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a
+porcelain jar, all of which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was
+looking.
+
+"I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning,
+Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'
+
+"'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are
+you?'
+
+"'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would
+be otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a
+favour, Mrs. Bater.'
+
+"'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a
+very extraordinary individual.'
+
+"'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your
+muff? I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid
+for--and I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first
+time such a thing has happened.'
+
+"She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever
+do you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to
+me.'
+
+"'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a
+pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them
+each minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a
+silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad--if
+you prefer to call it so--from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a
+tortoiseshell manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the
+same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver buttons, a
+glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cushion--you likewise helped yourself
+to--from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them
+to you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with
+them. You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco
+storekeepers.'
+
+"'Good God, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the
+innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'
+
+"'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and
+almost failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I
+didn't kiss her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping
+mouth and--"
+
+"Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks," Curtis
+interrupted, "I've got a touch of indigestion."
+
+"As I was saying," Kelson went on complacently, "I could have kissed
+her and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.
+
+"'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing?
+Show me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.
+
+"'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will
+agreeto say nothing about either this or any of your other--ahem!--
+thefts--if you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for
+a thousand dollars!'
+
+"'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'
+
+"'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I assure you, Mrs.
+Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman
+and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other
+things about you.'
+
+"'What other things?' she stuttered.
+
+"'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate--er--for
+single men like me to mention, but I do know that--er--a lady--very
+like--remarkably like--you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle
+which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as,
+madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years--let me see--yes, two
+years yesterday--one can--!'
+
+"'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will
+give you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'
+
+"'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a
+taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'"
+
+"You got the money?" Hamar queried.
+
+"Yes," Kelson said with a smile, "I got the money--in fact, everything
+I asked for."
+
+There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, "What next?"
+
+"What next!" Kelson said, "why I thought I had done a very good day's
+work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm
+dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming
+out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a
+lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest
+fashion costumes--a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high
+plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so
+admirably suited to pretty girls--because it attracts attention to
+them--should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to
+continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the
+much-pampered and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate;
+that she was in love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas,
+the manager of the Columbian Bank--a young, good-looking fellow, whom
+she had been trying to set against his fiancée, Dora Roberts. Dora is
+only nineteen, very pretty and a trifle giddy--nothing more. But this
+failing of hers--if you can call it a failing, was just the very
+weapon Ella Barlow wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending
+Delmas a series of anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This
+resulted in a breach between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much
+elated, at once tried to step into her shoes. She has been going out a
+good deal with Delmas, who is in reality still very much in love with
+Dora, and consequently exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella,
+anxious to show off a magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her
+father, telephoned to Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where
+she has engaged a box for this evening--fondly hoping that the
+diamonds will bring him up to the scratch, and that he will propose to
+her. When I saw her she was on her way to a notorious quack doctor and
+beauty specialist in Californian Street. She suffers from some nasty
+skin disease, and is in mortal terror lest Delmas should get to know
+of it, and also of the fact that all her teeth are false, and that two
+of her toes are badly deformed."
+
+"By Jupiter!" Hamar ejaculated, "this divination of yours beats mine
+into fits--nothing escapes you!"
+
+"No!" Kelson laughed, "nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical
+was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her
+with his dissecting knife. I saw everything--and what is more I said
+to myself--here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I
+didn't stop her--I let her go."
+
+"Let her go!" Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.
+"You squirrel!"
+
+"Only for a time," Kelson said, "I went to see Delmas!"
+
+"Delmas!" Hamar interlocuted, "why the deuce Delmas?"
+
+"Impulse!" Kelson explained, "purely impulse."
+
+"Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!" Hamar said, "it is
+essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against
+impulse. What did you get out of Delmas?"
+
+"Nothing!" Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, "But the matter
+hasn't ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to
+eat. I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow."
+
+It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and
+Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the
+_Examiner_, when he joined them.
+
+"Well!" Hamar said, looking up at him, "what luck?"
+
+But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then
+lolled back in his seat and began:--
+
+"Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure
+rose to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not
+Herbert! Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'
+
+"'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is
+engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'
+
+"'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated--and by
+Jove the diamonds did shine--she was simply a mass of them, hair,
+neck, arms and fingers--and she had been so well faked up for the
+occasion that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew
+about her--and shuddered.
+
+"'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this
+afternoon, did he not?'
+
+"She nodded.
+
+"'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in
+time to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself,
+and he would join you as soon as possible.'
+
+"'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'
+
+"'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and
+asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he
+would be here by the end of the first act.'
+
+"'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow ejaculated, 'I don't know
+you--I've never seen you before!'
+
+"'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I
+can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest
+you. Have I your permission?'--and without waiting for her reply I sat
+next to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen
+people, and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not
+full up, as the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her
+attention fixed on my face so that she was unaware what was taking
+place, immediately behind her.
+
+"'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of
+any possible interest to me?'
+
+"'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your
+character!'
+
+"'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read
+hands?'
+
+"'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head,
+and feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in
+one!'
+
+"'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of
+all this?'
+
+"'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those
+anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'
+
+"'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous
+letters to do with me?'
+
+"'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their
+contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I
+recited every word in them and told her the hour, day and
+place--namely, when and where each was written, and I summed up by
+asking what she would pay me not to tell Delmas.
+
+"For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim
+and silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying
+with the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed--she did not know
+what course to pursue!
+
+"'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'
+
+"She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I
+don't deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through
+one of the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'
+
+"'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of
+consequence to you as much as to me--is the payment for hushing it
+up!'
+
+"'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her
+excitement, 'pay _you_--you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You--' but I
+can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go
+on till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow,
+why all this fuss--why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We
+must come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely
+I shall tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'
+
+"'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at
+all!'
+
+"'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two
+deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and
+that you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to
+be faked up. I must be brutal--it's no use being anything else to
+women of your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you
+flatter yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What
+have you got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted.
+When she came to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts
+and water--the effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to
+imagine--I again broached the subject.
+
+"'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.
+
+"'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your
+defects will--as far as I am concerned--always remain a secret.
+Refuse, and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be
+known at once.'
+
+"For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her
+hands--shivering. Then she looked up at me--and Jerusalem! it was like
+looking at an old woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall
+never wear them again, anyhow. Take them--and leave me.'
+
+"Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one
+that was on her into my pocket.
+
+"'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm,
+'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I
+answered--but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had
+been concealed within and had heard everything that passed.
+
+"'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low
+down, perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You
+thoroughly deserve those diamonds--will you accept an offer for them
+from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them
+to her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he
+'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with
+Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they
+are going to be married next month."
+
+"So out of evil good comes," Hamar said, "the maxim for us, remember,
+is--out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day,
+you two?"
+
+"Rest!" said Kelson, "I'm tired."
+
+"Eat!" said Curtis, "I'm hungry!"
+
+"Now look here, this won't do," Hamar remarked, "you've earned your
+rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally."
+
+"Can't I?" Curtis snapped, "I'm not so sure of that, I've years to
+make up for."
+
+"Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!" Hamar
+expostulated, "and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We
+have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank--that is to
+say, the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents
+that amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount--and to go on
+increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the
+world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live
+at the pace Ed is setting us--but there is no reason why we should
+remain here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme
+in my head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether
+impossible."
+
+"What is it?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Yes, out with it," Curtis grunted.
+
+"It is this," Hamar said, "I suggest that we go to London--London in
+England--I guess it's the richest town in the world--and there set up
+as sorcerers--The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination
+and juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of
+course sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt
+but that we should make an enormous pile, with which we would
+gradually buy up, not merely London, but the whole of England."
+
+"That's rather a tall order," Kelson murmured.
+
+"A small one, you mean," Curtis sneered, "you could put the whole of
+England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go
+much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco."
+
+"Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it," Hamar laughed."
+
+"No, perhaps not," Curtis said rather dubiously. "I guess we could buy
+the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always
+used to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high
+enough. They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?"
+
+"At the end of our week," Hamar said, "that is to say on Wednesday--in
+three days' time."
+
+"First class all the way, of course," Curtis said, "I'll see to the
+arrangements for the catering and berths."
+
+"All right!" Hamar laughed, as he filled three glasses with champagne.
+"Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity--to
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TWO DREAMS
+
+
+"Do you believe in dreams?" Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a
+stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the
+breakfast room at Pine Cottage.
+
+"I believe in fairies," Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently
+as she looked at the fair face beside her. "What was the dream,
+dearie?"
+
+Gladys laughed a little mischievously. "I don't quite know whether I
+ought to tell you," she said. "It might shock you."
+
+"Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine," Miss Templeton
+replied. "What was it?"
+
+"Well!" Gladys began, flinging both arms round her aunt's neck and
+playing with the pleats in her blouse, "I dreamed that I was walking
+in the little wood at the end of the garden, and that the trees and
+flowers walked and talked with me. And we danced together--and, first
+of all, I had for my partner, a red rose--and then, an ash. They both
+made love to me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands.
+A poppy piped, a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew
+desperately jealous of me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing
+ceased, and I found myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their
+bells at me with loud trills of laughter. And out from among them,
+came a buttercup, pointing its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it
+cried, 'what Gladys is carrying behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees
+and flowers--everything around me--shook with laughter. Then I grew
+hot and cold all over, and did not know which way to look for my
+confusion, till a willow, having compassion on me said, 'Take no
+notice of them! They don't know any better.'
+
+"I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew
+very embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered--oh! so funnily,
+'Well if you really wish to know--it's a bud, a baby white rose, and
+it's clinging to your dress.'
+
+"'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.
+
+"'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst
+its fellows, 'that your lover is coming--your lover with a
+troll-le-loll-la--and--well, if you want to know more ask the
+gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
+that grows in the bed,'--and at that all the flowers and trees
+shrieked with laughter--'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'--and with my ears full of
+the rude laughter of the wood I awoke. What do you think of it? Isn't
+it rather a quaint mixture of the--of the sacred--at least the
+artistic--and the profane?"
+
+"Quite so," said Miss Templeton with an amused chuckle, "but I
+shouldn't ask for an interpretation of it if I were you."
+
+"Not for an interpretation of the trees and flowers?" Gladys asked
+innocently. "I'm sure trees and flowers have a special significance in
+dreams."
+
+"Very well then, my dear, ask Mrs. Sprat."
+
+"What! ask the Vicar's wife!" Gladys ejaculated, "when I never go to
+church."
+
+"Certainly," Miss Templeton replied, laughing again, "Mrs. Sprat will
+quite understand. And I've always been told she is very interested in
+anything to do with the Occult. But hush! Here's your father. You'd
+better not tell him your dream. He's tired to death, he says, of
+hearing about your lovers, and agrees with me--there's no end to
+them."
+
+"Never mind what he says--his bark's worse then his bite," Gladys
+rejoined, "he doesn't really care how many I have so long as they keep
+within bounds, and I like them! Father!"
+
+John Martin, who entered the room at that moment, went straight to his
+daughter to be kissed.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't always select that bald spot," he said testily,
+"I don't want to be everlastingly reminded I'm losing my hair."
+
+"Where do you want me to kiss you, then?" Gladys argued, "on the tip
+of your nose? That's all very well for you, John Martin, but I prefer
+the top of your head. But the poor dear looks worried, what is it?"
+
+"I didn't have a very good night," her father replied, "I dreamed a
+lot!" Gladys looked at Miss Templeton and laughed.
+
+"Did you?" she said gently. "What a shame! I never dream. What was it
+all about?"
+
+"Flowers!" John Martin snapped, "idiotic flowers! Roses, lilac,
+tulips! Bah! I do wish you would have some other hobby."
+
+Gladys looked at her aunt again, this time with a half serious, half
+questioning expression.
+
+"Shall I be a politician?" she cooed, "and fill the house with
+suffragettes? You bad man, I believe you would revel in it. Don't you
+think so, Auntie?"
+
+"I think, instead of teasing your father so unmercifully, you had
+better pour him out a cup of tea," Miss Templeton replied. "Jack,
+there's a letter for you."
+
+"Where? Under my plate! what a place to put it. That's you," and John
+Martin frowned, or rather, attempted to frown, at Gladys. "Why it's
+about Davenport--Dick Davenport. He's very ill--had a stroke
+yesterday, and the doctor declares his condition critical. His nephew,
+Shiel, so Anne says, has been sent for, and arrived at Sydenham last
+night! If that's not bad news I don't know what is!" John Martin said,
+thrusting his plate away from him and leaning back in his chair. "It's
+true I can manage the business all right myself--and there's the
+possibility, of course, that this young Shiel may shape all right. I
+suppose if anything happens he will step into Dick's shoes. I've never
+heard Dick mention any one else. Poor old Dick!"
+
+"I am so sorry, father!" Gladys said, laying her hand on his. "But
+cheer up! It may not be as bad as you expect. Shall you go and see how
+he is?"
+
+"I think so, my dear! I think so," John Martin replied, "but don't
+worry me about it now. Talk to your aunt and leave me out of it, I'm a
+bit upset. My brain's in a regular whirl!"
+
+Undoubtedly the news was something in the nature of a blow: for Dick
+Davenport, apart from being John Martin's partner--partner in the firm
+of Martin and Davenport, the world-renowned conjurors, whose hall in
+the Kingsway was one of the chief amusement places in London, was John
+Martin's oldest friend. They had been chums at Cheltenham College, had
+entered the Army and gone to India together, had quitted the Service
+together, and, on returning together to England, had started their
+conjuring business, first of all in Sloane Street, and subsequently in
+the Kingsway. From the very start their enterprise had met with
+success, and, had it not been for Davenport's wild extravagance, they
+would have been little short of millionaires. But Davenport, though a
+most lovable character in every respect, could not keep money--he no
+sooner had it than it was gone. His house in Sydenham was little short
+of a palace; whilst, it was said, he almost rivalled royalty, in
+magnificent display, whenever he entertained. The result of all this
+reckless expenditure was no uncommon one--he ran through considerably
+more than he earned and--as there was no one else to help him--he
+invariably came down on John Martin. It was "Jack, old boy, I'm damned
+sorry, but I must have another thousand;" or, "Jack! these infernal
+scamps of creditors are worrying the life out of me, can you, will
+you, lend me a trifle--a couple of thousand will do it"--and so on--so
+on, ad infinitum. John Martin never refused, and at the time of
+Davenport's illness, the latter owed him something like a hundred
+thousand pounds.
+
+Fortunately John Martin, though far from parsimonious, was careful. He
+had an excellent business head, and, thanks to his sagacious share in
+the management, the business remained solvent. He knew Davenport's
+capacity--that nowhere could he have found another such a brilliant
+genius in conjuring--nor, apart from his thriftlessness, any one so
+thoroughly reliable. In Davenport's keeping all the great tricks they
+had invented--and great tricks they undoubtedly were--were absolutely
+safe.
+
+Despite the fact that they had repeatedly offered big sums of money to
+any one who could discover the secret of how they were done, every
+attempt to do so had utterly failed. The Mysteries of Martin and
+Davenport's Home of Wonder, in the Kingsway, baffled the world. Of
+course one thing had helped them enormously--namely, they had no
+rivals. So colossal was their reputation, that no one else had ever
+even thought of setting up in opposition.
+
+And now one of the two great master-minds, that had accomplished all
+these marvels and acquired such universal fame, was stricken down,
+checkmated by the still greater power of nature; and his
+colleague--the only other man in existence who shared his
+knowledge--was obliged to rack his brain as to what was now to be
+done--done for the continuance and prosperity of the firm.
+
+After finishing her breakfast Gladys joined her aunt in the garden.
+
+"To dream of flowers and trees evidently means bad news," she said.
+"But as I feel in a mood for a walk, I shall call at the Vicarage."
+
+"What, now! At this hour!" Miss Templeton cried aghast.
+
+"Why not?" Gladys said imperturbably. "I'm not going to pay a call.
+They haven't called on us. I shall say I've merely come to make an
+inquiry. Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with
+me!"
+
+But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.
+
+The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
+surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
+conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
+ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
+Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
+presence of his wife, who received her very affably.
+
+"Why, how very strange," she observed when Gladys had stated the
+object of her visit. "I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A
+Miss Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream
+about trees and flowers--only it took the form of a poem, which she
+awoke repeating. There were several verses--quite doggerel it is
+true--but nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them
+down, and asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden
+meaning in them. Here they are," and she handed Gladys two pages of
+sermon paper on which was written--
+
+    "In the greenest of green valleys,
+    Aglow with summer sun,
+    Lived a maiden fair and radiant,
+    More radiant there was none.
+
+    "The flowers gave her their friendship;
+    Her couch was on the ground.
+    A happier, gayer maiden,
+    Was nowhere to be found.
+
+    "The air was filled with music
+    Sung by the babbling brook.
+    Sweet lullabies with chorus clear
+    In which the flowers partook.
+
+    "This maiden knew not sorrow,
+    Until an evil day;
+    When riding lone across the moors,
+    A hunter lost his way.
+
+    "And chancing on this valley,
+    He met the maiden sweet.
+    Her beauty overwhelmed him;
+    He fell love-sick at her feet.
+
+    "Despite the fervent warnings
+    Of her friends the flowers and trees,
+    She listened to his courting;
+    And with him roamed the leas.
+
+    "The leas, far from the valley,
+    They rode the livelong night;
+    Till a heavy mist descending
+    Hid the roadway from their sight.
+
+    "Uprose, then, forms of evil.
+    From out the mocking gloom;
+    And seizing horse and hunter scared,
+    Left the maiden to her doom.
+
+    "Travellers now within those regions,
+    Through the nightly grey fog see
+    A woman's shade crawl slow along,
+    To a ghastly melody.
+
+    "And those who linger--follow
+    The phantom pale and wan.
+    O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale
+    It slowly leads them on.
+
+    "On till they reach the valley,
+    A valley grim and drear,
+    Where lurid things with fibrous arms
+    Their course through darkness steer.
+
+    "And on the travellers palsied
+    In frenzied crowd they pour.
+    And those who view their faces,
+    Are heard but seen no more."
+
+"Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?" Gladys exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," the Vicar's wife said. "She told me so and I have no reason to
+doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the
+least bit in the world poetical--on the contrary she is most practical
+and matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers."
+
+"Mine, too!" Gladys interrupted. "Were you able to explain the
+verses?"
+
+"No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I
+am in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie
+Besant last night! She--"
+
+"Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?" Gladys asked.
+
+"Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things--to
+tell dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water,
+and so on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice
+about them in this morning's paper. I will get it for you."
+
+She left the room and in a few moments returned.
+
+"Here it is," she said. And under the heading of "Sorcery Revived"
+Gladys read as follows:--
+
+"There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
+to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
+Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
+Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
+S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!
+
+"They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess
+to interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve
+all manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
+wonders what next!"
+
+"This paper evidently has its doubts," Gladys commented. "They are
+frauds, of course."
+
+"I dare say they are," the Vicar's wife replied, "though I believe in
+thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
+Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
+train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her."
+
+"Well, thanks awfully," Gladys said, "for telling me about these
+people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during the day and
+call at Cockspur Street. I must apologize again for calling at such an
+unearthly hour. Good-bye," and Gladys smilingly took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+
+Shortly after Gladys reached home after her visit to the Vicarage, a
+young man with a serious expression somewhat out of keeping with his
+jaunty walk, entered the gate of Pine Cottage, and came to an abrupt
+halt.
+
+"Well," he ejaculated, "this is a pretty place, and what's more--for
+dozens of houses and gardens are pretty--it's artistic!" In front of
+him stretched a miniature avenue of chestnut trees, which was rendered
+striking, even to the most casual observer, probably, not only on
+account of the irregular mounds of moss-covered stones that occupied
+its intervening spaces, but also, by reason of the masses of wild
+flowers (great clumps of which were springing up in the crevices of
+this impromptu wall) that lent to it an appearance half negligent, but
+wholly and entrancingly picturesque. Here, undoubtedly, was art. That
+did not astonish the young man. All avenues, in the ordinary sense,
+are works of art; and the mere excess of art he saw manifested did not
+surprise him; it was the character of the art that had brought him to
+a standstill and held him spellbound. And the longer he looked the
+more he became convinced, that whoever had superintended the
+arrangement of this scenery was an artist--an artist with a scrupulous
+eye for form.
+
+The greatest care had been taken to keep the balance between neatness
+and gracefulness on the one hand and picturesqueness on the other.
+There were few straight lines, and no long uninterrupted ones; whilst
+at no one point of view did the same effect of curvature or colour
+appear twice. Variety in uniformity was the keynote.
+
+At last tearing himself away from this one spot--where he felt he
+could have spent centuries--he turned to the right and then again to
+the left--for the path had now become serpentine, and at no moment
+could be traced for more than two or three paces in advance. Presently
+the sound of water fell gently on his ear, and in the shadiest of
+diminutive forests, amidst the interlacing branches of elm and beech,
+he caught the glimpse of a fountain. For an instant the wild thought
+of forcing his way through it, of plunging his burning forehead in its
+cooling spray, well-nigh mastered him. But his better sense conquered,
+and he kept to the path. Another turn, and he caught his first glimpse
+of a chimney; another--and the summit of a gable showed above the
+trees. The sun, which had been hitherto obscured, now came out, and
+suddenly--as if by the hand of magic--the whole scene was a brilliant
+blaze of colour. He had arrived at the end of the avenue, where the
+path forked; one branch turning sharply round in the direction of a
+side entrance to the house, whilst the other led with a gentle
+curvature to the front.
+
+Facing the building was a broad expanse of velvety turf, relieved
+occasionally, here and there, by such showy shrubs as the hydrangea,
+rhododendron, or lilac; but more frequently, and at closer intervals,
+by clumps of geraniums, or roses--roses of every variety. There was
+nothing pretentious in the garden, any more than there was in the
+adjoining edifice. Its unusually pleasing effect lay altogether in its
+artistic arrangement; and one could hardly help imagining that the
+whole scene had, in reality, been called into existence by the brush
+of some eminent landscape painter.
+
+The cottage itself was constructed of old-fashioned Dutch
+shingles--broad and with rounded corners--and painted a dull grey; a
+tint which, when contrasted with the vivid green of the tulip trees
+that overshadowed the entrance to the house, and reared themselves
+high above it on either side, afforded an artistic happiness perfectly
+intoxicating to its present visitor. The architecture of the cottage
+was--if not Early Tudor--something equally pleasing. Its roofs were
+divided into many gables; its windows were diamond paned and
+projecting, whilst oaken beams ran latitudinally and vertically over
+its grey shingle front. Encompassing the whole base of the exterior
+were masses of flowers--pinks, carnations, heliotrope, pansies,
+poppies, lilies, wallflowers, roses and jasmines; and besides the
+latter several other creepers had been planted beneath the walls, but
+had not yet attained to any height.
+
+Shiel Davenport, for it was he, could not resist the temptation of
+peeping in at the windows; and he saw that the interior of the cottage
+was artistry and simplicity itself. At the windows, curtains of heavy
+white jaconet muslin, not too full, hung in sharp parallel plaits to
+the floor--just to the floor. The walls were papered with French
+papers of rare delicacy--to match the seasons; (spring, summer, autumn
+and winter were all most effectively depicted), and the furniture
+though light, was at the same time costly. And here again was the same
+effect of arrangement--an arrangement obviously designed by the same
+brain that had planned the building and grounds. Shiel could not
+conceive anything more graceful. Flowers--flowers of every hue and
+odour were the chief decoration of the cottage. On almost every table
+were vases--in themselves beautiful enough--yet filled to overflowing
+with the finest roses. Ox-eye daisies, hollyhocks and forget-me-nots
+clustered about the open windows. And every puff of wind, every breath
+of air transmitted scent--the most delicious medley of scent
+imaginable.
+
+The young man drew in deep draughts of it; he threw back his head,
+and, opening his mouth, revelled in the joy of feeling it steal softly
+down his throat and permeate his lungs. He was thus engaged when the
+sound of a voice brought him sharply back to earth.
+
+In the open doorway of the house, an amused expression in her violet
+eyes, stood a girl--so wondrously pretty, that at the sight of her
+Shiel was again overcome, and could only gaze in helpless admiration.
+
+"Do you want to see my father?" she inquired. "He is getting ready to
+go out, but I daresay he will see you first."
+
+"I--I am sure he will," the young man replied, "I'm Shiel Davenport.
+I've come to tell him my uncle died at four o'clock this morning."
+
+"Oh, dear!" the girl exclaimed, "I am so sorry--sorry for you, and for
+my father. I'm sure he will be terribly upset. I'm Gladys Martin,
+perhaps you've heard of me--I knew your uncle."
+
+"Often," Shiel said, "And I think my uncle's description of you an
+excellent one."
+
+"His description of me!"
+
+"Yes! he always spoke of you as the Queen of Flowers, and said you had
+a mania for all things beautiful, which was not surprising, seeing how
+beautiful you were yourself."
+
+"That was very nice of him," Gladys said, looking amused again. "Won't
+you come in? If you will wait here"--she led him to the
+drawing-room--"I'll tell my father."
+
+She disappeared, and Shiel heard her run lightly up the stairs.
+
+"By Jove," he said to himself, "she's the loveliest girl I've ever
+seen. From being so much among flowers, she has become one herself.
+Violets, roses, and heliotrope have all had a share in her creation!
+What eyes, what a mouth! what teeth! what hands! Surely I have found
+here, not only the perfection of all things beautiful, but the
+perfection of all things natural, the perfection of natural grace in
+contradistinction from artificial grace. Moreover, she is a
+romanticist. There is an expression of romance, of unworldliness, in
+those deep-set eyes of hers, that sinks into my heart of hearts.
+'Romance' and 'womanliness,' and the two terms appear to me to be
+convertible, are her distinguishing features. She is an artist, an
+idealist, and, over and above all--a woman! Hang it! I'm in love with
+her!"
+
+More he could not evolve, for his meditations were abruptly cut short
+by the entrance of a servant, who ushered him, straightway, into the
+presence of John Martin.
+
+The latter, though visibly affected by the news of his friend's death,
+was a man of the world, and, consequently, came to business at once.
+Much had to be discussed--arrangements for the funeral, the
+examination of correspondence relative to the firm, and plans for the
+immediate future.
+
+"You don't know how my uncle's affairs stand, I suppose?" Shiel asked
+somewhat nervously.
+
+"Yes," John Martin said, "I do. May I ask if you have any private
+means at all--or are you solely dependent on what you earn? By the
+way, what is your calling?"
+
+"I am an artist," Shiel said. "No, I've nothing beyond what my uncle
+was good enough to allow me."
+
+"An artist!" John Martin murmured, "how like Dick! Have you
+entertained the idea of inheriting a fortune? Have you any reason to
+suppose that your uncle was well off and had made you his heir!"
+
+"I gathered so, sir, from the manner in which he lived and his
+attitude towards me."
+
+"Well! we won't talk it over now--leave it till after the funeral. Are
+you bent on continuing painting? There is very little remuneration in
+it, is there?"
+
+"Not much," Shiel answered gloomily, "but I shouldn't care to give it
+up--unless of course it is absolutely necessary for me to do so."
+
+"Being an artist you wouldn't be much good in business."
+
+"None!"
+
+"At all events, you are candid. Well! I don't see any good in our
+dallying here--I had best go back with you to Sydenham. I've got a
+letter to write first, but I shan't be long."
+
+He was long enough, however, for Shiel to have another chat with
+Gladys. "Do you believe in dreams?" she asked him. "I had such a queer
+one last night, about trees and flowers; and, oddly enough, my father
+also dreamed of trees and flowers, and of the very same ones too. I am
+going into Town to-day to consult a firm that has just set up, called
+the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. They profess to interpret dreams, and
+I am anxious to see whether they can."
+
+"In Cockspur Street, aren't they?" Shiel asked. "I saw their
+advertisement in one of the papers. I presume you are not going there
+alone?"
+
+"No!" Gladys laughed, "I shall go with a friend, though I often do go
+into Town alone. I can assure you I am quite capable of looking after
+myself. In that respect, at least, I am quite up to date. Probably you
+are more accustomed to French girls?"
+
+"Yes! I have spent most of my life in Paris," Shiel said. "But how
+could you tell that?"
+
+"Oh! I guessed you were an artist--and had probably spent some time in
+Paris"--Gladys rejoined, "by the way you looked at the house and
+garden. I could read appreciation in your eyes and gesture; such
+appreciation, as I knew, could only come from an artist. G.W. Barnett
+helped me in planning this cottage and the garden."
+
+"What! Barnett the landscape painter! I am a great admirer of his
+work. Were you a pupil of his?"
+
+"Yes, he was one of the visiting R.A.'s at the Beechcroft Studio in St.
+John's Wood, where I worked for three years. We were then living in
+Blackheath--St. John's Park--a hateful place. Mr. Barnett was awfully
+good, when I told him we were moving, and that I wanted to live in
+really artistic surroundings--he suggested that I should be my own
+architect, and promised to do everything he could to assist me,"
+
+"And your father hadn't a say in the matter," Shiel commented, with an
+amused smile.
+
+"Not in that," Gladys said complacently, "though there are one or two
+things in which he has a very decided say. Father can be very
+self-willed and obstinate, when he likes. But as I was remarking when
+you interrupted me--"
+
+"I beg pardon!" Shiel murmured.
+
+"Mr. Barnett promised to assist me. He came over here with me, and we
+chose this site."
+
+"Is he an old man?" Shiel inquired, a trifle anxiously.
+
+"Not much more than middle aged--fifty perhaps!" Gladys said, "though
+he looks much younger. He is still very good-looking. Well! he came
+over here--we chose this site, and--"
+
+"Is he married?"
+
+"No! Really you seem very interested in him. Perhaps you will meet him
+some day: he comes here a good deal. As I was saying, we chose the
+site together, and he supervized the plans I drew up for the garden
+and cottage; I don't think, perhaps, I should have thought of that
+avenue if it hadn't been for him!"
+
+"At all events it does you both credit," Shiel remarked, "for a more
+charming house and garden I have never seen. I should like to live
+here all my life. I should like--" but he was interrupted by John
+Martin. "Come, it's time we were off," the latter called out
+brusquely, "time and trains wait for no man!"
+
+"A young ass!" John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio
+passed through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform,
+"not a bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!"
+
+"Encourage him!" Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who
+had his ticket to get, was out of hearing. "Do I encourage any one?
+All the same," she added defiantly, "I rather like him. It isn't every
+one's good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick--hurry
+up! That's your train--and the guard's about to blow his whistle."
+
+With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
+they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
+the station.
+
+An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
+with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
+lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.
+
+"Have you an appointment, madam?" the commissionaire, in a bright blue
+uniform, asked.
+
+"No," Gladys replied. "Is it necessary?
+
+"The firm are unusually busy," the man explained, "and unless you have
+made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
+whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into
+the waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I
+will take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to
+consult?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," Gladys said. "I want to have a dream
+interpreted."
+
+"Then, that will be Mr. Kelson," the man observed "he does all that
+kind of thing--tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts.
+Mr. Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar
+divines the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the
+waiting-room now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there
+nearly an hour. This way, madam!"--and he escorted, rather than
+ushered, Gladys into a large, elaborately furnished room, in which a
+dozen or so well dressed people--of both sexes--were waiting, looking
+over the leaves of magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide
+their only too obvious excitement.
+
+Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the
+commissionaire, Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next
+to a strikingly handsome girl, she at once appropriated it.
+
+There was something about this showy girl that had attracted Gladys.
+She was one of those rare people that have a personality, and although
+this was a personality that Gladys was not at all sure she liked,
+nevertheless she felt anxious to become more closely acquainted with
+it. Both girls suddenly realized that they were staring hard at one
+another. The girl with the personality was the first to speak. With a
+smile that, while revealing a perfect set of white teeth, at the some
+time revealed exceedingly thin lips, she remarked, "It's most
+wearisome work waiting. I've been here nearly an hour. I shouldn't
+stay any longer, only I've come from a distance. London is so hot and
+stuffy, I detest it."
+
+"Do you?" Gladys observed. "I don't. I find it so full of human
+interest--indeed, of every kind of interest. Not that I should care to
+live in it, but I like being near enough to come up several times a
+week. I live at Kew."
+
+"Then you're lucky!" the girl said, "I'd live at Kew if I could. But I
+can't--I'm one of those unfortunate creatures who have to earn their
+living."
+
+"I sometimes wish I had to," Gladys remarked.
+
+"Do you! Then you don't know much about it. It isn't all jam by a long
+way. I loathe work. I've been spending my holiday at Kew. I've just
+come from there."
+
+"Are you by any chance Miss Rosenberg?" Gladys asked.
+
+"That's my name," the girl replied with a look of astonishment. "How
+do you know?"
+
+Gladys explained. "I've just been to the Vicarage," she said, "and
+Mrs. Sprat has told me about the verses. Did you really dream them?"
+
+"Of course! I shouldn't have said so if I hadn't," Miss Rosenberg
+replied angrily. "I don't tell crams. Besides, I've never composed a
+line of poetry in my life. The verses were repeated to me in my sleep
+by some occult agency--of that I am quite certain. They were so
+vividly impressed on my mind that I had no difficulty at all in
+remembering them--every one of them, and I got up and wrote them down.
+Of course they must mean something."
+
+Gladys was about to make some observation, when the commissionaire,
+opening the door of the room, called out, "Miss Rosenberg;" whereupon,
+with a sigh of relief, Miss Rosenberg took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+
+"Tell Miss Rosenberg I'll see her now," Matt Kelson said; and as he
+leaned back in his luxurious chair with that dignity of self-assurance
+only the man who is rich can maintain, it was hard to realise that he
+and the Matt Kelson of a year ago were the same. A year ago he had
+been a poor, underpaid, ill nourished pen-driver, with all the odious
+marks of a pen-driver's servility thick upon him. It was true he had
+been fastidious as to his appearance--that is to say, as fastidious as
+any one can be, who has to buy clothes ready made and can only afford
+to pay a few dollars for them; that he had sacrificed meals to wear
+white shirts--boiled shirts as one called them in San Francisco--and
+to get his things got up decently at a respectable laundry; but his
+teeth in those days did not receive the attention they ought to have
+received (he could not afford a dentist), the tobacco he smoked was
+often offensive; and there were to be found in him sundry other
+details that one usually finds in clerks, and in most other people who
+literally have to fight for a living.
+
+But now, all that was changed. Kelson was rich. He bought his suits at
+Poole's, his hats at Christie's, his boots in Regent Street. He
+patronized a dentist in Cavendish Square, and a manicurist in Bond
+Street. He belonged to a crack club in Pall Mall, and never smoked
+anything but the most expensive cigars. His ambition had been speedily
+realized. He had passionately longed to be a fop--he was one. The only
+thing that troubled him, was that he could not be an aristocrat at the
+same time. But, after all, what did that matter? The girls looked at
+him all the same, and that was all he wanted. He worshipped, he
+adored, pretty girls; and he was most anxious that they should adore
+him.
+
+Consequently, his first thought, when he saw Lilian Rosenberg's name
+on the form the commissionaire presented him, was "Is she pretty?" And
+the first thing he said to himself directly the door opened to admit
+her was, "By Jove! she is."
+
+Then he assumed an air more suited to a partner in a big London firm,
+and flourishing a richly bejewelled hand, said "Pray take a seat,
+madam. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I want you to tell me the meaning of these verses," Lilian Rosenberg
+said, handing him two sheets of foolscap and then sitting down. "They
+were suggested to me in my sleep--in other words, I dreamed them."
+
+"You dreamed them, did you!" Kelson said, noticing with approval that
+the girl had well-kept white hands, and that her clothes, though not
+particularly expensive, were _chic_, and up-to-date. "Do you want me
+only to interpret this poem, or shall I tell you something about
+yourself first?"
+
+"By all means tell me something about myself first--if you can,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said. "I want to get as much as I can out of you.
+Your fees are exorbitant."
+
+"Very well, then," Kelson rejoined with a smile. "Don't blame me if I
+tell you too much. You were born at sea. Being a troublesome girl at
+home, you were sent to a boarding-school, where you distinguished
+yourself in various ways, and last but not least, by making the
+headmistress--a married woman--desperately jealous. This led to your
+being removed. Removed is a more delicate term than 'expelled.' Am I
+right?"
+
+"Yes! I believe you are inspired by the devil."
+
+"Shall I go on?"
+
+"Yes--I think so. Yes, go on, please."
+
+"You came home. Your mother died. Your father married again. You
+disliked your stepmother--you considered she ill treated you."
+
+"She did!"
+
+"I won't dispute it. At all events you had your revenge. You pretended
+to commit suicide, and wrote several letters--to the police amongst
+others--declaring that you were about to drown yourself owing to the
+cruelty of your stepmother. And so cleverly did you manage it, that
+every one believed you were drowned, and blamed your stepmother
+accordingly. Changing your name to Lilian Rosenberg you came direct to
+London. For some time you worked in a milliner's shop in Beauchamp
+Gardens, and then you set up as a manicurist in Woodstock Street.
+Among your clients was the wife of the Vicar of St. Katherine's, Kew,
+who took a great liking to you--you have extraordinary personal
+magnetism. Unable, however, to do more than pay your way at legitimate
+manicuring you--"
+
+"That will do," Lilian Rosenberg cried, a faint flow of colour
+pervading her cheeks. "That will do! Explain the verses."
+
+"As you will!" Kelson said, "but mind, I don't insist on the necessity
+of your paying the slightest heed to my explanation. According to the
+usual method of interpreting dreams, the valley of flowers is
+symbolical of innocence and self-restraint--of that path in life with
+which the goody-goodies say every young lady should be satisfied.
+
+"The hunter is representative of the love of change and excitement;
+the horse--of self-indulgence. The misty moon means ruin, the
+metamorphosis into the crawling phantasm--death. Leave the path of
+virtue, and give way to self-indulgence and a craving for everlasting
+change and excitement, and a miserable ending will be your mead--and
+has been the mead of all others who have done the same thing."
+
+"Then the dream is a warning?"
+
+Kelson was about to reply, when the door opened, and Hamar, with an
+apology for intruding, beckoned to him.
+
+He spoke with him for several moments relative to a matter of some
+consequence, and then, glancing at Miss Rosenberg, and drawing Kelson
+still further aside, whispered, "Let me caution you again, Matt. On no
+account let your soft feelings with regard to the other sex get the
+better of you. Remember it is imperative for us to do evil not
+good--to lead our clients into temptation, not out of it. I am doing
+my best to follow the injunctions of the Unknown, but we must all work
+in harmony--that is the most vital point in our compact, and you know
+if we do not keep the compact something frightful will happen to us. I
+can't impress this fact on you too much. Only yesterday I had to pull
+you up for giving good advice to a lady. Damn your good advice, give
+bad--bad advice, I say; anything that will do people harm--no matter
+whether they are ugly or pretty--and if you are not jolly well
+careful, pretty girls will be your--and our--undoing. I see you have a
+pretty girl here now--and from what I can read in her face, she is not
+a saint. Rub it in to her--rub it into her well--persuade her to be a
+bigger sinner still. Now I can't wait to say more, I must go."
+
+"I asked you," Lilian Rosenberg said, as Kelson resumed his seat, "if
+the dream was a warning?"
+
+"No," Kelson said, "I shouldn't take it as such. Despite the rather
+peculiar form it took, I am inclined to think it isn't a dream with
+any real significance--but merely a chance dream--a dream compounded
+of sayings and actions of the past that have come back to you all
+higgledy-piggledy, as they so often do in dreams. You learned a lot of
+poetry I suppose when you were at school?"
+
+"Yes, but none like this."
+
+"No, I didn't suppose so, but the mere fact that your mind was at one
+time used to verses--acquainted with metre and rhythm, would account
+for the form adopted by your dream. I assure you it was purely
+chance--and that there is no significance in it! You are on the look
+out for work, is it not so?"
+
+"I am," Lilian Rosenberg said. "Can you tell me where to go to get
+it?"
+
+"I am just thinking," Kelson replied, "I believe my partner, Mr.
+Hamar, wants a secretary. I can't, of course, say whether you would
+suit him. Do you type?"
+
+"I can type and do shorthand," Lilian Rosenberg replied eagerly, "and
+I can correspond in German and French."
+
+"And the salary? Would two hundred a year do?"
+
+"Yes," after a slight pause, "I could make it do. I should want one
+half-day holiday--from one o'clock--every week; and Sundays--and three
+weeks' holiday in the summer, and one at Christmas, and of course, the
+usual Bank Holidays."
+
+"I see!" Kelson said thoughtfully; "you want plenty of time for
+amusement. Well! I will speak about it to Mr. Hamar, and if you leave
+me your address I will give it him. How nicely you keep your hands."
+
+"I manicure them every day," Lilian Rosenberg said; then looking up at
+him from under the long lashes which swept her cheeks, she added, "You
+won't forget to tell Mr. Hamar about me, will you? I am very anxious
+to get a post. You don't know what it is to be hard up, do you?"
+
+The earnest, pleading expression in her long, dark eyes appealed to
+Kelson as nothing else had ever appealed to him. Since his arrival in
+London, he had seen many pretty faces, many beautiful eyes, but
+assuredly none so lovely as these. And what features! what teeth! what
+lips! what a chin! what a figure! It seemed to him that she was not
+like an ordinary girl, that she was not of the same composition as any
+of the girls he had ever met; that she was something hardly
+human--something elfish, something generated by the beautiful English
+woods and glades, filled with the soft glamour of the moon and stars.
+And all the while he was thinking thus, his heart rising in rebellion
+against the words of Hamar, the girl continued gazing up at him, and
+toying with the rings on her slender, milk-white fingers.
+
+At last he dare look at her no longer, but stammering out his promise
+to do all he could to get her the vacant post, he pressed her hand
+gently, and bade her good morning.
+
+Then he returned to his chair, and, leaning back in it, was seeing
+once again in his mind's eye the fair face of the girl who had just
+left him, when there was a rap at the door, and the commissionaire
+announced Miss Martin.
+
+"Another of them," Kelson said to himself. "And about as pretty in her
+way as the last. Now I wonder what she wants." He looked closely at
+her, but no past rose up before him--as far as this client was
+concerned his power of divination in that direction was nil--she was a
+blank.
+
+"I've come to ask you the meaning of a dream I had last night," she
+began, inwardly shuddering at the sight of so much pomade and
+jewellery.
+
+"Yes," he said with an encouraging smile, "what was it?"
+
+Of course she did not tell him all, but merely that she had dreamed of
+certain flowers and trees as, curiously enough, so had her father.
+
+Kelson looked at her thoughtfully. Once he opened his mouth to speak
+and then checked himself; and it was some seconds before he actually
+broke silence.
+
+"Taken separately," he said at last, "the ash tree portends an
+unexpected visit; a poppy, a visit from a man; red roses, falling in
+love; lilac, a present; a willow, kisses--heaps of them; bluebells, a
+proposal; brambles, difficulties in the way--for example, tiresome
+relatives; buttercups, a marriage; an ash tree, a son and heir--a dear
+little----"
+
+"Thank you!" Gladys remarked, rising frigidly. Thank you! I will go
+now. What is your fee?"
+
+"I trust, madam, you are pleased," Kelson said in great distress.
+
+"Will you kindly take your fee and let me out," Gladys demanded, as he
+nervously placed himself in her way. "Thank you. Good morning!"
+
+And as she swept regally past him and down the stone passage, Hamar
+came out of his room and passed by her on his way to Kelson's office.
+
+"Ye gods!" he exclaimed, eyeing the discomfited Kelson wrathfully.
+"What in the world have you done to offend the lady? I never saw any
+one look so angry in my life. D--n it all! I hope you didn't insult
+her!"
+
+"It was all your fault!" Kelson wailed. "She asked me to tell her the
+meaning of a dream which was brimful of warnings against us."
+
+"Against us!"
+
+"Yes, against us! I have never listened to such admonitions in a dream
+before. She must have some very friendly spirits watching over her.
+Well! what was I to do? I did my best. Mindful of what you said to me
+a short time ago, I put her entirely off the track; gave her an
+entirely misleading--and as I thought very pleasant--interpretation of
+the dream."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+Kelson told him.
+
+"Jackass!" Hamar exclaimed. "Jackass! You were far too broad. What
+pleases a San Francisco girl shocks a London lady. For goodness sake
+have more tact another time, we don't want to get into hot water. I
+feel quite convinced that if any harm befalls us--if that compact is
+in any way broken--it will be through you. I wish to heaven the
+Unknown had given you some other power."
+
+"So do I," Kelson groaned.
+
+"At all events," Hamar went on, "the first three months is nearly at
+an end. Who was she?"
+
+"Miss Gladys Martin!"
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"I don't know. I could divine nothing about her. She can't have any
+vices."
+
+"I don't suppose she has," Hamar remarked dryly, "Not from the look of
+her anyway. But there is time yet. Matt! I've taken a fancy to that
+girl and I mean to get hold of her somehow. I wonder if she is related
+to Martin--Davenport's partner! Jerusalem! What sport if she is!"
+
+"Why? Why sport?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Dolt! Don't you see! Martin is at our mercy. We are more than his
+rivals. We can drive him out of London any moment we like. His tricks
+indeed! Pshaw! Curtis can do them all right off the reel! And Curtis
+shall--we will show Martin up--make a laughing stock of him--ruin him!
+Unless--unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Great Scott! Don't look so alarmed! Unless--supposing that girl is
+his daughter--unless he gives me permission to pay my addresses to
+her!"--and Hamar laughed coarsely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+
+"Where's Gladys?" John Martin asked as he rose with an effort, stiff
+and tired, from the remains of a meat tea.
+
+In reply Miss Templeton merely pointed a finger--and went on
+crocheting.
+
+Following the direction indicated, John Martin stepped out on to the
+lawn, and glancing round the garden, called "Gladys!" Then he
+listened, and there came to him snatches of a song, the words of
+which, full of arch sentiment, allied with (and to a large extent
+dependent on), a unique knowledge of and love of nature--would not
+have disgraced a Herrick or a Raleigh--the music--a Schubert, or a
+Sullivan. John Martin had spared no money in educating Gladys, and she
+did him credit. He thought so now, as exhausted from a hard day's
+poring over letters, he paused and leaned his back against a tree. A
+gentle breeze blew her notes to him, full of melody and mirth; fresh
+and young and tender--as tender as the rosebuds and violets that
+nestled at her bosom.
+
+"By Jove!" John Martin murmured. "Fancy my having a daughter like
+Gladys! I ought to be jolly well pleased. And so I am. The only thing
+I fear, is, that she'll marry some one who isn't half good enough for
+her! But who would be good enough for her! God alone knows! And God
+alone knows whether she or I ought to decide! Gladys!"
+
+"Hulloa!", and the next moment a vision in pink emerged from the
+bushes.
+
+"Gladys, I want to confide in you!"
+
+"What's wrong, Daddy, dear?" Gladys said, thrusting an arm through his
+and walking him gently along with her through the glade. "You weren't
+at all nice to me when we parted this morning, but you look so wearied
+that I'll be magnanimous and forgive you. What is it?"
+
+"Why it's like this!'" John Martin said, putting his arm round her and
+holding her close to him, as he used to do when, a little girl, she
+came sidling up to him for sugar-plums. "Poor Dick's affairs are in a
+terrible muddle. Unknown to me he speculated right and left, and he
+has not only muddled through everything he had, but he has left a
+number of debts, and unfortunately I have to meet them."
+
+"You, Father! But why you?" Gladys cried.
+
+"Because they were incurred in the name of the Firm. I can meet them
+all right, but it will be a big drain on my resources. That's worry
+number one. Worry number two is about young Davenport--Shiel. I don't
+know what to do about him. He was entirely dependent on Dick. His work
+as an artist doesn't bring him in enough to keep him in tobacco, and
+the worst of it is he doesn't seem capable of turning his hand to
+anything else; I can't see him starve, so I shall have to allow him
+something."
+
+"He seemed to me very intelligent," Gladys observed, "couldn't you
+take him into the Firm? Who are you going to have in his uncle's
+place?"
+
+"That's the trouble!" John Martin replied. "I do feel I want some one.
+I am getting on in years, my brain is not so vigorous as it used to
+be, and I can't go on inventing fresh tricks _ad infinitum_. Moreover,
+I need assistance in the purely business side of the concern. I want
+some one who is both business-like and inventive--some one young,
+brilliant and reliable."
+
+"You couldn't sell out I suppose?"
+
+"No, not just at present. Thanks to poor old Dick the Firm is in
+rather a precarious condition! Another six months over, and we may be
+perfectly all right. No! I must stick on, and get another partner. And
+look here, Gladys, you know I let you do pretty nearly everything you
+like. But let me beg of you not to be too friendly with that young
+Davenport. I caught him looking very impressibly at you this morning,
+and I am quite sure, if he sees anything more of you, he will be
+falling head over ears in love. Which is the very last thing in the
+world I want!"
+
+"That's making me out to be very attractive, Daddy," Gladys said,
+looking round at him mischievously.
+
+"And so you are, dear!" John Martin said. "Wonderfully attractive! and
+none knows it better than yourself. But in this case you must think of
+consequences--consequences that might be disastrous to us all!
+Confound it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?"
+
+Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
+advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
+height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right
+ear standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest;
+his nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting
+and yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
+saturnine.
+
+Gladys shivered. "What a horrible person!" she whispered, "there is
+something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how
+he stares!"
+
+"Yes--what is it?" John Martin demanded. "Do you want to see me?"
+
+"You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!" the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
+characteristic of California. "I've come to have a little talk with
+you on business."
+
+"With me--on business!" John Martin cried. "I don't know you! I've
+never seen you before!"
+
+"You see me now anyway!" the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes
+at Gladys. "My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show
+of yours."
+
+"D--n your impudence!" John Martin said, raising his stick
+threateningly. "How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext."
+
+"Calmly, calmly, sir!" Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. "I've come here
+with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
+programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
+rivals."
+
+"I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry," Gladys broke in,
+meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.
+
+Hamar bowed.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what
+we profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per--"
+
+"You have no permission from me, sir," John Martin cried fiercely.
+"Go!"
+
+Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. "You ought not to get so heated,"
+he said, "considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
+standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink
+a well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water.
+As you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer
+and purer. Also," he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin
+again raised his stick, "in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a
+hollow about eight feet from the ground, and if you look inside it,
+you will discover an iron box full of curios and jewellery. Shall I--"
+
+"No!" retorted John Martin. "If you don't go instantly I'll send for
+the police,"--and Hamar, coming to the conclusion that upon this
+occasion discretion was better than valour, hurriedly beat a retreat.
+
+"You'll be sorry, John Martin!" he shouted from a safe distance, "and
+so will Miss Gladys, charming Miss Gladys. But remember you have only
+yourselves to blame. Ta-ta!", and the next moment he was lost to
+sight.
+
+"Well!" Gladys ejaculated, "of all the beastly cads I have ever seen
+he fairly takes the biscuit. What colossal cheek! The idea of his
+coming here and speaking to us like that! Can't we prosecute him,
+Father?"
+
+"Hardly!" John Martin replied, "best leave him alone. I wish he hadn't
+come! He's upset me! My nerves are anyhow! Which was the tree he spoke
+about?"
+
+"This one," Gladys exclaimed, walking up to an elm, and patting it
+with her hand, "but you surely don't believe what he said, do you? It
+was all rubbish from start to finish. Daddy, my dear old Daddy, I do
+believe you are worrying about it."
+
+"Hold my hat and stick a moment," John Martin said, and making a
+spring, which for one of his age and weight showed surprising agility,
+he succeeded in catching hold of one of the nearest lateral branches.
+The elm being old, the bark had become very gnarled and uneven, and
+thus the difficulty of ascension lay more in semblance, perhaps, than
+in reality. Embracing the huge trunk, as closely as possible, with his
+arms and knees, much to the detriment of his clothes, seizing with his
+hands some projections, and resting his feet upon others, John Martin,
+after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled
+himself into the first great fork, and paused to wipe his forehead.
+
+"Oh, do take care, Father!" Gladys pleaded, "you'll fall and break
+your neck. Do be sensible and come down now."
+
+But John Martin paid no attention, he went on groping.
+
+"I've found it," he suddenly shouted. "That bounder was right, the
+trunk is hollow." He was silent then, for some minutes, and Gladys
+could only see his boots. Then there was a muffled oath, a sound of
+choking and gasping, which made Gladys's blood run cold, and then--a
+great cry. "There's something here, something hard and heavy. It's a
+box, an iron box! Take it from me." And leaning as far down as he
+dared, he placed in Gladys's outstretched hands, a rusty iron box.
+Then there was the sound of scraping and tearing, and John Martin
+gradually lowered himself to the ground--his coat covered with green,
+and the knees of his trousers ripped to pieces.
+
+Gladys ran indoors for a hammer and chisel, and, the hinges of the box
+being worn with age and exposure, it was but the work of a few seconds
+to break it open. It was full of gold and silver coins and jewellery;
+there were only a few gold pieces, the greater number of the coins
+were silver--the bulk Georgian--and their dates ranged from 1697 to
+1750. The jewellery consisted of several massive gold bracelets, (two
+or three of very fine workmanship); some dozen or so plain gold rings;
+two silver watches, and a varied assortment of silver trinkets. All
+were more or less antique, but none--apart from the gold bracelets--of
+any great value.
+
+"Well!" John Martin exclaimed, as they concluded their examination of
+the articles, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"Why that man put them there, of course," Gladys said, "can't you see
+the whole thing is nothing but a dodge to intimidate you into forming
+a friendship with him. I daresay he has heard that Mr. Davenport is
+dead, and thinks he sees an opportunity to be taken into partnership.
+He had a horrid face--sly and cunning, and his way of looking at me
+was positively disgusting. It makes me feel sick and horrid even to
+think of it."
+
+"What shall we do with these things?" John Martin asked, picking up
+one of the watches and eyeing it with curiosity.
+
+"Are they ours?" Gladys replied.
+
+"I certainly consider we've a right to keep them," her father said,
+"since we've found them ourselves on our own property, but I suppose,
+legally, they are treasure trove and ought to be given up."
+
+"Then surely the Government would pay us something for them, wouldn't
+it?"
+
+"I should think so, at least a decent Government would. Anyhow, I
+think to give them up will be our best course. I doubt if the whole
+lot is worth fifty pounds. Where was it he said there was water?"
+
+"Good gracious!" Gladys exclaimed, "you don't mean to say you are
+going to bother about that now!"
+
+"It was here, I think," John Martin went on, thrusting his stick in
+the ground, "to the best of my knowledge--and I had experts'
+advice--there is no water any where near here. Had there been, I
+should not have gone to the expense of having pipes laid down to feed
+the pond."
+
+"Oh, Father, how can you be so silly," Gladys cried, "of course there
+isn't any water here. It's only a trick, a trick to frighten you--and
+I'm beginning to think it has succeeded."
+
+"I shall try here anyway to-morrow," John Martin said grimly. "Let us
+go in now."
+
+When Gladys went into the garden on the following morning she beheld
+an extraordinary sight. Her father, the gardener, and a man whom she
+did not recognize at first, as his back was turned towards her, but
+who, to her utter astonishment, proved to be Shiel Davenport, were
+hard at work, digging a pit.
+
+Her father paused every now and then, and rested; but he did not allow
+the others a moment's respite. Every time they were about to slack, he
+urged them on. It was all very well for the gardener who was
+accustomed to it, but it was obviously killing work for Shiel
+Davenport, and Gladys--as soon as she had overcome a preliminary
+outburst of laughter--gave vent to her sympathies.
+
+"What a shame," she exclaimed, "Father how can you? Poor Mr. Davenport
+looks ready to drop. Take a rest, Mr. Davenport! Do--you have my
+permission."
+
+Looking very hot and exhausted, Shiel Davenport threw down his spade
+and attempted to make himself presentable.
+
+"His clothes will be ruined, Father," Gladys said, indignantly.
+
+"They're not his clothes--he's wearing an old suit of mine," John
+Martin explained, trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+Shiel forced a laugh. "I'm rather out of form, Miss Martin, I haven't
+had much exercise lately."
+
+"You're getting it now anyway," John Martin chuckled.
+
+"And it's blistered your hands horribly!" Gladys cried, pointing to
+several raw places. "I will fetch you a pair of father's gloves--he's
+a brute!"
+
+"Please don't trouble," Shiel exclaimed, "I'll use my handkerchief
+instead. Digging is even harder work than painting--in one way."
+
+"It's not fit work for you," Gladys replied with another reproachful
+glance at her father. "When did you arrive, I never heard you?"
+
+"I 'phoned to him last night," John Martin said, looking rather
+sheepish. "I thought a day out here would do him good. He thought so
+too, and came on by the seven o'clock train. We've been digging ever
+since breakfast--but a bit of exercise won't hurt him, and I'll give
+him plenty of vaseline presently."
+
+They resumed work again; and Gladys retired indoors. At eleven o'clock
+John Martin let Shiel go. "You can amuse yourself till luncheon with
+books and papers," he said, "you'll find plenty of them in my study.
+I'll join you later."
+
+But Shiel had other ideas of amusing himself, and as soon as he had
+washed and changed back into his own clothes, he followed the sounds
+of music until he reached the drawing-room.
+
+"I'm sure you must feel dreadfully tired," Gladys said, leaving off
+playing. "It was too bad of Father to make you work like that."
+
+"I'm afraid your father thinks me a very useless article," Shiel
+replied, seating himself in an easy chair, and trying his hardest not
+to look too ardently. "And an artist is not much good outside his
+profession."
+
+"Who is?" Gladys smiled. "Shall you still go on painting?"
+
+"Now that my uncle has died? It all depends--depends on whether he has
+been able to leave me anything in his will. From one or two things
+your father has said I fear he has not--in which case I don't quite
+know what I shall do. I could hardly expect Mr. Martin to take me into
+his firm."
+
+"Aren't you any good at invention?" Gladys asked, "I know he wants
+some one who is--some one who can help him devise fresh tricks. This
+everlasting racking of the brains to think of something new is
+beginning to be too much for him."
+
+"I wish I could be of some use," Shiel said, "both for his sake and
+mine, and may I add yours. Anyhow I'll try. I have a certain amount of
+imagination--I suppose most artists have, and henceforth I'll devote
+it to trickery."
+
+"No, not to trickery!" Gladys said, "to conjuring!"
+
+"Well, to conjuring then--to planning something novel and startling in
+the way of a trick. And as they say, two heads are better than one,
+perhaps, you will help me."
+
+"I," Gladys laughed, "why I've never invented anything in my life,
+barring a song."
+
+"Nevertheless I'm sure you would be of great help to me," Shiel said;
+"you would at least criticize my efforts, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh! I should certainly do that," Gladys laughingly rejoined, "and
+probably do more harm than good."
+
+"You could never do any harm!" Shiel said, with so much eagerness that
+Gladys got up and began searching for a piece of music. "I would give
+anything to paint you."
+
+"I have been painted--twice," Gladys observed.
+
+"For the R.A.?"
+
+"Yes! I didn't much care about it, and I grew desperately tired of
+sitting."
+
+"Who painted you?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me once, and Darker painted me once."
+
+"Then it's useless for me even to think of it. How did they treat you
+in their pictures?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me in evening dress, and Darker painted me in the
+character of Enid--you know, the Enid in the 'Idylls of the King.'"
+
+"Yes. But I should like to paint you as 'Melody in Flower Land.'"
+
+"I'm afraid I can't grasp it," Gladys said.
+
+"Can't you!" Shiel exclaimed, "I can. The idea came to me when I heard
+you singing just now, and saw you sitting here, in the midst of
+flowers, and dressed like a rose. I should paint you clad as you are
+now--all in pink--seated in the garden singing; and all the flowers
+leaning towards you listening. I would give anything to paint it," and
+he spoke with such enthusiasm that Gladys, remembering her dream,
+flushed.
+
+"I think," she said, "we might go into the garden and see how the work
+is progressing."
+
+"I fear I can't do any more digging," Shiel put in hastily, "I
+willingly would if I could, but I really can't use my hands."
+
+"And you've not had any vaseline," Gladys cried. "I'll get you some,"
+and before he could prevent her she had gone.
+
+She was back again, however, in a few moments with a tiny white jar
+and some linen bandages. "I couldn't find my aunt," she began, "or she
+would bandage your hands for you."
+
+"Won't you?" Shiel asked. "Do!"
+
+He thrust his hands towards her as he spoke, and Gladys uttered an
+exclamation of horror--the palms and fingers were raw and swollen.
+
+"I feel heartily ashamed of myself for being so thin-skinned," Shiel
+said. But Gladys had disappeared. She returned almost immediately with
+a bowl of water.
+
+"I'm sure they must hurt you dreadfully," she exclaimed, as she gently
+bathed the hands. "It makes me feel quite ill to see them."
+
+For the next few moments Shiel was in Paradise. The touch of her cool,
+white fingers on his hot and burning skin was far nicer than anything
+he had ever imagined. Her sweet-scented breath stealing gently up his
+nostrils soothed away all his care--even the remembrance of his recent
+loss.
+
+With his whole heart and soul concentrated in his gaze, he watched her
+every movement--watched the waving and tossing of the stray wisps of
+hair over her temples and ears, as the breeze rustled through the open
+windows; and the gentle tightening and relaxation of her delicately
+moulded lips each time she breathed.
+
+Shiel had always led a very solitary existence. Apart from his uncle
+he had no near relatives, and with the exception of the five or six
+weeks in the year he had spent at Dick Davenport's house at Sydenham,
+he had always been in rooms. He had often felt lonely, but never quite
+so lonely as now--now that the only person he had known intimately and
+for whom he had entertained any real affection, was suddenly taken
+away. He was now absolutely alone in the world, and the poignancy of
+his position came home to him acutely.
+
+It is a terrible thing to be lonely. Lonely men do all sorts of
+dreadful things--things they would certainly never dream of doing if
+they had companionship. And Shiel was doing a dreadful thing now.
+Every moment he was falling more and more desperately in love, despite
+the fact that he had no money, and worse still--no prospects of ever
+making any. And loneliness was in the main responsible for it.
+
+Had he not been so lonely--had he not spent days and days, alone in
+lodgings, with no one to talk to--no one to care whether he were ill
+or dying; had this not been his experience--the experience he was even
+then undergoing, reason would have outweighed folly, and even though
+he might have realized that in Gladys Martin he had found his ideal of
+beauty--of womanliness, he would have been content only to admire.
+
+As it was, he was in that very dangerous mood when the heart yearns
+for sympathy; when a plain woman's sympathy means much--and a pretty
+woman's more than much. It is no exaggeration to say that Shiel would
+have lain down and died for Gladys ten times over. For her sake--if
+only to see her smile, no mere physical pain would have been too
+excruciating for him to bear. And when she put the finishing touches
+to the bandages, and quite by chance, of course, their eyes met, he
+looked at her as if he never meant to leave off looking at her, as if
+he never meant to do anything else but look at her for all eternity.
+
+Whether she understood as much or not, is impossible to say. Shiel
+asked himself the question over and over again before the day was out,
+and in his sleep, and during the next day, and for many days
+afterwards. Could she tell how much he admired her? How much he
+worshipped her? All that he was prepared to do for her sweet sake? All
+this he asked himself repeatedly, and went on thinking of her when he
+knew he ought never to have thought of her at all.
+
+"I'm sure your hands are more comfortable now. Won't you go into the
+garden and see how the work is progressing?" she said. "Or if you are
+afraid Father will want you to dig again, perhaps you would like to go
+into his study and read the papers."
+
+"I should like to stay here and listen to you singing," he said.
+"Mayn't I do that?"
+
+"You might," she said, "but I have to go out."
+
+"Then I'll stay here till you return," he said, "I've never been in
+such a delightful room."
+
+"What do you think of Shiel Davenport?" Gladys remarked to her aunt a
+few minutes later. "I don't think I've ever met such an extraordinary
+young man. He does nothing but stare at me, and when I ask him to do
+one thing he suggests doing another. He's the most difficult person to
+manage. In fact, I can't manage him at all."
+
+"Never mind about managing him, my dear," Miss Templeton replied, "so
+long as you don't let him manage you. Young men who do nothing but
+stare are not merely difficult--they are dangerous."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+
+When John Martin came into tea that afternoon, he gave Gladys a shock.
+Despite the fact that he had been in the sun all day and was much
+tanned in consequence he had never looked--so Gladys thought--so old
+and haggard.
+
+"You dear old Daddie!" she said, hastening to pour him out some tea,
+"you shouldn't work so hard--this silly digging has quite knocked you
+up! Haven't you finished?"
+
+"Yes, I've finished!" John Martin said, catching his breath. "I've
+found water!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"It's true all the same. We struck it at exactly the distance he
+said--twenty feet."
+
+"Then of course he knew."
+
+"How? How the deuce could he have known?"
+
+"I can't say," Gladys replied. "All I know is, that he's not straight,
+and that there's some underhand trickery going on. But do have your
+tea now, and dismiss it from your mind. Anyhow, he can do you no
+harm."
+
+"Here's a letter for you, John," Mrs. Templeton exclaimed, entering
+the room at that moment.
+
+John Martin took it from her, and tore open the envelope curiously. It
+was a handwriting he did not know, and did not like--its
+characteristics were sinister.
+
+"I knew it!" he cried; "I knew the fellow was a scoundrel. What the
+deuce do you think he has the impertinence to do now?"
+
+"He!" Gladys said, looking anxiously at her father. "Whoever do you
+mean?"
+
+"Why, that confounded young bounder who came here last night--Leon
+Hamar he signs himself. In this letter he declares that he can perform
+any of our tricks, and will accept the wager I offered for their
+solution some little time ago. He also says that unless I consent to
+see him, and to listen courteously to what he has to say, he will
+publicly announce his intention of taking up the wager, at our Hall,
+in Kingsway, to-night."
+
+"Do you think there is any possibility of his having discovered the
+secrets of your tricks?" Gladys asked. "Could he have bribed any one
+to tell him?"
+
+"I don't think so," John Martin said. "The only people who have any
+clue as to how they are done are my two attendants--both as you know
+natives of Cashmere, and men who, I feel pretty certain, could not be
+'got at.'"
+
+"In that case," Gladys remarked, "I fail to see what there is to worry
+about. Your course is perfectly clear--take no notice of it."
+
+John Martin was silent--dazed. He did not know what to think or do!
+There was something painfully ominous to him in the discovery of the
+money and the water--something that accentuated the impression Hamar's
+sinister appearance had made on him. The man did not look
+ordinary--his manner, gestures, walk and expression were decidedly
+abnormal--in fact they put him in mind of the superphysical. The
+superphysical! Might not that account for his knowledge? Bah! There
+was no such thing as the superphysical. The man was extraordinary--but,
+after all, only a man--his knowledge only that of a man. And it must
+be as the shrewd Gladys conjectured--he had put the money in the tree
+himself and had learned of the presence of water through some subtle
+artifice--perhaps only guessed at it. He would defy him--let him do
+what he would!
+
+This was John Martin's decision as he finished tea. An hour later he
+had changed his mind, and was speaking to Hamar on the telephone,
+expressing his willingness to grant him a brief interview if he came
+at once.
+
+In rather less than an hour a motor drew up at the Martins' door and
+Hamar stepped out of it.
+
+"Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin," he exclaimed
+on being ushered into the latter's presence. "I reckoned you would
+sing to a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me
+to give you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to
+business?"
+
+"Name your business at once," John Martin replied gruffly; "I haven't
+many minutes to spare."
+
+"No!" Hamar said, "that's a pity; because part of what I have at the
+back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The
+situation in a nutshell is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.
+Martin?"
+
+"How dare you, sir?" John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.
+
+"Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!" Hamar observed, backing towards the
+door. "Gently--you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no
+offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely--she takes the shine
+out of our American girls."
+
+"The deuce she does!" John Martin foamed.
+
+"She does, you bet!" Hamar went on. "And I see no reason if she likes
+me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as
+far as money goes. What do you say?"
+
+"I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and
+kick you."
+
+"I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership," Hamar
+went on complacently, "and I would introduce a number of new tricks
+that would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry--the
+length of the engagement would be for you to decide."
+
+"Then it would be _ad infinitum_," John Martin said grimly, "for
+you'll never get my consent to a marriage."
+
+"Never is a long day--and even a John Martin may change. You want new
+blood and new capital in your Firm--you would have both in me. I
+assure you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!"
+
+"And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my
+daughter?"
+
+"You have said it--that is the one and only condition. Your
+daughter--my brains, my dollars."
+
+"I have decided!" John Martin said.
+
+"Good!" Hamar exclaimed; "I guessed you would! There's nothing like
+the almighty dollar, is there?"
+
+"Yes!" John Martin rejoined; "the almighty fist--and that's what
+you'll get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you
+ever come skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll
+set my. solicitor on to you."
+
+"Then it's war--war to the knife!" Hamar sneered. "How melodramatic!
+But it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner--and I shall yet
+have Miss Gladys! Au revoir--I won't say good-bye!" and with a mock
+bow he hurriedly took his departure.
+
+That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed
+as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop.
+A man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the
+audience in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen!"
+
+In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts
+of "Silence!"
+
+But Curtis--for it was he--was not easily daunted. "Do you call this
+fair play!" he demanded; "I am here to-night to make a sporting offer,
+and one which will afford you vast entertainment."
+
+Cries of "Shut up!" "Silence!" "He's drunk!" "Turn him out!" merging
+into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials
+now invaded the box, but Hamar--who, as well as Kelson, was with
+Curtis--fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the
+half-lowered lights of the house--for the stage only at that moment
+was fully illuminated--held them in check, and they hung back not
+knowing what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of
+the audience--some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts,
+whilst others were merely curious--and the somewhat premature cries of
+"Turn him out!" etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: "Let
+them alone!" "Let them speak!" "Let us hear what they have to say." It
+was in the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of
+nervous agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the
+cause of the commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who
+had come to the performance anticipating something of the sort, called
+to her father, from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to
+speak.
+
+"You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father," she added; "and
+besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on
+their part."
+
+Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in;
+and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of
+clapping.
+
+"I wish I were spokesman," Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the
+sight of so many pretty upturned faces. "Go on, old man!" he added,
+giving Curtis a nudge. "Fire away, and show them you know a bit about
+elocution, for the credit of the Firm."
+
+Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once
+possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned
+over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.
+
+"I am Edward Curtis," he said, "one of the directors of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often
+boasted that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I
+have come here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only
+accept their offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their
+tricks, but I agree to pay them double that amount--cash down--if I do
+not do everything they do--from 'The Brass Coffin' to their
+world-famed 'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's
+permission I will explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night,
+and the only thing I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that
+I get fair play."
+
+A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon
+as it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to
+speak, said: "I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this
+challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here,
+in this hall to-night, of displaying their skill--or their ignorance,
+as the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be
+performed by any outsider--the Firm in accepting this challenge will
+merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer--and if--as is hardly
+likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure
+they themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their
+successful rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee."
+
+"I too!" shouted a dozen other voices. "Be a sport and accept his
+bet!"
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," John Martin replied with dignity, "you have
+given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who
+have so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is
+maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of
+which Mr. Curtis--I think that is the name of my rival--will be quite
+at liberty to try his exposition of my tricks."
+
+The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar
+and Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had
+volunteered to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were
+provided for the referees--three on the one side of the stage and
+three on the other; and having seen that everything was fair and
+square John Martin retired to the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was
+concealed.
+
+A brief description of "The Brass Coffin" trick, which was the first
+Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
+suffice.
+
+A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
+audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
+anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.
+
+The operator then summons an assistant, jokingly refers to him as "the
+corpse"--puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet,
+securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the
+audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the
+coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet
+over the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on
+removing it and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A
+shout from the front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to
+their amazement, "the corpse" is seen standing up at the back of "the
+Pit," holding the sack with the rope and seal--intact--in his hand.
+Such was the marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and
+Davenport's Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of
+which no one as yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the tremendous excitement of the audience at the
+prospect of seeing this notorious puzzle tackled--and tackled by a
+member of a Firm which was already reputed to be doing all kinds of
+weird and extraordinary things. But, whereas it was quite obvious that
+John Martin was greatly perturbed (his eyebrows were working
+nervously, and his lips and fingers twitching), Curtis, on the other
+hand, was as cool as possible--he literally did not turn a hair.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning to the referees, "keep your eyes
+well skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen," he
+went on, raising his voice, "I am now about to show you how the coffin
+trick is done. Observe me--I'm 'the corpse'--Mr. Kelson, here, is the
+operator--" and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced,
+down the stage to take part in the proceedings.
+
+"Watch me get into the sack!" He stepped into it as he spoke. "Look at
+what I have in my hand," he went on, holding up his right hand in full
+view of the audience. "I have a plug of wood covered with the same
+material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
+over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
+will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
+think you know this coffin but you don't. See!"--and stepping out of
+the sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and
+deep. "Come closer!" and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers
+were now augmented by three newspaper reporters--representatives of
+the _Daily Snapper_, the _Planet_ and the _Hooter_ respectively. "Here
+is a secret panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press
+too."
+
+And amidst a breathless silence--the nine members of the audience on
+the stage following every movement--Curtis put his hand inside the
+head of the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In
+an instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid
+back, leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to
+squeeze through.
+
+Everyone now looked at John Martin--he was leaning back in his chair,
+breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.
+Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died
+out of his face when he glanced at Gladys--the scorn in the girl's
+eyes made his blood boil.
+
+"All right, Miss Martin," he muttered between his teeth; "you adopt
+that attitude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on!
+I'll win you body and soul, or my name is not what it is."
+
+He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. "I'm too
+stout to play the rôle of the corpse, and so is Matt," Curtis said to
+him; "you must undertake that part. Now!" he went on, "take this plug
+and get into the sack," and he whispered a few instructions in his
+ear. Then he tied the top of the sack--in reality tying it round the
+plug Hamar was holding--and one of the audience sealed the knot.
+Curtis and Kelson then lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and
+corded it. Then Curtis, turning to the audience, said:
+
+"What is now happening inside the coffin is this--'the corpse' pulls
+the plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus
+becomes loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once
+touches the spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and
+the panel slides back--So!"
+
+And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first
+of all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture
+thus made.
+
+"The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is
+this," Curtis explained; "the head of the coffin is always turned away
+from you and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to
+you appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly
+opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this
+'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it
+you. Here it is"--and beckoning to the referees to come quite close,
+he pointed to a glass screen, in the centre of the base of which was a
+glass trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the
+coffin. "Here, corpse!" Curtis said, "crawl through"--and Hamar,
+looking as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of
+wriggling on his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight
+together as he could, and squirmed through.
+
+"Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"Perfectly!" the referees answered. "Nothing could be plainer. We see
+exactly, now, how the trick is done."
+
+At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the
+elegant manner in which he had been patiently and assiduously coached
+by Kelson.
+
+He then proceeded to the second trick--"Eve at the Window," a trick
+almost, if not quite, as famous as "The Brass Coffin," and for the
+solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge
+sums of money.
+
+A large pane of glass some nine by six feet in area, and set in
+a frame, made to represent that of a window, is placed on the
+stage, about eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches
+from the ground a wooden shelf is placed against the window. An
+assistant--usually a woman--then mounts on the shelf and, looking out
+of the glass, proceeds to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a
+shocked voice asks her to desist. She refuses and, to the amusement of
+the audience, carries on her pantomimic flirtation more desperately
+than before. The operator pretends to lose his temper, and snatching
+up a screen places it at the back of her. He then fires a pistol,
+pulls aside the screen, and she has vanished. As the top, bottom and
+sides of the window, all in fact except the very middle, have been in
+full view of the audience, and as the window has been tightly closed
+all the time, the disappearance of the girl completely mystifies the
+audience.
+
+Curtis explained it all. He pointed out that the keynote to the
+illusion lay behind the wooden shelf, which was so placed as to
+conceal the fact that the lower part of the window was made double,
+the bottom of the upper part being concealed from view by a second
+sheet of silvered glass placed in front of it. The shelf covers the
+line of junction and enables the window frame to be scrutinized by the
+audience.
+
+As soon as the screen is put in front of the lady on the shelf--the
+glass pane slides up about a foot and a half into the top of the
+frame, purposely made very deep. The bottom of the window is cut away
+in the middle, leaving an aperture about two feet square, which was
+previously hidden from view by the double glass at the base. Eve makes
+her exit through this hole, and slides on to a board placed behind the
+window in readiness for her. The pane of glass then slides down again,
+the screen is removed, and the window appears just as solid as before.
+
+When Curtis concluded his verbal explanation he gave the audience a
+practical illustration of how the thing was done; he manipulated the
+screen and pistol, whilst Hamar posed as Eve, and directly he had
+finished there was another outburst of applause. Kelson dared not look
+at John Martin or Gladys. The brief glance he had taken of them at the
+conclusion of the giving away of the first trick had shocked him--and
+he purposely stood with his back to them. With Hamar it was
+otherwise--the joy of triumph was strong within him, and the picture
+of John Martin, leaning forward in his chair, with his mouth half open
+and a dazed, glassy expression in his eyes, only thrilled him with
+pleasure; he laughed at the old man, and still more at Gladys.
+
+"That's the way to treat a girl of that sort," he whispered to Kelson;
+"scoff at her--scoff at her well. Let her see you don't care a snap
+for her--and in the end she'll run after you and haunt you to death."
+
+"I'm not so sure," Kelson said. "It might act in some cases, perhaps,
+but I don't think you can quite depend on it."
+
+"Pooh! You are no judge of women, in spite of all your experience,"
+Hamar retorted. "I'll bet you anything you like she'll come round and
+make a tremendous fuss of me."
+
+"Supposing you fall in love with her, how about the compact?" Kelson
+asked. "You've warned me often enough."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not like you," Hamar replied. "There's nothing soft in my
+nature. I fall in love! Not much! Why, you might as well have
+apprehensions of my joining the Salvation Army, or wanting to become a
+Militant Suffragette--either would be just about as possible. No--! I
+shall make the girl love me--and we shall be engaged for just as long
+as I please. If I find some one that attracts me more, I shall throw
+her aside--if not, maybe, I shall marry her--but in either case there
+will be no question of love--at least not on my part. She shall do as
+I want--that is all! Hulloa! Curtis is beginning again."
+
+There were five other tricks on the programme--all of which were world
+renowned. They were "The Floating Head"; "The Mango Seed"; "The
+Haunted Bathing-machine," "The Girl with the Five Eyes," and "The
+Vanishing Bicycle" illusion. As with the first two tricks, so Curtis
+did with the following five--he explained them, and then, aided by
+Hamar and Kelson, gave practical demonstrations of their solutions;
+and so thoroughly and clearly were these solutions demonstrated that
+the referees asked no questions--they were absolutely satisfied.
+Turning to the audience--at a sign from Curtis--they announced that
+the whole of Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks had been solved to
+their entire satisfaction, and that Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. had, without doubt, won the wager.
+
+"Have you anything to say?" Curtis asked, addressing John Martin.
+
+"I acknowledge my defeat, though I do not understand it!" John Martin
+said with very white lips. "I shall pay you the ten thousand pounds
+to-night."
+
+"Don't worry about that," Hamar interposed; "we don't want to take
+your money, all we wanted to do was to prove to you we could perform
+the tricks you believed to be insoluble.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen!" he went on, raising his voice, "the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. has given you some proof to-night of their
+capabilities in the conjuring line, and if you will give us the
+pleasure of your company to-morrow night--we invite you all free of
+charge for the occasion--we will give you a still further
+demonstration of our powers. May we count upon your patronage?"
+
+A terrific storm of clapping was the reply, and as the audience slowly
+filed from the hall, John Martin staggered into the wing, reeled past
+Gladys ere she could catch him, and sank helplessly on to the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+
+The days that followed were dark days for Gladys. Her father, whom she
+loved--and, until now, had never realized how much she loved--lay
+seriously ill. He had had a stroke which, although fortunately slight,
+must, as the doctor said, be regarded as a prelude to what would
+happen, unless he was kept very quiet. And to keep him quiet was not
+an easy thing to do. His mind continually reverted to what had just
+taken place, and he was for ever asking Gladys to tell him whether
+anything further had occurred in connection with it, whether there was
+anything about it in the papers.
+
+Gladys, of course, was obliged to dissemble. She hated anything
+approaching dissimulation, but on this occasion there was no help for
+it, and what she told John Martin was the reverse of what she knew to
+be actually happening. The papers were full to overflowing with
+accounts of that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous
+gratis exhibition given on the succeeding evening by the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd.
+
+The _Hooter_, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
+in large type--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT MARTIN AND DAVENPORT'S
+    THE GREATEST CONJURING TRICKS IN THE WORLD SOLVED!
+
+Whilst the _Daily Snapper_, determined to be none the less sensational,
+began thus:
+
+    MYSTERIES NO LONGER!
+    "THE BRASS COFFIN TRICK" AND "EVE AT THE WINDOW" DONE AT LAST!
+    MARTIN AND DAVENPORT LOSE THEIR PRESTIGE
+
+This was bad enough, but the _Planet_ published a paragraph that was
+even more galling, viz.--
+
+    "Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
+    explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home
+    of Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
+    surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should
+    turn elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is
+    above all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort
+    to the Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids
+    fair to become the future home of everything uncanny. Their
+    programme--to the uninitiated--presents possibilities--and
+    impossibilities."
+
+So said the _Planet_, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
+Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
+succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled
+to overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being
+verified. The solution of Martin and Davenports' tricks had taken
+place (Hamar had so planned it) on the last night the trio possessed
+the property of divination, and, consequently, on the night that
+terminated the first stage of their compact. The following night they
+would be in possession of new powers, such powers as would warrant
+them giving a gratis exhibition--an exhibition of jugglery absolutely
+new and unprecedented. That the exhibition was successful may be
+gathered from the following article in the _Daily Cyclone_--
+
+    "MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+
+    "The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., in their new premises in
+    Cockspur Street, gave the most remarkable display of Phenomena it
+    has ever yet fallen to our lot to report. Indeed, the performances
+    were of such an extraordinary nature that the huge audience, _en
+    masse_, was scared; not a few people fainted, whilst every now and
+    again were heard screams of terror intermingled with long
+    protracted 'Ohs!'"
+
+A brief _résumé_ of the entertainment ran as follows:--The first part
+of the Modern Sorcery Company's programme was carried out by Mr. Leon
+Hamar, solus, who, stepping to the front of the stage, announced that
+he was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further
+prelude he pointed to various members of the audience, and described
+spiritual presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he
+could see a spirit, answering to the name of James or George--or some
+such equally familiar name--and then proceed to give a description of
+it, so elastic, that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly
+have fitted nine out of every ten people one meets with every day, but
+unlike any other clairvoyants we have known, he described the
+individual physical and moral traits of the people he professed to
+see. For example: To a lady sitting in the third row of the stalls, he
+said: "There is the phantasm of an elderly gentleman standing behind
+you. He has a vivid scar on his right cheek that looks as if it might
+have been caused by a sabre cut. He has a grey military moustache, a
+very marked chin; wears his hair parted in the middle, and has
+light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously on the gentleman seated on
+your left. Do you recognize the person I am describing?"
+
+"I think so," the lady answered in a faint voice.
+
+"I will spare you a description of his person," Hamar went on, "but I
+should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
+He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
+pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
+revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
+right?"
+
+There was no reply--but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
+words.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. "I can see behind
+you," he said, "an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large
+emerald drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of
+which she appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She
+died of pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of--Ahem!--of
+her relatives--for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
+however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square--a Society
+for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to
+whom I refer."
+
+Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.
+
+"Only too well!" came the indignant and spontaneous reply.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. "Hulloa!" he
+exclaimed. "What have we here--an Irish terrier answering to the name
+of 'Peg.' It is standing upright with its two front paws resting on
+your knees. It is looking up into your face, and its mouth is open as
+if anticipating a lump of sugar. From the marks on its body I should
+say it has been killed by being run over?"
+
+Again Mr. Hamar was correct. "What you say is absolutely true," the
+gentleman replied; "I had a dog named Peg. I was greatly attached to
+it, and it was run over in Piccadilly by a motor cyclist. I hate the
+very sight of a motor bicycle."
+
+After a brief interval of awestruck silence a voice from the gallery
+called out--
+
+"You are in league with him!"
+
+Then the man in the stalls stood up, and essayed to speak; but his
+voice was drowned in a perfect tornado of applause. He had no need--he
+was instantly recognized--he was J---- B----. With a few more examples
+of clairvoyance Mr. Hamar continued to entertain his audience for half
+an hour or so, by the end of which time, we have no hesitation in
+saying that every one was convinced that he actually saw what, he
+said, he saw.
+
+The second part of the programme was entirely in the hands of Mr.
+Curtis, who now came forward with a bow. "Ladies and gentlemen," he
+said; "you all know that man is complex--that he is composed of mind
+and matter, the material and immaterial. I now propose to give you a
+physical demonstration of this fact. Will twelve of the audience
+kindly come up on the stage and sit around me, so that you may feel
+quite certain that I have here no mechanical devices to assist
+me?"--And amongst other well-known people who responded to Mr.
+Curtis's request, were Lord Bayle, Sir Charles Tenningham and the
+Right Hon. John Blaine, M.P. Having arranged these twelve volunteers
+in a semi-circle at the back of the stage, Mr. Curtis, standing in the
+centre of the stage, again addressed his audience. "Ladies and
+gentlemen," he said; "the secret of separating the mind--or what
+Spiritualists, who love to bolster up their pretended knowledge of the
+other world by the invention of pretentious nomenclature, call the
+'ethical ego'--from the body, lies in intense concentration. If you
+wish to acquire the power, practise concentration--concentrate on
+being in a certain place. If nothing happens at first, don't be
+discouraged, but keep on trying, and a time will come when you will
+suddenly leave your body, in a form, which is the exact counterpart of
+the body you have left. You will visit the place whereon you are
+concentrating. Perhaps the best method of practising projection is to
+put your forehead against a door or wall, and concentrate very hard on
+being on the other side. It may take weeks before you get a result,
+but if you persevere, you will eventually succeed in leaving your
+physical form and passing through the door, or wall, into the space
+beyond. Now watch me! I shall concentrate on projecting my immaterial
+body, and of walking in it, three times round my material body."
+
+Mr. Curtis closed his eyes, and for some seconds appeared to be
+thinking very hard. Then the audience witnessed a remarkable
+phenomenon--a figure, the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, stepped
+out, as it were, from his body, and slowly walking round it three
+times, deliberately glided into it, and apparently amalgamated with
+it. The twelve members from the audience who were within a few feet of
+the alleged ethereal body, as it walked past them, declared they saw
+it most vividly, and that feature for feature, detail for detail, it
+was the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, whose material body remained
+standing, upright and motionless, with its eyes tightly closed. Our
+representative questioned several of these eye-witnesses very closely,
+and they were all most emphatic in their belief that what they had
+seen was a _bona-fide_ case of spiritual projection. At the request of
+a large part of the audience, Mr. Curtis repeated his demonstration, a
+further complement of men from the stalls joining those already on the
+stage to witness the operation.
+
+Several tests were now applied to the ethereal body of Mr. Curtis, as
+it walked round his material body. One man, clutching at its sleeve,
+tried to detain it, but his hand passed through the sleeve, and
+held--nothing. Another man put out an arm to act as a barrier, and the
+projection, without swerving from its course, passed right through it;
+and, on the completion of the third round, disappeared as before.
+
+In answer to inquiries, Mr. Curtis stated that the phenomenon might be
+taken as a good illustration of projections; and that he was prepared
+to project himself once again, in order to prove that it was erroneous
+to suppose that phantasms could not do all manner of physical actions.
+A deal table (upon which stood a tumbler and jug of water), a
+grandfather clock, and a piano were brought on to the stage, and Mr.
+Curtis once again projected his spirit form. The latter at once walked
+to the table, and, taking up the tumbler, filled it with water from
+the jug; after which it wound up the clock, and, sitting down on a
+seat in front of the piano, played "Killarney" and "The Star-spangled
+Banner." And then, amidst the wildest applause--the first time
+assuredly "a ghost" has ever received public plaudits in recognition
+of its services--it modestly re-entered its physical home.
+
+Mr. Curtis then announced that not only could he project his ethereal
+body from his material body in the manner he had already demonstrated,
+but that with his ethereal body he could amalgamate with inorganic
+matter. He bade those on the stage approach the table in convenient
+numbers, _i.e._ two or three at a time, and listen attentively. He
+then took his stand on one side of the stage, about fourteen feet from
+the table; and the audience approaching the table and listening
+attentively, first of all heard it pulsate as with the throbbings of a
+heart, and then breathe with the deep and heavy respirations of some
+one in a sound sleep. The table then raised itself some three or four
+inches from the ground and moved round the stage; at the conclusion of
+which feat Mr. Curtis informed the audience that "table-turning"--when
+not accomplished through the trickery of one of the sitters--was
+frequently performed by the work of some earth-bound spirit--usually
+an Elemental--that could amalgamate with any piece of furniture, in
+precisely the same way as his own projection had amalgamated with the
+table in front of them. "Elementals," Mr. Curtis continued, "are
+responsible for many of the foolish and purposeless tricks performed
+at séances; and for the unintelligible and useless kind of answers the
+table so often raps out. The best you can hope for, from an Elemental,
+is amusement--it will never give you any reliable information; nor
+will it ever do you any good."
+
+With these words Mr. Curtis's share in the entertainment concluded. He
+retired to the wings, whilst Mr. Kelson stepping forward--begged those
+several gentlemen who, on Mr. Curtis's exit, had reseated themselves
+among the audience, once again to step up on to the stage.
+
+"Be good enough," he said addressing them in his most polite manner,
+"to observe me very closely. I am about to give you a few further
+examples of what intense mental concentration can do, thus proving to
+you to what an unlimited extent mind can gain dominion over matter.
+You all know that will-power can overcome any of the internal physical
+forces; for instance, when you have tooth or ear ache--you have only
+to say to yourselves: 'I shan't suffer'--and the suffering ceases. But
+what you may not know--what you may not have realized, is that
+will-power can over-rule external forces and principles--as for
+example--gravity. As a matter of fact, airships and aeroplanes are
+absolutely superfluous--and the time, money and labour they involve is
+a prodigious waste. Any man with strong mental capacity can fly
+without the aid of mechanism. He has only to will himself to be in the
+air--and he is there. Look!" And to the amazement--the indescribable,
+unparalleled amazement--of all present, Mr. Kelson knit his brows, as
+if engaged in intense thought, and, jumping off his feet, remained in
+the air, at a height of some four feet from the floor.
+
+At his request members of the audience came up to him, and passed
+their hands under, over and all around him, to make sure there were no
+wires. He then struck out with his hands and legs after the manner of
+a swimmer, and moving first of all round the stage, and then over the
+stalls and pit, gradually ascended higher and higher, till he reached
+the level of the boxes, to the occupants of which he spoke.
+
+Such an extraordinary spectacle--which apparently gives the lie to all
+our preconceived notions of gravity--has certainly never before been
+witnessed, and the effect it had on those who saw it, baffles
+description. When Mr. Kelson returned to the stage, and the terrific
+applause that greeted his arrival there had subsided, he gave the
+audience a few valuable hints as to how they, too, might accomplish
+this feat.
+
+"Practise concentration," he said, "and develop your will power, if
+only by a very little, every day. Jump off a stool to begin with,
+saying to yourself as you do so: 'I will remain in the air. I won't
+touch the ground,'--and though you may fail for the hundredth time, if
+only you keep on trying you will eventually succeed. To keep your
+equilibrium on a bicycle is a feat which would have been pronounced
+utterly impossible by your ancestors of two hundred years ago; but
+just as that power came to you--after many futile efforts, all at
+once--so, in the end, will flying come to you. See, I am now going to
+rise to the highest point in the building. Gravity pulls me back, but
+I say to myself: 'I will rise--I will fly there'--and fly there I
+do!"--and, springing off the ground, he struck out with his arms and
+legs, flew swiftly and easily to the dome of the hall, which he
+touched--and then flew back again to the stage.
+
+This completed the evening's entertainment. If only on the strength of
+its first performance, the Modern Sorcery Company, in our opinion, has
+more than justified its name; and although we understand they will
+give no more performances gratis, we feel confident in prophesying
+that, for many a long night, there will be no falling off in the
+attendance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+Gladys did not feel too happy when she read notices such as these; she
+could not do other than see in them destruction to her father, and the
+worst of it all was she could do nothing to help him. Who could? Who
+could possibly invent anything as wonderful as the marvels of the
+Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.? And yet unless John Martin gave up
+altogether, that is what he must do. Nay, he must do more--he must not
+only equal the Modern Sorcery Company's marvels, he must eclipse them.
+But after the affair of the challenge, it seemed to Gladys that there
+was no help for it--the Hall would have to be closed for a time. Now
+that Dick Davenport was dead, there was no one to take her father's
+place. On the night succeeding the catastrophe, she had persuaded one
+of the Indian attendants to undertake the rôle of operator, but his
+skill was not equal to the tax upon it, and the audience--a poor
+one--was very lukewarm in its applause. The following day she talked
+the matter over with her father. The latter was in favour of keeping
+the show on at any cost; Gladys, for closing it temporarily.
+
+"A bad performance is worse than no performance," she said, "much
+better to close till you have invented some new tricks."
+
+John Martin groaned. "I fear my days of invention are over," he
+muttered. "If I can read the papers and write letters, that will be
+about as much as I shall be able to do."
+
+"Couldn't you retire?"
+
+"I would if I were not a Britisher," John Martin replied, "but being a
+Britisher I'd sooner shoot myself than give in to a d----d Yank!"
+
+And Gladys, in terror lest her father should over-excite himself,
+promised she would see that the entertainment was carried on as usual,
+and that the Indian continued in the rôle of operator.
+
+But when out of her father's presence, Gladys gave way to despair. How
+could she--a woman--hope to cope with such a difficult situation? And
+she was racking her brains to know how to act for the best, when Shiel
+was announced.
+
+A wave of relief swept over her. She could explain her difficulties to
+Shiel, in a way that she could not to any one who had no knowledge at
+all of her father's affairs--and she told him just how matters stood.
+
+"Look here!" he exclaimed, when she had finished, "why not let me take
+your father's place at the Kingsway? I have done a little amateur
+acting, and am not nervous at the thought of appearing in public. Your
+father confided in you so much--you must know all his tricks by
+heart--couldn't you coach me!"
+
+Gladys looked at him critically.
+
+"It wouldn't be half a bad idea," she said. "Supposing you come with
+me to the Hall, I can explain the tricks better if I show you the
+apparatus at the same time."
+
+Shiel thoroughly enjoyed that journey up to town. He knew it was wrong
+of him to think of his own pleasure, when the affairs of his companion
+were in such a critical condition. He knew he ought not to look at her
+in the way he did--as if she was the most precious thing in the world,
+and he would give her his soul if she wanted it--he knew that he--a
+penniless artist without any prospects--had no right to behave thus.
+But her beauty appealed to him with a force he was entirely incapable
+of resisting, and he went on looking at her in the way he knew he
+ought not to look at her, simply because he couldn't help it.
+
+He lunched with her at her club in Dover Street, and then they taxied
+to the Kingsway.
+
+The door-keeper, the only living creature in the building, saving
+themselves, seemed to share in the general depression hanging over
+everything--the great, empty front of the house with its gloomy,
+cavernous boxes and grim, grey gallery--the dark, dismal flies--the
+chilly wings--all hushed and still, and impregnated with the sense of
+desertion. But with this man beside her, who, she knew, would do
+anything he could to help, the place did not look quite so bad to
+Gladys as it had done the day before. There was a ray of light now
+where, before, ebon blackness had prevailed.
+
+Without delay Gladys rang up the Indian attendants on the telephone,
+and occupied the time prior to their arrival by describing to Shiel
+how each of the tricks was done.
+
+Her pupil proved far more able than she had anticipated. After several
+rehearsals he was able to go through the whole performance without a
+hitch.
+
+When they had finished, Gladys stretched out her hand impulsively. "I
+don't know how to thank you enough," she said. "You are a brick, and
+if only you do half as well this evening as you have done now, we
+shall get on swimmingly--that is to say, as well as we can expect,
+until we can arrange a fresh programme. If only you were an inventor!"
+
+"If only I were. If only I had money!"
+
+"Why, what would you do?" Gladys asked curiously.
+
+"Give it to you! Give you every halfpenny of it!--But as I haven't
+any, I mean to give you all the energy I possess instead."
+
+"Why me? My father you mean!"
+
+"No, you!" Shiel said impulsively, "both of you if you prefer it, but
+you first."
+
+"Me first! That doesn't seem very lucid--but I can't stay to hear an
+explanation now, for if I miss the four-thirty train I shall miss my
+dinner, which would indeed be a calamity!" And slipping on her gloves,
+she hurried off, forbidding Shiel to escort her further.
+
+Left to himself, Shiel strolled along the Strand into the Victoria
+Gardens, where he bought an evening paper, and sat down to read it.
+The first thing that caught his eye was--
+
+    "MAGIC IN LONDON"
+
+    "This morning the West End received a shock. About twelve o'clock,
+    a gentleman, fashionably dressed, turned into Bond Street from
+    Piccadilly, and when opposite Messrs. Truefitt's prepared to cross
+    over. The street happened just then to be blocked by a long line
+    of taxis. The gentleman, however, had no intention of waiting till
+    they had passed. Measuring the distance from one pavement to the
+    other with his eyes, he jumped about fifteen feet into the air and
+    cleared the intervening space without the slightest apparent
+    effort--a feat that literally paralysed with astonishment all who
+    beheld it. On being remonstrated with by a policeman, who was
+    highly perplexed as to whether such extraordinary conduct
+    constituted a breach of the peace or not, the gentleman calmly
+    leaped over the policeman's head, and striking out with arms and
+    legs swam through the air.
+
+    "Continuing in this fashion, the cynosure of all eyes--even the
+    traffic being suspended to watch him--he passed along Bond Street
+    into Oxford Street, where he once more alighted on his feet. On
+    being questioned by a representative of the Press, it transpired
+    he was Mr. Kelson, one of the partners in the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., whose wonderful performances at their Hall, in
+    Cockspur Street, have already been reported in these columns."
+
+"I should well like to know how that flying trick is done," Shiel said
+to himself. "According to Kelson it is entirely a question of will
+power. I'll see if I can't develop my concentrative faculty and
+introduce a few of the same performances in our show. I'll go to the
+Hall and try them now."
+
+But his preliminary efforts were certainly far from successful. He
+jumped off chairs saying to himself, "I'll fly! I will fly," and he
+struck out heroically each time, but the result was always the
+same--gravity conquered--he fell.
+
+Had he not been so much in love with Gladys, he would have desisted;
+as it was, the more he bumped and bruised himself, the more determined
+he was to go on trying. In fact, flying with him became a mania; and
+according to the daily journals, his was by no means the only case.
+All over England people were trying to fly. An old lady, in Gipsy
+Hill, appeared in the Police Court to answer a charge of causing
+annoyance to her neighbours by practising flying, from off her bed, at
+night. Her bulk being large and her will power apparently small, she
+yielded to gravity and landed on the ground with prodigious bumps,
+which set everything in the room vibrating, and which could be plainly
+heard in the adjoining houses, through the thin brick walls on either
+side of her room.
+
+An old gentleman in Guilsborough had an extremely narrow escape. Being
+warned on no account to practise flying in the house or garden, lest
+his grandchildren should see him and want to do the same, he retired
+to the seclusion of an old, disused and dilapidated coach house. Here,
+in the upper storey, he practised by the hour together. He climbed on
+to a stool which he had taken there for the purpose, and when he
+fancied he had acquired the right amount of concentration, he sprang
+into the air, arriving, presumably through want of will power, on the
+floor. For two whole days he practised--bump--bump--bump--and the more
+he bumped, the more he persevered. At last, however, the floor gave
+way, and with loud cries of "I will! I will!" he fell on the ground
+floor, ten feet below! He was unable to go on experimenting, owing to
+a broken leg and a fractured collar-bone.
+
+In Aylsham, Norfolk, there had been a perfect epidemic among the
+children for trying aeronic gravity. Rudolph Crabbe, aged five, after
+listening to an account of the performances at the Modern Sorcery
+Company's Hall, which his father had read aloud, sprang off the
+dining-room table crying out "I will fly! I will stay in the air."
+Fortunately, he fell on the tabby cat, which somewhat broke the shock
+of concussion, and he escaped unhurt.
+
+In College Road, Clifton, Bristol, an octogenarian thinking he would
+add novelty to the Jubilee celebrations at the College, leaped off the
+roof of his house, crying, "I'll fly over the Close! I will fly over
+the Close!"--and broke his neck.
+
+In St. Ives, Cornwall, where the treatment of animals is none too
+humane, a fisher-boy threw a visitor's Pomeranian over the Malakoff
+saying, "You shall fly! You shall remain in the air;" whilst at Bath a
+girl of ten, snatching her baby brother from the perambulator, leaped
+over Beechen Cliff, calling out, "We will fly together! We will fly
+together!"
+
+These are only a few of the many similar cases Shiel read in the
+paper, and which he narrated afterwards to Gladys Martin.
+
+"I am quite convinced," Gladys said, "that Kelson does his flying
+through supernatural agency. His assertion that it can be done through
+mere will power, is sheer humbug. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consult
+a clairvoyant. What do you think?"
+
+Shiel thought it was an excellent suggestion. He saw in it an
+opportunity of spending yet another afternoon in Gladys's company, and
+asked her to go with him to an occultist the very next day. When she
+assented, the pleasure of it tingled through every pore of his skin.
+Of course, Gladys assured herself there was no harm in her acceptance
+of Shiel's escort--that neither he nor she meant anything by it--that
+it was on her part merely a sort of an acknowledgment that he had been
+awfully good to her in her present predicament. Besides, if she needed
+further excuse, she had no reason for supposing Shiel to be in love
+with her--and had her father not spoken to her about it, she would not
+have remarked anything different in his glances, from the glances--for
+the time being, perhaps, earnest enough--bestowed upon her by other
+young men; which excuse, was, certainly, in Gladys's case, a more or
+less honest one.
+
+They had some difficulty in selecting a psychometrist--so numerous
+were those who advertised, in an equally alluring manner--but they at
+length decided in favour of Madame Elvita, whose consulting rooms were
+in New Bond Street. When they arrived there, Madame Elvita was, of
+course, engaged. Shiel was delighted--it gave him an extra half-hour
+with Gladys. When Madame was free, she had much to tell them. First of
+all she spoke to them of Karmas, Kamadevas, Rupadevas, vitalized
+shells, etheric doubles, the Nermanakaya, and afterwards solemnly
+announced that she must relapse into a state of clairvoyance, in order
+to get in touch with Tillie Toot, a certain spirit from whom she could
+learn all that Gladys and Shiel wanted to know. Accordingly, in the
+manner of most other two-guinea clairvoyants, she composed herself in
+a graceful and recumbent attitude, made a lot of queer grimaces and
+still queerer noises, and spoke in a falsetto voice, which purposed to
+be that of Tillie Toot, once a barmaid in Edinburgh, now one of
+Madame's familiar spirits. And the gist of what "Tillie" told them was
+that Hamar & Co. derived their powers from Black Magic; and that the
+secrets thereof could only be learned from Madame, after a series of
+sittings with her--sittings for which Madame would only require a fee
+of fifty guineas: a most moderate, in fact quite trifling, sum,
+considering the wonderful instruction they would receive.
+
+But Madame's magnanimous offer tempted neither Gladys nor Shiel; and
+they abruptly took their departure.
+
+Kateroski (_née_ Jones) in Regent Street, whom Gladys and Shiel had
+agreed to consult in the event of a non-successful visit to Madame
+Elvita in Bond Street, also told them that Black Magic was the key to
+Hamar, Curtis & Kelson's performances. She advised them to get on the
+Astral Plane, where they would meet spirits who would give them all
+the information they desired.
+
+Madame Kateroski's instructions were simple. "It is really a matter of
+faith," she said. "All you have to do is to go to some secluded
+spot--the privacy of your bedroom will do admirably--sit down, close
+your eyes, look into your lids and concentrate hard. After a while you
+will no longer see your eyelids--your lids will fade away and you will
+be on the Astral Plane, and see strange creatures, which, although
+terrifying, won't harm you. When you get used to them, you will
+communicate with them, and learn from them all you want to know."
+
+"Shall we try?" Gladys remarked laughingly to Shiel, as they stepped
+into the street. "But if faith is essential to success, I fear
+failure, as far as I am concerned, is a foregone conclusion. I know I
+shouldn't have sufficient faith."
+
+"Nor I either," Shiel said. "But, perhaps, we could acquire a
+necessary amount of it, if we were to experiment together. Supposing
+we try in that delightfully secluded copse in your garden."
+
+Gladys shook her head. "I'm afraid it would be useless. Besides, if my
+father were to hear of it, he would fear worry had turned my brain,
+and most likely have another fit. No, we must think of something more
+practical. In the meanwhile, if you will keep on with the part, you
+have so generously undertaken, you will be doing me an inestimable
+service."
+
+"Then I'll keep on with it for ever," Shiel replied, and before she
+could stop him, he had kissed her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+
+In order to explain the manner in which Hamar, Kelson and Curtis were
+initiated into their new properties, I must now go back to the day
+preceding the gratis performance of the Modern Sorcery Company, that
+is to say the last day of stage one of the compact.
+
+To Kelson the day had been one of surprises throughout. When he
+arrived at the building in Cockspur Street (he preferred living alone,
+and, consequently, rented a handsome suite of rooms in John Street,
+Mayfair), he was not a little astonished to meet Lilian Rosenberg on
+the staircase.
+
+"I thank you so much!" she exclaimed, shaking hands with him most
+effusively. "It is all owing to you I got the post."
+
+"Then Hamar has engaged you," Kelson ejaculated.
+
+"Why, yes! didn't you know!" Lilian said with a smile. "I had a letter
+from him the very evening of the day I called here."
+
+"Did you! He never told me anything about it! How do you think you
+will get on?"
+
+"Oh, splendidly! The work is interesting and full of variety.
+Moreover, I like the atmosphere of the place, it is so weird. I
+believe the three of you really are magicians!"
+
+"If that be so," Kelson said, "then we have only acted in accordance
+with our character in engaging the services of a witch--a witch who
+has already bewitched one member of the trio. Now please don't go to
+the expense of lunching out: lunch with me instead. Lunch with me
+every day."
+
+"It is very kind of you," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and I will gladly
+do so when I am not lunching with Mr. Hamar. But he has invited me to
+have all my meals with him."
+
+"That doesn't mean you are obliged to have them with him every day!"
+Kelson cried. "Lunch with me this morning."
+
+"I am very sorry," Lilian Rosenberg replied, looking at Kelson with
+mock pleading eyes, "please don't scold me, but I've really promised
+Mr. Hamar."
+
+"Have tea with me, then," Kelson said.
+
+"I've promised him that, too."
+
+"Supper then!" Kelson said, savagely.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, but I'm engaged all this evening, and practically
+every evening."
+
+"With Mr. Hamar?" Kelson asked suspiciously.
+
+"Oh no! my own private business," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Do
+forgive me. I should so like to have been able to accept your
+invitation. Now I must hurry back to my work," and she gave him her
+hand, which Kelson held, and would have gone on holding all the
+morning, had he not heard Hamar's well-known tread ascending the
+stairs.
+
+"Look here!" he said, as they entered his room together, "I want Miss
+Rosenberg to have luncheon with me one day this week, and she tells me
+you have already invited her. Let her come with me to-morrow."
+
+"It is impossible," Hamar said. "Now I'll tell you what it is, Matt, I
+anticipated this the moment I saw you two together, and its got to
+stop. You would genuinely fall in love with that girl--or as a matter
+of fact any other pretty girl--if you saw much of her--and love, I
+tell you, would be absolutely disastrous to our interests. You must
+let her alone--absolutely alone, I tell you. I have given her strict
+orders she is to confine herself to her work, and to me."
+
+"I think you take a great deal too much on yourself. I shall see just
+as much of Miss Rosenberg, when she is disengaged, as I please."
+
+"Then she never shall be disengaged. But come, do be sane and put some
+restraint on this mad infatuation of yours for pretty faces. Can't you
+keep it in check anyhow for two years--till after the term of the
+compact has expired! Then you will be free to indulge in it, to your
+heart's content. For Heaven's sake, be guided by me. Harmony between
+us must be kept at all costs. Don't you understand?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I understand all right," Kelson said, "and I'll try. But
+it's very hard--and I really don't see there would be any danger in my
+taking her out occasionally."
+
+"Well, I do," Hamar replied, "and there's an end. To turn to something
+that may spell business. Just before I got up this morning I saw a
+striped figure bending over me!"
+
+"A striped figure?"
+
+"Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
+limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs--of a sort--if it
+cared to show them."
+
+"You were frightened?"
+
+"Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
+indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit.
+To-night, at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu,
+called Karaver, in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into
+the second stage of our compact."
+
+"I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
+figures--I've had enough of them," Kelson said.
+
+"Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking
+of the compact," Hamar retorted, "otherwise you'll see something far
+worse."
+
+Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
+injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
+had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house.
+
+To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them.
+
+"How did you know we were coming," Curtis asked.
+
+"A gentleman called here early this morning and told me," Karaver
+explained. "He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
+the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
+each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there.
+I demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations
+of my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few--those born
+under the sign of Dejellum Brava.
+
+"The stranger showing me the sign--written plainer than I have ever
+seen it--in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no
+sooner done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking
+to an Elemental--a spirit of my native mountains."
+
+"My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything
+very alarming in this astral business?" Kelson asked.
+
+"It depends on what you call alarming," the Indian said coldly. "I
+shouldn't be alarmed."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Matt," Hamar interposed. "I never saw such a
+frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
+Think of what there is at stake."
+
+"Think of Lilian Rosenberg," Curtis whispered, "and be comforted."
+
+Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre
+of the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told
+to sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
+composed of: 1/2 oz. of hemlock, 3/4 oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
+oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, 1/2 oz. of assafoetida,
+and 1/4 oz. of saffron.
+
+"Are these preparations absolutely necessary?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Absolutely," Karaver said. "English clairvoyants will, doubtless,
+tell you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few
+slipshod instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the
+Astral Plane is mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely
+difficult and can only be done, in the first place, through the
+guidance of a skilled Oriental occultist."
+
+He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
+air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
+chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
+mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
+from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, "Great Spirits of the
+mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
+seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge
+to the realms of thy eternal phantoms."
+
+Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
+fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying "Give me
+authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;" and then kneeling down in front
+of the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:
+
+    "Green phantom figures of the air,
+    A ready welcome see that you prepare.
+    Black phantom figures from the earth,
+    Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth.
+    Red phantom figures of the furious fire,
+    For kindly greeting change your usual ire.
+    Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,
+    To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells.
+    Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,[19] hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,
+    And to these three poor fools, explain, explain
+    The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!"
+
+The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The
+dark, lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth
+receded farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice
+appeared to grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that
+he sprayed them all over with some sweet-smelling scent,[20] and that
+he whispered (in reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
+"Darkona--droomer--doober--parlar--poohmer--perler. A--ta-rama--
+skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomig--viartikorsa."[21] Then there came a
+temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of light. The
+light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily closed their
+eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been accustomed
+to--it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of vibration.
+When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect to keep
+their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing, apparently
+on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such as they
+knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
+breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground,
+no scenery, but only--space!
+
+They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
+glided across their vision, forms--of every conceivable shape, _i.e._,
+those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
+faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs--some apparently just dead and
+others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
+propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
+people--misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio
+and tried to peer into their faces.
+
+"For heaven's sake keep off!" Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form
+of an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks,
+came up to him, and thrust its face into his.
+
+"This is a bit thick," Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
+phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
+putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.
+
+"Curse you! d--n you!" Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a
+vain endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were
+trying to bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. "A little more
+of this, and I shall go mad!"
+
+Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
+up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence
+of mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm. "If you
+leave us, Matt," he said, "we are lost. I feel our safety depends on
+our keeping together. If I'm not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on
+the part of the Unknown to separate us. If that happens, I feel we may
+never get back to our bodies--and the compact will then be broken. We
+must hang on to each other at all costs." So saying, he slipped his
+free arm through that of Curtis, and the three stood linked together.
+
+Hamar clung on to the other two, until his hands grew numb, and
+the sweat stood on his chest and forehead in great beads. As figure
+after figure stealthily and noiselessly approached them, Kelson and
+Curtis writhed and shrieked; and, at times, it seemed as if the
+chain must be broken. But alarming as were these harrowing types of
+Vice-Elementals--_i.e._, nude things with heads of beasts and bodies of
+men and women; grotesque heads; malevolent eyes; mal-shaped hands;
+headless beasts, etc.; none had so dangerous an effect on the unity of
+the trio as the alluring types of Vice-Elementals, _i.e._, shapes of
+beautiful women that smiled seductively at Kelson, and resorted to
+every device to entice him away with them. It was then that Hamar was
+taxed to the utmost, that he exhausted voice, strength, and patience,
+in holding Kelson back.
+
+He was about to give in, when to his astonishment these Vice-Elementals
+vanished, and a phantasm, the exact counterpart of Karaver, only much
+taller, appeared before them, and commenced giving them instructions
+as to Stage Two.
+
+"You," he said, addressing Hamar, "will possess the property of second
+sight, _i.e._, the power to see, at will, earthbound spirits,
+conditionally, that you fumigate your room, for ten minutes every
+night, before retiring to rest, with a mixture composed of 2 drachms
+of henbane, 3 drachms of saffron, 1/2 oz. of aloes, 1/4 oz. of
+mandrake, 3 drachms of salanum, 2 oz. of assafoetida; that you abstain
+from animal food and wine, and give up smoking; that, three times
+every day, you bathe your face in distilled water, to which has been
+added three drops of the juice of the whortleberry, one drop of the
+juice of the mountain ash berry, 1 oz. of lavender water, 1 oz. of
+nitre, and 1/2 oz. of tincture of arnica; and that, just before going
+to sleep, you look for three minutes, without blinking, at an
+equilateral triangle, transcribed in blood, on white paper, and
+composed of these letters and figures." And he handed Hamar a piece of
+paper, on which were written these symbols:
+
+K.T.O.P.I.6.X.7.4.H.I.P.3.S.4.W.V.2.8.
+
+"So long as you observe these conditions the power will remain with
+you. To-morrow, only, it will be awarded you without any
+preparations."
+
+"You," he went on, turning to Kelson, "will possess the property of
+projection, _i.e._, the power of leaving your body, and of visiting,
+where you will, on the material plane. You will continue to possess
+the same, conditionally, that you carry out the same rules as Leon
+Hamar, with the exception that, instead of looking at a triangle
+before going to sleep, you will repeat these words. See, I have
+written them down for you." And he handed Kelson a slip of paper, on
+which were transcribed "Darkona, droomer, doober, parlar, poohmer,
+perler. A--ta--rama--skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomeg--viartikorsa."
+
+"You," he said, turning to Curtis, "will be endowed with the property
+of overcoming gravity, _i.e._, you will be able to fly, to jump great
+heights, and to lift and move prodigious weights; and this property
+will remain in your possession during the prescribed period, provided
+you abstain from all animal food, from smoking and from drinking
+alcohol; and observe the same rules with regard to fumigating your
+sleeping apartment, and bathing your face, as Hamar and Kelson. But,
+always, before you attempt to fly or to jump, it will be necessary for
+you to set in motion certain vibrations, in the ether, that counteract
+the attraction of gravity. You must repeat the words 'Karjako
+Mandarbsa Guahseela,' which I have written on this blue paper; and
+when you want to move or lift objects, you must first repeat the words
+'Perabibo Henlilee Oko-kokotse,' which I have written on this green
+paper. Gravity, as you will see, is entirely dependent on sound--sound
+can move mountains. It did so in Atlantis, it did so in Egypt."
+
+Making the sign of a triangle, an eye, and a tree in the air, with the
+forefinger of his left hand, he slowly repeated the words
+"Barjakva--ookpoota--trylisa." and the concluding syllable was no
+sooner uttered, than the trio found themselves standing in Berners
+Street. But of Karaver's house--the house they had just quitted--there
+was no trace.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 19: According to Brahminical teaching there are seven
+  main   classes of spirits; some having innumerable sub-divisions.
+  They are--
+
+    1. Arrippa Devas, with forms.
+
+    2. Arrippa Devas, without forms. (Both Classes 1 and 2 are
+    intelligent, sixth principles of certain planets. I style them
+    Planetians, and classify them with all other spirits hailing from
+    Jupiter Neptune, etc.)
+
+    3. Mara rupas (identical with Vice-Elementals).
+
+    4. Pisachas, _i.e._ male and female elementaries. (I have termed
+    them Impersonating Elementals, since they consist of the astral
+    forms of the dead, that may be utilized by Elementals.)
+
+    5. Asuras, _i.e._ gnomes, pixies, etc. (Corresponding to those
+    I have designated Vagrarian Elementals.)
+
+    6. Monstrosities. (These I include among Vice-Elementals and
+    Vagrarians.)
+
+    7. Kaksasas, viz. souls of wizards, witches, and of clever people
+    with evil tendencies, scientists with cruel or harsh
+    tendencies--such as vivisectionists and sophists. All these come
+    under my division of "earthbound phantasms of the dead"--spirits
+    tied to this earth by passions or vices; and I should add to the
+    list--militant suffragettes, strike agitators, hooligans, apaches,
+    pseudo-humanitarians, religious bigots, misers, all people
+    obsessed with manias, idiots, epileptic imbeciles and criminal
+    lunatics. All such may at times be encountered on the lowest
+    spiritual plane.]
+
+  [Footnote 20: Composed of 2 drachms of myrrh, 1/2 oz. of sweet oil,
+  2 oz. of attar of roses, 1/2 oz. heliotrope and 1/4 oz. of musk.]
+
+  [Footnote 21: These words are so arranged as to set in vibration and
+  loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the
+  physical body, and so set the latter free.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+
+The doctors had stated that the tenth day would see the crisis of John
+Martin's illness; if he could tide over that period, he might go on
+for years without another attack. When the momentous day arrived,
+Gladys was simply eating her heart out with suspense. Not a sound was
+permitted in the house. The servants, tiptoeing about, hardly ventured
+even to exchange glances; the errand boys were waylaid and sent to the
+right-about, with a vague notion that if they opened their mouths
+their heads would be off; and some one was posted at the garden gate
+to deal, in a scarcely less summary manner, with visitors. Indeed, so
+fearful was Gladys lest her father should hear Shiel, who had managed
+to elude her outpost, that without meaning it, she greeted him curtly,
+and, more plainly than politely, gave him to understand that she
+wished him elsewhere.
+
+"What have you been saying to Shiel Davenport?" Miss Templeton asked
+Gladys, when they met at lunch. "I passed him in the road just now,
+and he looked so wretched that, despite his ineligibility, I felt
+quite sorry for him. I am sure he is very much in love with you."
+
+"Nonsense," Gladys said, "he is only a boy." But boy though it pleased
+her to call him, she knew that he had played a man's part during her
+father's illness. Every night he had faithfully performed the rôle,
+she had allotted to him, at the Kingsway Hall, and upon him she was
+forced to admit the success of the entertainment, in a large measure,
+depended. Without pushing himself, or being the least bit officious,
+he had been equally helpful behind the scenes. He had held in check
+all those who, taking advantage of her father's absence, were disposed
+to dispute her authority and shirk their work--and he had also, on her
+behalf, successfully resisted their demand for higher wages. And, over
+and above all this, he had always considered her personal comfort. Her
+meals--which she could never bother about for herself, when engaged
+all day at the hall--were, thanks to him, brought to her as
+punctually, and served as daintily, as they would have been for her
+father; he had taken every care that she should not be disturbed when
+resting; and there was, in short, nothing he had not thought of doing
+to lighten the load, so unexpectedly laid upon her shoulders. The only
+fault she could find with him, was that he had not gained the good
+graces of her father.
+
+The day slowly waned. Gladys had stolen into her father's room
+repeatedly to see how he fared, and to her his condition had seemed
+much about the same--he was as usual tired and peevish. But when, at
+six o'clock, she again stole in to peep at him, and found him lying
+back on his pillow absolutely still and motionless, and without
+apparently breathing, she was immeasurably shocked. Had he had another
+fit, or was he dead? Wild with grief and terror, she rushed from the
+room to telephone to the doctor, and met him on the landing.
+
+"You need have no fear," he said to her the moment he had looked at
+John Martin, "he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will
+be past. To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will
+be himself again. Only you must take care that he does not use his
+brain too much."
+
+Gladys could hardly restrain her delight. She felt pleased with
+everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours
+later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain. In fact it was owing
+to this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in
+his performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic
+laughter of the audience. When the entertainment was over, and he was
+preparing to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of
+her sparkling eyes and animated features again overcame him.
+
+"What shall you advise your father to do?" he asked.
+
+"I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner," Gladys
+replied, "some one who can attend to the business side of the concern
+for him. It is essential he should not be worried with figures."
+
+"I suppose my services won't be required much longer?" Shiel said,
+speaking with rather an effort.
+
+"Of course I can't answer for my father," Gladys replied, "but I
+should imagine he would be only too glad to employ you. The only thing
+is the salary. You can't live on air, you know, and with the poor
+attendances he gets now, I don't see how he can afford to pay much."
+
+"I would work for very little," Shiel said. "I should be awfully sorry
+to give up now. I wonder if you would miss me at all?"
+
+"Of course I should!" Gladys retorted. "You have behaved admirably,
+and I am most grateful to you."
+
+"You needn't be grateful to me. I have never enjoyed anything half so
+much as I have trying to help you. I am poor, penniless in fact, since
+my uncle left me nothing, but supposing--supposing I were to get some
+lucrative post, do you think--do you think there would ever be any
+possibility of--"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of your caring for me! I am terribly in love with you."
+
+"I fear I must have given you encouragement," Gladys said. "I'm
+awfully sorry. You see I never thought of this, and I don't know what
+to say to you."
+
+"Won't you give me a chance, just a chance?"
+
+"But my father would never hear of it. Unfortunately he seems to be
+prejudiced against you. Won't you wait a while, and then, if you are
+still in the same mind, speak to me again in--say--a year. By that
+time you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for
+yourself."
+
+"And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else," Shiel
+exclaimed.
+
+"I don't think I shall," Gladys said. "Of course, I meet crowds of
+men, but you see I am not the marrying sort."
+
+"Do you think you would care for me just a bit?" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps," Gladys said, "but I'm not at all sure. I
+can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
+opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for
+the time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows--it may lie in your
+power to do him some service."
+
+"I don't see how," Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. "But no
+matter--after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
+first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?"
+
+"Sometimes," Gladys laughed. "Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
+to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual." And,
+with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor,
+and drove off.
+
+Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
+utterly unenviable as penury and love--to be next door to starving,
+and at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus
+afflicted, had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated
+himself with her beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure
+there would, later on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only
+in romance, he told himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds
+himself in a position to marry--in reality, his love suit is rejected
+with scorn; his adored one marries some one who has, or pretends he
+has, limitless wealth; and the despised swain ends his days a
+miserable and dejected bachelor.
+
+All the same, Shiel determined that he would for once fare like the
+hero in romance--that he would either win the object of his affections
+or perish in the attempt; and no sooner did the fit of the blues,
+consequent on the conversation just related, wear off, than he set to
+work in grim earnest to discover some means of breaking up the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and of restoring to the firm of Martin and
+Davenport their former prestige.
+
+In the meanwhile, affairs were by no means stationary, as far as Hamar
+and his colleagues were concerned. The appearance of their paper
+_To-morrow_, a morning journal, that chronicled faithfully every event
+of the following day, caused a tremendous sensation; and the sale of
+every other paper sank to nil--no one, naturally, wanting to buy the
+news that had happened yesterday, when, for the same money, they could
+obtain news of what would happen that very day. The stupid method of
+chronicling past events, Hamar announced in the first issue of his
+organ, was now obsolete. It was, perhaps, good enough for the
+Victorian era, but it was utterly out of keeping with the present age
+of hourly progress. Who, for instance, wanted to know that at 6 p.m.,
+on the preceding evening, there had been a big fire in New York? Was
+it not far more to the point for them to learn, for example, that at 2
+p.m., on that very day, Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by
+an earthquake; that the Post Office in King's Road, Chelsea, would be
+broken into by thieves; that Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square
+would be blown up by Suffragettes; or something equally fresh and
+exciting? One cannot get thrills--at least not the right kind of
+thrills in reading of what has already taken place. To say to
+ourselves, or to a friend, "Just fancy, we might have been in that
+railway accident," or, in reading of a shipwreck "What a mercy we did
+not embark after all, is it not?" is not half as enthralling as to be
+wondering if, at eleven o'clock that night, when the terrific storm in
+which twenty-six people will be killed by lightning in various parts
+of England, we shall be among the fatal number. One is not much moved
+to find oneself alive when a danger is passed, but one does get
+terribly excited in contemplating the risk we are bound to run of
+being killed. Within a week, the circulation of _To-morrow_ had gone
+up from fifty thousand to ten million, and Hamar, inflated with
+success, said to himself, "Now I will go and have another look at John
+Martin."
+
+When he arrived, Gladys was in the garden. His stealthy approach had
+given her no chance to escape.
+
+"What is your business?" she asked, glancing nervously in the
+direction of the house, and dreading lest her father should see Hamar
+from his window.
+
+"I've come to see your father," Hamar said, his eyes resting
+admiringly on her face and then running leisurely over her figure.
+"How is the old gentleman?"
+
+"He is not well enough to see visitors," Gladys said, with absolute
+hauteur. "Perhaps you will state your business to me."
+
+"Well! I don't mind if I do!" Hamar replied. "Let us sit down. It's
+more comfortable than standing." And he dropped into a seat as he
+spoke. "Now I've been noticing," he went on, "that your Show in the
+Kingsway is not getting on very well--that there are fewer and fewer
+people there every night, and I've no doubt it will soon have to dry
+up altogether. We, on the other hand, are doing better and better
+every night, and we shall go on doing better--there is no limit to our
+possibilities. We are worth half a million now--next year, we shall be
+worth ten times that amount!"
+
+"You are optimistical, at all events," Gladys said.
+
+"I can afford to be," Hamar grinned. "Now, do you know what we intend
+doing before very long?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea, and I am not in the slightest degree
+curious."
+
+"Aren't you? Well, you should be, since it concerns you. We mean to
+buy up the whole of Kingsway!"
+
+"And later on, of course, the whole of Regent Street!"
+
+"You are satirical. You are not alarmed at the prospect of having me
+for a landlord!"
+
+"I don't understand you! The Hall in Kingsway is my father's own
+property."
+
+"If that is so then you have nothing to fear," Hamar laughed, "but I
+think it just possible you are mistaken. At any rate, I've been in
+communication with some one styling himself the landlord."
+
+"My father would have an agreement, anyhow!" Gladys said.
+
+"Of course," Hamar replied, "and I've a pretty shrewd idea of the
+terms of it. But enough of this--let me come to the point. I intend
+buying the property, and I shall refuse to renew your father's lease,
+unless he agrees to give me what I want!"
+
+"Of course a preposterous price?"
+
+"No, you--only you!"
+
+"Me!"
+
+"Yes! I've never seen a girl I like more. I've limitless wealth and
+I'll give you everything you want--a steam yacht, motors, diamonds,
+anything, everything, and all I ask in return is that you should
+consent to be engaged to me on trial--say for fifteen months--just to
+see how we get on! What pretty hands you have."
+
+And before Gladys could draw them away, he had caught hold of them in
+an iron grasp, and, turning them over, cast admiring glances at the
+slim, white fingers with the long, almond-shaped and carefully
+manicured nails.
+
+"I reckon," he said, "I shall never find any one prettier all through.
+What do you say?"
+
+"Your proposition is impossible--monstrous! I detest you," Gladys
+retorted, her cheeks white with anger. "Leave go my hands at once, and
+never let me see you again!"
+
+"I can't promise not to see you again," Hamar said, "but I'll let go
+your hands now, for I'm no more a lover of scenes than you. I
+anticipated a little fuss at first--it's the way all you women
+have--you are so modest, you don't like to appear too eager to snap up
+a good offer. You'll close with it right enough in the end. I'll call
+again in a few days. By that time you may have changed your mind."
+And, before she could prevent him, he had again seized her hand and
+was kissing it over and over again.
+
+With an ejaculation of the utmost indignation, she sprang away from
+him, and with all the dignity she could assume, walked to the house.
+What became of him she did not know. Some few seconds later she told
+the gardener to see him safely off the premises, but he was nowhere to
+be found.
+
+A week later, Hamar turned up again at the Cottage, and, despite the
+vigilance of Gladys and the servants, caught John Martin alone.
+
+When the latter, at last, came to the end of what had, at first,
+seemed an inexhaustible stock of invectives, Hamar stated his
+proposals with mathematical exactitude.
+
+"I don't believe for one moment my landlord would be such a blackguard
+as to play into your hands," John Martin spluttered.
+
+"Oh, yes, he would!" Hamar replied. "An Englishman will do anything
+for money, and I am prepared to offer him just twice as much as any
+one else for your Hall. Do you think he will refuse--not he!"
+
+"But what on earth's your object! You've ruined me already."
+
+"Your daughter!" Hamar cried. "Miss Gladys! I am prepared to go any
+lengths to get her. Refuse to give her to me and I'll turn you out of
+your Hall, I'll torment you with every kind of insect, I'll plague you
+with disease, I'll make your life hell. But give her to me--and
+I'll--"
+
+"But I won't! And I defy you to do your worst, you--you--" and there
+is no knowing what would have happened, had not Gladys suddenly come
+in and dragged her father out of the room.
+
+"How dare you?" she exclaimed, returning to the study to find Hamar
+still there. "I've telephoned to the police, and unless you go
+instantly and promise not to come again, I shall give you in charge,
+for annoyance."
+
+"Foolish of you--very foolish!" Hamar said, "when I want to be
+friendly. Sooner or later you must give in, so why not end all this
+needless unpleasantness now, and receive me--if not with open arms--at
+least amicably. You are so awfully pretty! I must have just one----"
+but before he could kiss Gladys the police arrived, and Hamar once
+more retired--with somewhat undignified haste, and more than a little
+discomfited.
+
+On arriving in Cockspur Street, Hamar's temper underwent a still
+further trial. Kelson, taking advantage of his absence, had gone off
+to tea with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+In ill-suppressed fury, he waited till they returned.
+
+"A word with you, Matt," he said, as Kelson tried to shuffle past him.
+"So this is the way you behave when my back is turned. I suppose
+you've had a good time!"
+
+"Delightful!"
+
+"And you know the consequences!"
+
+"Only that I'm looking forward to the same thing another day."
+
+"She'll go!"
+
+"She won't," Kelson chuckled. "She is far too valuable. So there, old
+man! A month ago your threat might have held good. It won't now. You
+daren't--you positively daren't part with her--because, if you did so,
+you'd not only part with a good few of your secrets, but you'd part
+with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+
+"What's to be done with Matt?" Hamar asked Curtis, soon after the
+interview just recorded. "He's as sweet on Rosensberg as he can be,
+and says if I dismiss her he'll go too!"
+
+"Then don't dismiss her," Curtis replied. "Leave them both alone,
+that's my tip. I don't believe Matt's such a fool as to fall in love,
+and I'm quite sure the girl isn't. Why, she went to the Tivoli with me
+two nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before
+that. It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who
+would treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How
+about Leon and Gladys Martin.'"
+
+"So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
+pretty--splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
+and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for
+love! Well! it's not in my programme."
+
+"Still, stranger things have happened," Curtis said. "Anyhow, I guess
+you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
+dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London--I don't
+go a cent on them."
+
+To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
+he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
+her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had
+never missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on
+the elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling
+her how much he admired her.
+
+"You really mustn't," she said. "Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders
+to attend to nothing but my work."
+
+"Oh, damn Hamar!" Kelson replied, "if I choose to talk to you it's no
+business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and
+it is I you should go out with, not Hamar."
+
+And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with
+one eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told
+her his history--all about himself from the day of his birth--told her
+about his parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and
+cranks, his indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts,
+flirtations, with just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even
+went so far as to speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of
+hereditary gout, and of a slightly hectic cough with which, he
+suddenly remembered, he had at one time, been troubled.
+
+"Don't you think," Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, "you
+are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
+secret--and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
+fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
+should never forgive myself."
+
+"Would it distress you so much?"
+
+"Of course it would. I should be miserable," she laughed. And Kelson,
+unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them with
+kisses.
+
+"Your fingers would look well covered with rings," he said. "I will
+give you some, and you shall come with me and choose. Only on no
+account tell Hamar." And he kissed her--not on the hands this
+time--but the lips.
+
+Hamar saw him. He watched him from behind the angle of the passage
+wall, but he said nothing--at least, nothing to Kelson. It was to
+Lilian Rosenberg he spoke.
+
+"It is really not my fault," she said. "I don't encourage him, and if
+you take my advice, you will not interfere, for I am sure at present
+he means nothing serious. He is the sort of man who imagines himself
+in love with every one he meets. If you prevent him seeing me, you may
+actually bring about the result you are most anxious to avoid."
+
+"I'll risk that," Hamar said, "and I absolutely forbid you doing more
+than merely saying good morning to him. It is either that, or you must
+go."
+
+"Well, of course I will do as you wish," Lilian said. "I don't care a
+snap for him; and, after all, you ought to know your own business
+best! It is only natural that you should want him to marry some one
+who can bring money into the Firm."
+
+"I don't want him to marry at all, or anyhow, not yet. However, there
+is no necessity to discuss that point. We have definitely settled the
+line you are to adopt, and that is all I wanted to speak to you about.
+When next you feel inclined to flirt, come to me, and you shall have
+kisses as well as--rings."
+
+It was shortly after this _tête-à-tête_ that Lilian Rosenberg was
+interrupted in her work, by a rap at the door.
+
+"Come in," she called, and a young man entered.
+
+"I believe a clerk is wanted here," he explained. "I've come to apply
+for the situation. Can I see Mr. Hamar?"
+
+"I'm afraid he's out. There's no one in at present," Lilian Rosenberg
+replied, eyeing the stranger critically "If you like to wait awhile,
+you may do so. Sit down." She signalled to him to take a chair and
+went on typing.
+
+For some minutes the silence was unbroken, save for the tapping of
+fingers and the clicking of the machine. Then she looked up, and their
+eyes met.
+
+"It's not pleasant to be out of work," he said. "Have you ever
+experienced it?"
+
+"Once or twice," she said. "And I never wish to again. You don't look
+as if you were much used to office work."
+
+"No! I'm an artist; but times are hard with us. The present Government
+has driven all the money out of the country and no one buys pictures
+now; so I'm forced to turn my hand to something else."
+
+"I love pictures. My father was an artist."
+
+"Then we have something in common," the young man said. "Would you
+like to see my work? I love showing it to people who understand
+something about painting, and are not afraid to criticize."
+
+"I should like to see it, immensely--though I won't presume to
+criticize."
+
+"May I inquire your name?" the young man asked eagerly. "Mine is Shiel
+Davenport."
+
+"And mine--Lilian Rosenberg," the girl said, with a smile.
+
+"If I don't get the post, may I write to you sometimes, Miss
+Rosenberg, and ask you to my studio. I call it a studio, though it's
+really only an attic."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg nodded. "I shall be delighted to come," she said. "I
+am afraid I am very unconventional."
+
+There was no time for further conversation, as Hamar entered the room
+at that moment.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked curtly.
+
+Shiel told him.
+
+"You're too late," Hamar said. "I've engaged some one. If you'd called
+earlier, there might have been some chance for you, as you look
+tolerably intelligent. But it's no use now, so be off."
+
+As Shiel left the room he caught Lilian Rosenberg looking at him; and
+he saw that her eyes were full of sympathy.
+
+The acquaintance, thus begun, ripened. She went to see his pictures,
+they had tea together, and they spent many subsequent hours in each
+other's company. And although Shiel saw in Lilian Rosenberg only a
+rather prepossessing girl from whom, after cultivating her
+acquaintance, he was hoping to learn the inner working of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., with her it was different.
+
+In Shiel, Lilian Rosenberg saw the qualities she had always been
+seeking--the qualities she had almost despaired of ever finding--and
+which she had so often declared existed only in fiction. He only
+interested her, she argued; but she forgot that interest as well as
+pity is akin to love--and that where the former leads, the latter
+almost invariably follows.
+
+"I don't believe you have enough to eat," she said to him one day.
+"You are a perfect shadow. How do you exist if you have no private
+means?"
+
+"I just manage to exist, and that is all," Shiel laughed, and he spoke
+the truth, his present state of semi-starvation having resulted from
+the untoward events, which had happened prior to his application for
+the post of clerk to the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., and his
+subsequent acquaintance with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+Whilst John Martin had been ill, and he had helped at the Hall in
+Kings way, he had lived well. Gladys had taken care he was paid--not a
+big sum to be sure--but enough to keep him. But directly John Martin,
+in spite of Gladys's remonstrances, had resumed work, Shiel had been
+dismissed.
+
+"I wish I could help you," John Martin said to him, "for I really feel
+grateful to you for all you have done, but to tell you the candid
+truth, I can't afford to pay any salaries. As you know, the receipts
+of the Hall are next to nothing; but the expenses continue just the
+same--rent, gas, and staff--all heavy items. Moreover, at your uncle's
+death, many of his creditors put in claims on the Firm for
+debts--debts he had incurred without either my sanction or
+knowledge--and it has been a serious drain on me to pay them off. In
+fact, my finances are now at such a low ebb that I cannot possibly do
+anything for you. If only the Modern Sorcery Company could be cleared
+off the scenes."
+
+"You would, I suppose, feel extremely grateful to whoever cleared them
+off?"
+
+"I would," John Martin replied, with a significant chuckle.
+
+"Even though it were some one who had not stood very high in your
+estimation?"
+
+"Even though it were the devil."
+
+"Now, look here, Mr. Martin," Shiel said, trying to appear calm. "I
+will devote all my energies and all my time to your cause--the
+overthrow of the Modern Sorcery Company, if only--if only, in the
+event of my being successful, you will give me some hope of being
+permitted to win your daughter."
+
+"I promise you that hope, and any other you may see fit to aspire to,"
+John Martin said, with a grim smile, "since there isn't the remotest
+chance of your succeeding in the task you have set yourself. Believe
+me, it will take both money and wits to get the better of Hamar,
+Curtis and Kelson."
+
+"Anyhow, I have your permission to try. I shall do my best."
+
+"You may do what you like," John Martin rejoined, "so long as you
+don't talk to me again about Gladys till you've redeemed your pledge,
+that is to say, till you've overthrown the Modern Sorcery Company. In
+the meanwhile, I must ask you to abstain from seeing her."
+
+"I am afraid I can't promise that."
+
+"Can't promise that," John Martin cried, his eyes suffusing with
+sudden passion. "Can't you! Then damn it, you must. I'm not going to
+have my daughter throw herself away on a penniless puppy. There, curse
+it all, you know what I think of you now--you're a bumptious puppy,
+and I swear you shall not come within a mile of her."
+
+"I shall," Shiel retorted, drawing himself up to his full height. "I
+shall see her whenever she will permit me--and since she is not at
+home at the present moment, I shall now await her return outside the
+house, and defy the savage old bull-dog inside it." Leaving John
+Martin too taken aback with astonishment to articulate a syllable,
+Shiel withdrew.
+
+True to his word, he waited to see Gladys. He paced up and down the
+road in front of the house from eleven o'clock in the morning, when
+his interview with John Martin had terminated, till eight o'clock in
+the evening, and was just beginning to think he would have to give up
+all hope of seeing her that day, when she came in sight.
+
+"Really!" she exclaimed, after Shiel had explained the situation. "Do
+you mean to say you have stayed here all day?"
+
+"Of course I have," Shiel answered. "I told your father I would see
+you, and I meant to stay here till I did."
+
+"And what good has it done you?"
+
+"All the good in the world. I shall sleep twice as well for it. I'm
+more in love with you than you think, and I mean to marry you one day.
+My prospects at present are absolutely Thames Embankmentish, but no
+matter, I've hit upon a capital way of ferreting out the secrets of
+the Modern Sorcery Company. I shall get employed by them"--and he told
+Gladys of the advertisement he had seen in the paper.
+
+"Well! I wish you all success," she said, "but I'm afraid you've upset
+my father dreadfully, and the doctor says excitement is the very worst
+thing for him and may lead to another stroke. You must on no account
+come here again, until I give you leave."
+
+"But I may see you elsewhere?"
+
+"If you're a wise man, you'll do one thing at a time. You'll discover
+the secret of the Sorcery Company first, and then--"
+
+"When I have discovered it?"
+
+"My father may forgive you. Have I told you I'm going on the stage? I
+know Bromley Burnham, and he's offered me a part at the Imperial. It
+is imperative now, that I should do something to help my father."
+
+"If you become an actress," Shiel said bitterly, "my chances of
+marrying you will indeed be small."
+
+"Not smaller than they are now," Gladys observed. "_Au revoir._" And
+with one of those tantalising and perplexing smiles, with which some
+women, consciously or unconsciously, counteract--and sometimes,
+perhaps, for reasons best known to themselves--completely nullify the
+needless severity of their speech, shook hands with Shiel, and left
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+STAGE THREE
+
+
+The weeks sped by. Gladys Martin went on the Stage, and thanks to
+beauty and influence, rather than to talent--though in the latter
+respect she was certainly not wanting--she became an immediate
+success. Her photos, some taken alone, and some with Bromley Burnham,
+occupied a conspicuous place in all the weekly illustrateds, and in
+innumerable shop windows. People talked of her as they do of all
+actresses. Some said her father was a broken-down peer; some, a needy
+parson, and some, a policeman! Some said the Duke of Warminster was
+madly in love with her; others that Seaton Smyth, the notorious
+Cabinet Minister, was pining for a divorce on her behalf, and others,
+that she was seldom seen off the stage--she was entertaining the King
+of the Belgians.
+
+"I've met her," Lilian Rosenberg said to Shiel, as they stopped one
+evening to gaze at Gladys's portraits outside the Imperial Theatre.
+"She came to our place to have a dream interpreted, and I thought
+nothing of her. I don't admire her the least bit in the world, do
+you?"
+
+"I do," Shiel replied, rather sharply.
+
+"Why, you sound quite angry," Lilian Rosenberg laughed. "One would
+think you knew her. I wonder if Bromley Burnham is very much in love
+with her! He looks as if he were in these photographs! Do you think it
+possible for a man and woman to make love to each other every night on
+the stage, like they do, without one or other of them being affected?"
+
+"I really couldn't say," Shiel replied. "I'm no authority on such
+matters--they don't interest me in the least."
+
+But this was an untruth--they did interest him--and very much, too. He
+seldom, indeed, thought of anything else. Had Gladys fallen in love
+with Bromley Burnham? Could she resist the fascinations of so handsome
+a man? He did not, of course, pay any heed to the gossip that coupled
+her name with dukes and other notorieties. He knew Gladys too well for
+that, but when he saw her thus photographed, clasped in the arms of
+Bromley Burnham, he had grave apprehensions. He longed to see her--to
+ask her if she were still free; but his every attempt failed. She
+always avoided him, and there was no other alternative save to further
+his scheme--his scheme for crushing the Sorcery Company--and to hope
+for the best.
+
+And in these dark days of his life, when he was tormented by the
+yellow demon of jealousy, and at the same time endured hunger, Lilian
+Rosenberg was his solacing angel. Utterly regardless of
+appearances--she did not exaggerate when she said, "I am not
+conventional; I don't care twopence for Mrs. Grundy." She visited him
+in his garret, and she seldom went empty-handed.
+
+"I don't want your things," he rudely expostulated, when she loaded
+his table with cold chicken, jellies and potted meats. "I'm not
+starving."
+
+"Yes, you are," she said, "and you've got to eat all I bring you." And
+she made him eat. She made him, too, go for walks with her, and she
+insisted that he should go with her on Saturday afternoons for long
+rambles in the country, knowing all the time that Kelson was eating
+his heart out for love of her, and prophesying all kinds of terrible
+happenings to himself, unless she returned his affections.
+
+Up to this point, at all events, Shiel did not allow his friendship
+with Lilian to blind him to the fact that he was cultivating her
+acquaintance with a set object. He frequently sounded her to see how
+much she knew of the inner workings of the Firm, and he satisfied
+himself that she knew very little.
+
+"They never discuss their powers in my presence," she told him, "but I
+see them do very queer things, Mr. Kelson seldom walks to his room, he
+flies. He takes a little jump into the air, moves his arms and legs as
+if he were swimming, and flies upstairs and along the corridor. And
+what do you think happened the other day? Some men were carrying into
+the building a huge, oak chest and several large pictures that Mr.
+Hamar had bought at a sale, when Mr. Kelson arrived on the scene.
+
+"'There is no need to lift these things,' he said to the men, 'put
+them down.' He then made some rapid signs in the air and muttered
+something; whereupon the chest and pictures rose in the air, and
+followed him into the building, and up the stairs to their respective
+quarters."
+
+"The men must have been surprised," Shiel said.
+
+"Surprised!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "They were simply bowled
+over, and looked at one another with such idiotic expressions in their
+bulging eyes and gaping mouths, that I nearly died with laughter."
+
+"And you've no idea how Kelson did that trick?"
+
+"None, excepting, of course, that the signs he made, and what he said,
+must have had something to do with it."
+
+It was on the tip of Shiel's tongue to ask her, if she would try and
+find out for him, but he checked himself. Even at this juncture of
+their friendship he dare not appear too curious. He must wait.
+
+To go back to Hamar. He had seen Gladys act; he had become more
+infatuated with her than ever; and his passion was stimulated by the
+knowledge that she was universally admired, and that half the men in
+London were dying to be introduced to her.
+
+"Money will do anything," one of Hamar's friends--they were all
+Jews--remarked to him. "Offer the manager of the Imperial a hundred
+pounds and he'll do anything you like with regard to the girl. Every
+manager can be bought and every actress, too."
+
+The suggestion was a welcome one, and Hamar acted on it. But whether
+or not the exception proves the rule, he was immeasurably disconcerted
+to find that with regard to money and managers, his friend had
+deceived him. Far from being pleased at the offer of a bribe, the
+manager of the Imperial, an old Harrovian, raised his foot, and Hamar,
+who invariably paled at the prospect of violence, hurriedly withdrew.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into Stage Three, the trio were very much
+perturbed.
+
+"I hope to goodness nothing will appear to me," Kelson said. "My heart
+isn't strong enough to stand the shock of seeing striped figures. They
+should come to you, Curtis--a few jumps wouldn't do you any
+harm--you're fat enough."
+
+Agreeing each to sleep with a light in his room, they separated, and
+at about two o'clock Curtis, who had been suffering of late from his
+liver--the effect, so the doctor told him, of living a little too
+well--and could not sleep, heard a knock at his door. To his
+astonishment it was Kelson--Kelson, in his pyjamas.
+
+"Hulloa!" Curtis exclaimed. "What on earth brings you here, and
+however did you come?"
+
+"The usual way!" Kelson said, in what struck Curtis as rather unusual
+tones. "I flew here to tell you that we are now in stage three. Give
+me paper and ink. I want to write down the instructions I have
+received."
+
+Curtis conducted him into his sitting-room, switched on the lights
+and, giving him what he wanted, poured out a couple of tumblers of
+soda-and-milk.
+
+"This will lower my temperature," he said to himself. "I shall know if
+I'm dreaming."
+
+He then sat by Kelson's side and observed what he wrote.
+
+"The properties of walking on the water, and of breathing under the
+water are conferred on you during the forthcoming stage. You must
+refrain from red flesh and alcohol, but may eat poultry, fish, fruit,
+and vegetables in abundance."
+
+"The devil I may!" Curtis said, in a fury. "How very kind! I would
+rather have roast beef than all the poulets and kippers in
+Christendom."
+
+Without noticing this interruption, Kelson went on writing.
+
+"You must also concentrate for one hour every morning. Grade two in
+the scale of concentration, though sufficient for projection through
+ether, will not enable you to offer sufficient resistance to the
+pressure of water. You must reach grade three in the scale of
+concentration, before you can either walk on, or breathe under, the
+water. From six to seven a.m. you must fix your eyes on a glass of
+fresh spring water, and concentrate your very hardest on amalgamating
+with it, on passing your immaterial ego into it. At night, before
+going to bed, you must drink a mixture composed of two drachms of
+Vindroo Sookum, one drachm of Harnoon Oobey, and one ounce of
+distilled water. Vindroo Sookum and Harnoon Oobey are a species of
+seaweed; the former of a pale salmon colour, the latter of a deep
+blue. They were formerly shrubs growing in the wood of Endlemoker in
+Atlantis, and are now to be found at a depth of two hundred fathoms,
+twenty miles to the north-east of Achill Island. These weeds must be
+well rinsed first; and when the prescribed amount of each has been
+carefully cut off and weighed, it must be boiled in the distilled
+water, and the compound, thus formed, allowed to cool before being
+drunk. This mixture renders the lungs immune to the action of fluid,
+and will enable you to breathe as easily in water as in air. There is
+still, however, the action of gravity to be considered, and this must
+be counteracted by sound. Before experimenting, these Atlantean words
+must be repeated aloud in the following order: Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte.'"
+
+"It's all very well to write all these directions," Curtis said, "but
+how am I to obtain the weeds? I can't go and fish for them."
+
+"You must engage the services of Mr. John Waley, formerly employed by
+the Brazilian Government in repairing marine cables. He will do all
+you want for the sum of £200."
+
+Kelson left off writing, and, wishing Curtis good-night, walked out of
+the room.
+
+"You'll be deuced cold without an overcoat," Curtis called out after
+him. "Won't you have mine?"
+
+But there was no reply, and though Curtis strained his ears to listen,
+he could catch no sound of a vehicle.
+
+Kelson left Curtis at twenty minutes past two. At half-past two,
+Hamar, who had been sound asleep, was awakened by a loud rap.
+
+"Kelson!" he gasped. "How on earth did you get here? Are you a
+projection?"
+
+"Don't worry me with questions," Kelson replied. "I have come to give
+you instructions. A paper and ink, quick."
+
+Hamar obeyed with alacrity.
+
+"On you," Kelson wrote, "is conferred the property of invisibility--a
+property common in Atlantis, and still possessed by the Fakirs of
+Hindoostan, the natives of Easter Island and certain tribes in New
+Guinea. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, by
+concentrating, from five to six o'clock, every morning, on
+amalgamating yourself with the ether. You must sit, with your head
+thrown back, gazing up into space--allowing nothing to distract your
+mind. Wholly and solely, your thoughts must be fixed on the ether.
+This property of invisibility can only be successfully practised, when
+the third grade in the scale of concentration has been reached. Carry
+out these instructions, and, in a week's time, you will then be able
+to experiment--to become invisible at will. But before experimenting it
+will always be necessary to repeat the words 'Bakra--naka--taksomana,'
+and to swallow a pill, composed of two drachms of Derhens Voskry, one
+drachm of Karka Voli and one drachm of saffron. Derhens Voskry and
+Karka Voli are a crimson and white species of seaweed, that grows on
+the hundred-fathom level, thirty miles west-southwest of the Aran
+Islands, Galway Bay. Mr. John Waley, employed by the Brazilian
+Government for repairing cables, will procure these ingredients for
+you. To become visible, you've only to repeat the words,
+'Bakra--naka--taksomana,' backwards."
+
+"But how about my clothes?" Hamar asked. "Will they disappear too?"
+
+"Everything!" Kelson answered. "Hat, boots, tie and breeches. All you
+have on! Good-night!" And walking out of the room, he leaped into the
+air, and flew downstairs. But though Hamar listened attentively, he
+could not hear him leave the building--there was no sound of any door.
+
+When they met the following mid-day in Cockspur Street, Kelson
+remembered nothing of his visits.
+
+"All I know is," he said, "that the moment I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and suddenly found myself standing in a kind of brown desert,
+talking to a tall man with most peculiar features and eyes, and a
+dazzling, white skin. He informed me he had been an animal-trainer in
+the State of Ballyynkan, Atlantis, and was ordered to give me
+instructions as to the taming of the present day wild beast.
+
+"'You must obtain a stone called the Red Laryx,' he said. 'It is to be
+found in great quantities on the three-hundred fathom level, forty
+miles to the west-south-west of North Aran Island, and can be procured
+for you by the same man that gets the weeds for Hamar and Curtis. It
+is a blood-red pebble, covered with peculiarly vivid green spots, and
+cannot be mistaken. Sit with it pressed against your forehead for an
+hour every morning, and concentrate hard on amalgamating yourself with
+it--_i.e._ passing into it, and its properties will gradually be
+imparted to you. Do this regularly, for a week, and by the end of that
+time, you will be able to experiment with animals. All you will have
+to do, will be to hold the stone slightly clenched in your left hand,
+whilst, with your right, you make these signs in the air,' and he
+showed me certain passes. 'Stare fixedly into the animal's eyes all
+the while, and, by the time you have finished making the passes, you
+will find the animals are subdued. Pronounce these words
+"Meta--ra--ka--va--Avakana," holding up, as you do so, your right hand
+with the thumb turned down and held right across the palm, and the
+little finger stretched out as wide as it will go, and you will
+understand what any animal wishes to say.'
+
+"He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
+whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
+myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold."
+
+"You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
+two o'clock in the morning?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Don't talk rot," Kelson said. "I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
+chill on my liver."
+
+"What was it, Leon?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"A case of unconscious projection," Hamar said. "Clearly the work of
+the Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once."
+
+At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in
+practice their newly acquired properties.
+
+Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
+Brighton & South Coast Railway.
+
+"I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton," he said, "and cheat the
+Company. They deserve it."
+
+He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
+himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
+sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
+dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical _nouveau riche_
+nose!
+
+When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
+waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
+tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
+one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
+which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
+words, "Bakra--naka--taksomana!" The next moment he had disappeared.
+
+"Strike me red!" the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
+and grasping the door with the other. "What's become of him? Was
+he--a--a--gho--st?"
+
+"I don't--er--know--er what to--to make of it," the parson said,
+heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
+teeth. "I don't--er, of course--er, believe in gho--sts! He must--er
+have been--a--a--an evil spirit. Dear me--aw!"
+
+"Help me out of the carriage at once," the lady with the stare panted.
+"I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
+Company."
+
+"What's the matter, Joe?" an inspector called out, threading his way
+through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
+of the compartment.
+
+"I'm blessed if I know!" the collector said. "The honly explanation I
+can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved--the hot
+weather has melted him like butter!"
+
+At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
+the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off.
+
+As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
+words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible.
+
+The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking
+than that of his previous disappearance.
+
+"Take it away--take it away!" the lady opposite him shouted, throwing
+up her hands to ward him off. "It's there again! Take it away! I shall
+die--I shall go mad!"
+
+"How hideous! How diabolical!" a stout, elderly man said in slow,
+measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. "It
+must be the devil! The devil! Ha!" and burying his face in his hands,
+he indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter.
+
+"Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it," a
+remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
+highly indignant tones to the clergyman. "As usual, whenever there is
+something to be done, it is woman who must do it!"
+
+She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the
+clergyman--whose condition of terror prevented him uttering even the
+one telling, biting word--Suffragette--that had risen and stuck in his
+throat--raised her umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck
+it vigorously at him.
+
+"Ghost, demon, devil!" she cried. "I know no fear! Begone!" And the
+point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's
+waistcoat, all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and
+with a ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he
+writhed and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant
+continued to stab and jab at him.
+
+In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
+some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
+pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+
+With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him,
+and he was locked up in a separate compartment, "to be given in
+charge," so the indignant official announced, directly they got to
+Brighton. But Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had
+sufficiently recovered from the effects of the severe castigation the
+female furioso had inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the
+train drew up at the Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen
+arrived to march him on, he was nowhere to be found! This was his
+first experiment with the newly acquired property. "In future," he
+said to himself, "before I try any tricks, I'll take very good care
+there are no Suffragettes about."
+
+In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
+he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
+calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was
+able to enjoy many--gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on
+the very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat
+the trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at
+last caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated
+among the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch
+for him in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently,
+directly he entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was
+arrested and handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill.
+
+He was now in a most unpleasant predicament--the tightest corner he
+had ever been in. Supposing he could not escape--his sentence would be
+at the least two years' penal servitude--what would happen? Curtis and
+Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give
+himself entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian
+Rosenberg; the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after
+that--he dare not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The
+police took him away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them,
+he struggled desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel
+circle that held them. "It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!" he said
+to himself, "all right at least--now! They know nothing! They have
+never tried to think what the breaking of the compact means! Their
+weak, silly minds are entirely centred on the present! The present!
+Damn the present! They are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of
+the present--it's the future--the future that matters!" He scraped the
+skin off his wrists, he sweated, he swore! And it was not until one of
+the detectives threatened to rap him over the head, that he sullenly
+gave in and sat still.
+
+The taxi drew up in front of the Gerald Road Police Station, and Hamar
+was conducted to an ante-room, prior to being taken before the
+inspector. Just as a policeman was about to search him, he made one
+last desperate effort.
+
+"Look here," he said, "if I pledge you my word I'll not attempt to do
+anything, will you let me have my hands--or at least one of my
+hands--free a moment. Some grit has got in my eye and I cannot stand
+the irritation."
+
+"That game won't work here," one of the detectives said, "you should
+keep your eyes shut when there's dust about, or else not have such
+protruding ones."
+
+Hamar threatened to report him to the Home Secretary for brutal
+conduct, but the detective only laughed, and Hamar had to submit to
+the mortification of being searched.
+
+"What are these?" a detective said, fingering the seaweed pills
+gingerly.
+
+"Stomachic pills!" Hamar said bitterly, "they are taken as a digestive
+after meals. You look dyspeptic--have one."
+
+"Now, none of your sauce!" the detective said, "you come along with
+me,"--and Hamar was hauled before the inspector.
+
+"Can I go out on bail?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Certainly not," the inspector replied.
+
+"Then I shan't give you my name and address," Hamar said. "I shan't
+tell you anything."
+
+The inspector merely shrugged his shoulders, and after the charge
+sheet was read over, Hamar was conducted to a cell.
+
+"This is awful," he said, "what the deuce am I to do! To send for
+Curtis and Kelson will be fatal, and it will be equally fatal to leave
+them in ignorance of what has happened to me. I am, indeed, in the
+horns of a dilemma. I must get at those pills."
+
+Up and down the floor of the tiny cell he paced, his mind tortured
+with a thousand conflicting emotions. And then, an idea struck him. He
+would ask to be allowed to see his lawyer.
+
+"Cotton's the man," he said to himself, "he will get the pills for
+me!"
+
+The inspector, after satisfying himself that Cotton was on the
+register, rang him up, and after an hour of terrible suspense to
+Hamar, the lawyer briskly entered his cell.
+
+They conferred together for some minutes, and having arranged the
+method of defence, Cotton was preparing to depart, when Hamar
+whispered to him--
+
+"I want you to do me a particular favour. In the top right hand drawer
+of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, in Cockspur Street, I have left
+a red pill-box. These pills are for indigestion. I simply can't do
+without them. Will you get them for me?"
+
+"What, to-night?" the lawyer asked dubiously.
+
+"Yes, to-night," Hamar pleaded. "I'll make it a matter of business
+between us--get me the pills before eight o'clock, and you have £1000
+down. My cheque book is in the same drawer."
+
+The lawyer said nothing, but gave Hamar a look that meant much!
+
+Again there was a dreadful wait, and Hamar had abandoned himself to
+the deepest despair when Cotton reappeared. He shook hands with his
+client, slipping the pills into the latter's palm. Whilst the lawyer
+was pocketing his cheque, Hamar gleefully swallowed a pill, and crying
+out "Bakra--naka--takso--mana,"--vanished!
+
+"Heaven preserve us! What's become of you?" Cotton exclaimed, putting
+his hand to his forehead and leaning against the wall for support. "Am
+I ill or dreaming?"
+
+"Anything wrong, sir?" a policeman inquired, opening the cell door and
+looking in. "Why, what have you done with the prisoner--where is he?"
+
+"I have no more idea than you," the lawyer gasped. "He was talking to
+me quite naturally, when he suddenly left off--said something
+idiotic--and disappeared."
+
+Hamar did not dally. He quietly slipped through the open door, and
+darting swiftly along a stone passage, found his way to the entrance,
+which was blocked by two constables with their backs to him.
+
+"I'll give the brutes something to remember me by," Hamar chuckled,
+and, taking a run, he kicked first one, and then the other with all
+his might, precipitating them both into the street. He then sped past
+them--home.
+
+Hamar, by astute inquiries, learned that the police had decided to
+hush up the affair, not being quite sure how they had figured, or,
+indeed, what had actually occurred. As to Cotton, the shock he had
+undergone, at seeing Hamar suddenly melt away before his eyes, was so
+great that he went off his head, and had to be confined in an asylum.
+
+After this adventure Hamar shunned restaurants, and manipulating his
+new property sparingly, and with the utmost caution, warned Kelson and
+Curtis to do the same.
+
+"I'll bet anything," he said to them, "it was a put-up job on the part
+of the Unknown--a cunning device to make us break the compact."
+
+"Oh, we'll be careful enough as far as that goes," Curtis growled.
+"It's this vegetarian diet that I can't stick. Fancy living on beans
+and potatoes, and only milk and aerated water to wash them down. It
+was bad enough in San Francisco, when we hadn't the means even to
+smell meat cooking--but with the money literally burning a hole in
+one's pocket, it's ten times worse! Whatever the Unknown has in store
+for us it can't be a worse Hell than what I've got now. What say you,
+Matt?"
+
+"The same! Precisely the same!" Kelson said. "Only it's love--not
+potatoes and beans that worries me. In the old days when I was
+penniless, I did get some consolation from knowing it was all
+hopeless--but now--now, when, as Ed says, 'the money's literally
+burning a hole in one's pocket,' and everything might go
+swimmingly--not to be allowed even to buy a bracelet--is more than
+human nature can endure. I certainly can't conceive a Hell to beat
+it."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Hamar said, "and for goodness' sake don't let the
+Unknown give you an opportunity of comparing."
+
+The night succeeding this conversation, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+introduced their new properties into the programme of their
+entertainment in Cockspur Street, and London got another big thrill.
+Hamar exhibited such startling proofs of his power of invisibility,
+that not only was the whole audience convinced, but from amongst
+certain prominent members of the Council of the Psychical Research
+Society, who were attending with the express purpose of unmasking
+Hamar, two had epileptic fits on the spot, and several, before they
+could get home, became raving lunatics.
+
+At the commencement of the second part of the programme--the audience
+was still too flabbergasted to fully grasp what was happening. They
+saw on the stage a huge tank of water--with which they were told Mr.
+Curtis would experiment.
+
+"What I am about to do," Mr. Curtis--who now walked on to the
+stage--informed his audience, "is quite simple. All you want is faith.
+Those of you who are Christian Scientists should be able to do it as
+easily as I. Say 'I will! I will walk on the water!' and your
+faith--your colossal faith--faith in your ability to do it will
+actually enable you to do it."
+
+Curtis then repeated--in tones that could not be heard by the
+audience--the Atlantean cabalistic words--"Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte," and glided gracefully on to the
+surface of the water. Every now and then he sank slowly down to the
+bottom, where he strolled about, or sat, or lay down.
+
+The audience was simply fascinated. Nothing they had hitherto seen
+tickled their fancy half as much. As an American, who was present, put
+it--"To live under the water like a fish is immense--so hygienic and
+economical."
+
+Though the time apportioned to this part of the entertainment was
+half an hour, it was extended to over an hour, and even then the
+audience was not satisfied. They would have gone on watching
+Curtis--eating--drinking--jumping--skipping--singing and chasing gold
+fish--under the water all night, and when he was at length permitted to
+come out of the tank--exhausted and sulky--they gave him even heartier
+applause than they had given Hamar.
+
+But the cup of their enjoyment was not yet full. The greatest treat of
+all was in store for them.
+
+For the third and last part of the entertainment, a cage, containing a
+large Bengal tiger, was wheeled on to the stage.
+
+"You look precious white," Curtis remarked, just as Kelson was about
+to go on.
+
+"I guess you'd look the same," Kelson retorted, "if you had to hobnob
+with a tiger. The Unknown always gives me the nasty jobs."
+
+"And in this case," Curtis said with a low, mocking laugh, "it also
+loads you with consolations. The house is full of ladies who adore
+you, and if you are eaten, just think of the sympathy welling up in
+their beautiful eyes! If that isn't sufficient compensation for you,
+I--" But the remainder of this encouraging speech was lost in a loud
+roar. The Bengal tiger shook its bars--the audience screamed, and
+Curtis flew.
+
+With a desperate attempt to look calm, Kelson, clutching the red laryx
+stone in his left hand, walked on to the stage, whilst the tiger,
+rearing on its hind legs tried to reach him with its paws.
+
+There were loud cries of "Oh! Oh!" from the audience, and Kelson's
+heart beat quicker, when a girl with wavy, fair hair and big, starry
+eyes, screamed out "Don't go near it! Don't go near it!"
+
+As soon as there was comparative quiet Kelson spoke.
+
+"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this animal is
+genuinely savage! It is not like the tigers one sees in menageries,
+drugged and deprived of their natural weapons--teeth and claws. It
+comes direct from India, where its reputation as a man-eater is
+widespread. I am not, however, intimidated--its growls merely amuse
+me."
+
+Quaking all over, he approached the cage, and staring fixedly into the
+tiger's face, made the prescribed passes. In an instant, the whole
+attitude of the great cat changed. Dropping on to its fore-legs, it
+rubbed its head against the bars and purred. A low buzz of
+astonishment burst from the audience, and Kelson, now assured that the
+spell had worked, waved his disengaged hand, in the most gallant
+fashion, at the audience, and strutted into the cage. He shook paws
+with the tiger, patted it on the back, sat down by its side, and,
+whilst pretending to be on the most familiar terms with it, took every
+precaution to avoid coming in too close contact with its teeth and
+claws.
+
+The audience was charmed--the men cheered, the ladies waved
+handkerchiefs, and the only disappointed persons present were a few
+belligerent and bloodthirsty boys, and a Suffragette, who severally,
+and for diverse reasons, would have relished the performances of a
+savage tiger, but had little sympathy with the performance of a tame
+one.
+
+The next surprise that Mr. Kelson had for his audience, was the
+announcement that he could interpret the language of animals. At his
+invitation, a dozen members of the audience came on to the platform
+and stood near the cage. Looking steadily at the tiger he then
+pronounced the mystic words "Meta--ra--ka--va--avakana," holding up
+his right hand, with the thumb turned down and stretched right across
+the palm, and the little finger extended to the utmost. In an instant
+the great secret--the secret that Darwin had studied so strenuously
+for years--was revealed to him. The language of animals was olfactory.
+The tiger spoke to him through the sense of smell--through his nose
+instead of his ears. It regulated and modified the odour it gave off
+from its body, and which worked its way out through the pores of its
+skin, just as human beings regulate and modify the intonations of
+their voices. Indeed, so delicate are the olfactory organs of animals
+that the faintest of these language smells makes an impression on
+them, which impression is at once interpreted by the brain. If an
+animal wishes to leave a message behind it, it merely impregnates some
+article--a leaf or a root, or a clump of grass--or merely the ether
+with a brain smell, and any other animal, happening to pass by the
+spot, within a certain time (in favourable weather), will at once be
+attracted by the smell, and be able to interpret it. That is the
+reason one so often sees an animal suddenly stop at a spot and sniff
+it--it is reading some message left there by some other animal. All
+this, and more, Kelson explained to his audience, who were exceedingly
+interested, many of them getting up to ask him questions. He also
+reported to them the tiger's conversation, which consisted chiefly of
+complaints against the management with regard to its food.
+
+"To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh," it said, "when
+there were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under
+its very nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly
+speak to whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?"
+
+A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
+remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.
+
+The next day the papers were full of it.
+
+The _Planet_, under the startling announcements--
+
+    "RECOVERY OF THE LOST SENSES.
+    MORE EXTRAORDINARY FEATS IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+    LEON HAMAR BECOMES INVISIBLE AT WILL,"
+
+--narrated all that had occurred.
+
+The _Monitor_--if anything more sensational--declared--
+
+    "THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS DISCOVERED AT LAST!
+    THE PROBLEM OF BREATHING UNDER WATER--SOLVED!
+    DEMATERIALIZATION AT WILL ESTABLISHED!"
+
+And even the _Courier_--the steady, ever cautious old _Courier_,
+England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
+conspicuously large type; vide the following--
+
+    "THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!
+    ACTUAL CASE OF SUBDUING AND CONVERSING WITH WILD ANIMALS.
+    RECOVERY OF THE PROPERTIES OF INVISIBILITY; OF WALKING ON WATER,
+    AND OF BREATHING UNDER WATER."
+
+As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
+unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
+instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
+requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
+walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
+to see him, but despite the fact that he said "I will! I will!" with
+the greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed,
+since they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S----
+supported the waves.
+
+For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to
+Hyde Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
+resounded with the words, "I will walk! I will walk!" succeeded by
+splashes and cries for help.
+
+Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
+flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were
+literally packed with people trying to get into conversation with the
+animals; these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of
+fatal results. One old gentleman--a Fellow of the Royal
+Society--carried away in his enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after
+making what he thought to be the correct signs, slipped his nose
+through the bars of the tiger's cage, and had it promptly bitten
+off--whilst a girl, in her endeavours to sniff the crocodiles, and so
+get in conversation with them, fell in their midst, and was torn to
+pieces before help arrived.
+
+However, these fatalities only served as an advertisement to the firm,
+and hundreds of people, for whom there was not even standing room,
+were turned away from the house nightly.
+
+But later on there were hitches. Curtis, whose dislike to vegetarian
+diet steadily increased, when dining one evening at his club, could no
+longer withstand the sight of roast beef. The smell of it tickled his
+palate unmercifully.
+
+"Take this infernal mess away!" he said, pushing a plate of nut steak
+from him in disgust, "and let me have a full course--entrée, soup,
+fish, meat, everything you've got--chartreuse and a liqueur, and bring
+it quick--I'm famished."
+
+He ate and ate, and drank and drank, until it was as much as he could
+do to rise from the table. And then, in excellent spirits, he repaired
+to Cockspur Street.
+
+How he got on to the stage he could never tell. Everything was in a
+haze around him, until there was a dull crash in his ears, and he
+suddenly found himself drowning. No one, at first, noticed his
+helpless condition, but attributed his antics to part of the
+programme; and he most certainly would have been drowned, had it not
+been for Lilian Rosenberg, who, being quite by chance, in front of the
+house, perceived he was drunk, the moment he came on the stage. She
+flew to the wings, and, just in the nick of time, got two of the
+supers to haul him out of the tank. Of course, it was announced--with
+a pretty apology--by Mr. Hamar, that Mr. Curtis had been taken ill.
+Kelson immediately came on with his animals, and the audience departed
+without the slightest suspicion as to the truth.
+
+Hamar was furious.
+
+"You idiot!" he said to Curtis, "that all comes of your making a beast
+of yourself--you would sacrifice Matt and me, for your insatiable
+craving for meat and alcohol. Can't you see it was a trick of the
+Unknown to make us break the compact? Had you been drowned, the
+partnership, would, of course, have been dissolved--and it would have
+been your fault! You must obey your injunctions! Damn it, you must!"
+And Hamar spoke so fiercely that Curtis was for once in a way cowed,
+and solemnly promised that he would not repeat the offence.
+
+Kelson was the next culprit; and his misdoings were indirectly
+associated with the foregoing incident. Lilian Rosenberg's action in
+saving Curtis's life, thrilled him to the core, and called into play
+all his ardent passion. He had seen her sitting in the front of the
+house, and had come upon the scene just as she was urging the supers
+to go to Curtis's assistance; and he then thought she had never looked
+so lovely.
+
+"Come out with me to-morrow afternoon," he whispered. "Hamar's going
+out of town!" And before she could stop him he had kissed her.
+
+Kelson hardly expected Lilian Rosenberg would accept his invitation,
+but on arriving at the place he had named, he was delighted beyond
+measure to find her there.
+
+Nor could anyone have been nicer to him. No girl, he told himself, who
+did not in some degree at least, reciprocate his sentiments, could
+have allowed him to stare into her eyes as she did, or squeeze her
+hands, as he did. He took her to the ladies' drawing-room of his club,
+where there were plenty of quiet, secluded nooks, and there, whilst
+she poured out tea for him, he once more related to her all his early
+deeds and ailments--real and imaginary--and all his ideals and
+aspirations.
+
+Lilian Rosenberg was most sympathetic.
+
+"You should have been a poet," she said. "There is something about you
+that is quite Byronic."
+
+And Kelson, who had never even heard of Byron, was immensely
+flattered.
+
+"Will you come to the jeweller's with me," he said, "and choose
+whatever you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for
+rings--rings of all sorts!" and he gave them a gentle pressure.
+
+She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
+Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she
+laughingly refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond
+bracelets and pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore--the
+rest--unknown to him of course--she sold; sending the proceeds,
+anonymously, to Shiel Davenport--who was starving.
+
+When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
+away--planning for his honeymoon--that he entered the cage of a newly
+imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
+certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
+supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
+the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It
+had been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing
+his performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
+anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.
+
+But Hamar would not hear of it.
+
+"This is the second bungle we have had," he said, "and the reputation
+of the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve
+it."
+
+And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.
+
+After it was all over, and he had bowed himself out into the wings,
+Hamar led him aside.
+
+"Don't look so damned pleased with yourself," he said, "I don't half
+like the look of things. This is the third time the Unknown has tried
+to trap us--the fourth time it may be successful! Take care!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+
+Much to the relief of the trio, the end of stage three was at length
+reached--and, thanks to Hamar, reached without further mishap. To keep
+Curtis and Kelson up to the mark, Hamar had worked indefatigably. He
+had never relaxed his efforts in the strict watch he kept over them,
+and he had unceasingly impressed upon them, the vital importance of
+obeying, to the very letter, the instructions they had received from
+the Unknown.
+
+The part he had thus taken upon himself, the difficulties he had to
+encounter in this unceasing vigilance, had produced a new Hamar--a
+Hamar that was a personality; a personality so utterly unlike the
+old Hamar--the meek and servile clerk--as to make one wonder if
+there could possibly be two Hamars--outwardly and physically the
+same--inwardly and psychologically diametrically opposed. A year ago,
+Curtis and Kelson would have ridiculed the idea of being afraid of
+Hamar--such an idea would have struck them as simply absurd; but they
+were afraid of him now, they dreaded his anger more than anything,
+more even than the prospect of infringing their compact with the
+Unknown.
+
+"We have made pots of money," Curtis remarked one day. "Why can't we
+give up work and enjoy it?"
+
+"Because I say no!" Hamar hissed. "No! We can't give up--not, at
+least, until the last stage has been safely gone through. To give up
+now would be to break the compact!"
+
+"Well, why not?" Curtis mumbled.
+
+"Why not!" Hamar cried. "Heavens, man, can't you understand! Can you
+form no conception of what failure to keep the compact means? Has the
+memory of that night--of that tree and all the foul things it
+suggested, passed completely out of your mind? It hasn't out of
+mine--it is as clear now as it was then. And often--mark this, both of
+you--often when I am alone in the night, I see queer luminous
+shapes--shapes of repulsive vegetable growths--of polyps--and of
+disgusting tongues that come towards me through the gloom and circle
+slowly round the bed, whilst the whole room vibrates with soft,
+mocking laughter! You know how mirrors shine in the moonlight. Well,
+the other night, when I looked at mine, I saw in it the reflection,
+not of a face, but of two light evil eyes that looked at me
+and--smiled! Smiled with a smile that said more plainly than words, 'I
+am waiting!' and that is what the shapes, and the very atmosphere of
+the place at night always seem to say--'We are waiting! You are
+enjoying the joke now--we shall enjoy it later on!' If we knew exactly
+what was in store for us it wouldn't be so bad, but it is the
+vagueness of it, the vagueness of the horrors that the Unknown has
+hinted at, that makes it so appalling! We may die awful deaths--or we
+may not die AT ALL--the shapes, indefinite and misty no longer, but
+materialized--wholly and entirely materialized--may come for us and
+take us away with them! And it is to prevent this, that I am urging
+you, compelling you, to stick to the compact, and give the Unknown no
+loophole! Think of the tremendous rewards, if we succeed in passing
+through the last stage! As I have said before, Curtis need do nothing
+else but eat, whilst you, Matt, can become a Mormon and marry all the
+pretty girls in London!"
+
+This speech had the desired effect, and nothing more--for the time at
+least--was said about retiring.
+
+"Do you think Leon is quite--er--like--er--like us?" Kelson said, when
+Hamar left them, after administering his admonition. "At times he
+hardly looks human. His face is such a funny colour, such a lurid
+yellow, and his eyes, so piercing! He gives me the jumps! I can't bear
+to think of him at night!"
+
+"Rubbish," Curtis growled. "You imagine it. There's nothing of the
+spook about Leon! He's of this world and nothing but this world."
+
+It was odd, however, that from that time he, too, began to have the
+same feeling--the feeling that Hamar was perpetually watching
+them--watching them awake and watching them asleep! Curtis awoke one
+night to see, standing on his hearth, a shadowy figure with a lurid
+yellow face and two gleaming dark eyes, which were fixed on him. He
+called out, and it vanished!
+
+"Of course it's the nut steak!" And thus he tried to assure himself.
+But he was badly scared all the same.
+
+Another night, he saw some one, he took to be Hamar, peeping at him
+from behind the window curtains. He threw a slipper at the figure, and
+the slipper went right through it. If Hamar's phantom had been the
+only thing he saw, he would not have minded much; but both he and
+Kelson soon began to see and hear other things. Curtis frequently saw
+half-materialized forms, forms of men with cone-shaped heads and
+peculiarly formed limbs, stealing up the staircase in front of him,
+and, turning into his bedroom, vanish there. He heard them moving
+about, long after he had got into bed. Sometimes they would glide up
+to the bed and bend over him, and though he could never see their
+eyes, he could feel they were fixed mockingly on him. Once he saw the
+door of his wardrobe slowly open, and a white something with a
+dreadful face--half human and half animal--steal slyly out and
+disappear in the wall opposite. And once when he put out his hand to
+feel for the matches, they were gently thrust into his palm, whilst
+the walls of the room shook with laughter.
+
+Kelson was equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a
+different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room
+would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede,
+and recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber,
+full of gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly,
+close in upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to
+death. A feeling of suffocation would come over him, and he would
+gasp, choke, beat the air with his arms, be at the verge of losing
+consciousness, when there would be a loud, mocking laugh--and the
+walls and ceiling would be in their proper places again. At other
+times he would see strange figures on the wall--numbers of circles,
+that would keep on revolving in the most bewildering fashion. Then,
+suddenly, they would leave the wall and slowly approach him,
+increasing in circumference; and the same thing would happen, as
+happened with the wall and ceiling; he would undergo the whole
+sensation of asphyxiation, and be on the brink of swooning, when there
+would be a loud peal of evil, satirical laughter, and the circles
+would instantly disappear.
+
+Sometimes the bedclothes would assume extraordinary shapes; sometimes
+the articles on his dressing-table; sometimes his clothes; and once,
+when he was about to put on his bedroom slippers, he found them
+already occupied--occupied by icy cold feet. Another time, when he put
+out his hand to take hold of a tumbler, he put it on the back of
+another hand--smooth, cold and pulpy!
+
+Hardly a night passed without some sort of manifestation happening to
+one or other of the trio, and even Curtis--fat and stolid
+Curtis--began to lose flesh and look harassed.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into stage four, the three, separating
+for the night, retired to their respective quarters in a far from
+pleasant state of expectation.
+
+Hamar was undressing, when there came a loud ring at the telephone,
+outside his door.
+
+"Holloa!" he called out, "who are you?"
+
+"Are you Mr. Hamar?" a voice asked, breathlessly.
+
+Hamar replied in the affirmative, and the voice continued--
+
+"I'm Mrs. Anderson-Waite, of 30 Queen's Mansions, Queen's Gate. I have
+been holding a séance here, with some of my friends, and most
+extraordinary things have happened, and are still happening. There are
+violent knockings on the wall and ceiling, and the table has become
+positively dangerous. It has repeatedly sprung into the air, and
+savagely assaulted several of the sitters. It has thrown one lady on
+to the floor, and despite our efforts to prevent it, has rampled on
+her so viciously that she is badly hurt, and the doctor who has just
+arrived thinks very seriously of it. We wanted to stop, but some
+strange power seems to be forcing us to go on. The table has rapped
+out your name and address, and says it has something important to
+communicate with you, and that unless you come here at once, it won't
+answer for the consequences."
+
+"All right!" Hamar said. "I'll come. I'll be with you in less than
+half an hour."
+
+When Hamar arrived at Queen's Mansions, he found a terrified party of
+ladies awaiting him in the entrance to the flat.
+
+"Thank goodness, you've come!" they exclaimed, all together. "We've
+been having an awful time. The table has driven us out of the
+drawing-room--it is obsessed by a devil."
+
+"Let me have a look at it," Hamar said, "and I'll soon tell you."
+
+The leader of the party, Mrs. Anderson-Waite, very cautiously opened
+the drawing-room door, and Hamar peered in. In the centre of the room
+was a large, round, ebony table, that commenced to rock, in the most
+sinister fashion, the moment Hamar looked at it.
+
+"It evidently wants to speak with me," Hamar said; "you had better
+leave me here with it for a few minutes."
+
+"Do take care," Mrs. Anderson-Waite said, as she shut the door. "It
+may want to murder you. If it does, ring this bell, and we will all
+come to your assistance."
+
+Hamar gave her an assuring smile, but he was by no means as much at
+ease as he pretended to be. He stood staring at the table, too
+fascinated to take his eyes off it, and too afraid to move.
+
+At length, however, pulling himself together, and convinced the table
+was the medium, through which the Unknown wished to give him fresh
+instructions, he stealthily approached it. He addressed it, and it
+rapped out to him that he must at once obtain pen and ink and take
+down what it wished to say.
+
+Obtaining the requisite materials from Mrs. Anderson-Waite, he sat
+down and was preparing to write on his knee, when the table told him
+to rub its surface briskly with his left hand, to trace on it the
+three Atlantean symbols, _i.e._ a club foot, a hand with the fingers
+clenched and the long pointed thumb standing upright, and a bat--and
+then--to place his paper on it, and transcribe what it had to say.
+
+Hamar obeyed, and after sitting for exactly three minutes with his
+pencil between his fingers, he felt a cold, pulpy hand laid over his,
+impelling him to write with lightning-like rapidity. The script read
+as follows:--
+
+"To Hamar, Curtis and Kelson--to the three of you in common--is given
+the knowledge of inflicting all manner of torments and diseases, of
+imparting all kinds of injurious properties, and of causing plagues.
+
+"In the first place, you must understand that the essence of life,
+comprising the psychical, psychological and physical, permeates every
+part of the living corporeal body--and that any limb, or fragment of
+skin or flesh, cut off from the living corporeal body, retains the
+essence of life, comprising the psychical and physical in its full
+vigour and entirety. Consequently, if a person have grafted on to them
+a piece of skin or flesh, or be inoculated with the blood or veins of
+a tiger--then that person not merely becomes liable to all the
+physical infirmities of the tiger, but may--if the counteracting
+influences are not sufficiently strong--partake of all the tiger's
+psychological characteristics.
+
+"Thus, if you give a person, in whom there is a latent tendency to
+drink, a drop of a drunkard's blood--in a glass of wine, or sweet, or
+pill, no matter what--that person will at once take to drink.
+Thus--mark you--people can be metamorphosed into libertines, suicides,
+idiots and murderers. This metamorphosis can also be produced by means
+of a magnet called the 'magnes microcosmi,' which is prepared from
+substances that have had a long association with the human body, and
+are penetrated by its vitality. Such substances are the hair and
+blood. Take either one of them, and dry it in a shady and moderately
+warm place, until it has lost its humidity and odour. By this process
+it will have lost, too, all its mumia--that is to say, its essence of
+life--and is hungry to regain it. It is now a magnes microcosmi, or a
+magnet for attracting diseases and properties, and if it be placed in
+close contact with a criminal or lunatic, it will be filled with his
+essence of life, and may then be used as a means of infecting other
+people with his pernicious qualities. Bury it under the doorstep of
+the person you wish infected, or hide it in his house, or mix it well
+with earth, and plant a shrub in the earth, and the vitality the
+magnet took from the criminal or lunatic will pass into the plant; and
+if the plant, or even flower of the plant, be given to any one, that
+person--unless she or he be a person absolutely free from the germs of
+vice--will be attracted to it, and greatly affected by it.
+
+"Or again, the earth over the grave of a lunatic or criminal will
+contain his essence of life, _i.e._ his vitality, which impregnates
+everything around it, and if that earth be placed somewhere in the
+immediate presence of a person, in whom there are latent tendencies to
+vice--then that person will be affected by it.
+
+"And through these methods of using the essence of life, that is
+impregnated with the disease you wish to inflict--you may infect
+people with all kinds of incurable ailments.
+
+"But a quicker, and equally sure method of smiting people with
+disease, such as cancer, fever, epilepsy, apoplexy, etc.; of smiting
+them blind, deaf, dumb, lame, etc.; or bringing upon them all kinds of
+accidents, is to make an image of the person you wish to torment, and,
+setting it in front of you, preferably, at times when the moon is new,
+or in conjunction with Venus, Mars or Saturn, concentrate with all
+your will on whatever injury you wish to inflict. If, for example, you
+desire the person to become blind, stick a pin, or thorn, or nail in
+the eyes of the image; if deaf, in its ears; if maimed, cut a limb off
+the image; if to have a certain disease, will very earnestly that he
+or she shall have that disease. You may thus, too, torment the object
+of your aversion with plagues of insects and vermin.
+
+"If you desire to bewitch your neighbour's milk, wine, or any food he
+or she has, you may do it by placing the mumia, _i.e._ the vehicle
+containing the essence of life of some criminal or lunatic, in the
+immediate vicinity of the food, etc.; or in the case of milk, by
+giving it to the cow to eat; or you may accomplish your design simply
+by means of concentration and an image.
+
+"Always, however, whatever methods you employ, prelude them with this
+prayer: 'I conjure thee, Great Unknown Power that is Antagonistic to
+man, that was at the Beginning, that is now, that always will be; by
+the winds and rain, and thunder and lightning; by the swirling rivers;
+by the Moon; by the sinister influence of the Moon with Venus, Mars
+and Saturn; help me obtain the perfect issue of all my desires, which
+I seek to perform solely for the furtherment of what is detrimental to
+humanity. Amen.' And conclude them with the signs of the foot, the
+hand and the bat. If you desire to know anything further it will be
+unfolded to you in your dreams."
+
+The hand that had been laid on Hamar's was now removed. The writing
+ceased. The table rose several inches from the floor, and struck the
+latter three times in quick, violent succession. Then it remained
+quiet, and Hamar knew, by a subtle change in the atmosphere, that all
+occult manifestations--for that night at least--were at an end. The
+ladies were, of course, dying to know what had happened; and like most
+ladies, who dabble in spiritualism, were ready to believe anything
+they were told. Hamar, who had no intention whatever of telling them
+what had actually occurred, satisfied them admirably.
+
+He went home delighted--far too delighted to sleep--for he had in his
+possession now the greatest of all weapons--the weapon to torment. And
+with it what could he not do! What could he not get! He could
+get--Gladys!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+
+The period of stage four promised to be one of such a lucrative
+nature, that the trio set to work to profit by it at once. They bribed
+medical men to procure for them the mumia of people suffering from
+every kind of disease; of criminal lunatics; of idiots and epileptics;
+they obtained, by bribery also, the blood and hair of the most
+abandoned men and women--rakes, thieves, murderers. They bottled and
+labelled, and arranged and catalogued, the mumia, in a laboratory
+designed for the purpose; and, when all their preparations were
+complete, advertised--
+
+    SPELLS FOR SALE
+
+    THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD.
+    offer for sale every variety of spells--love
+    charms, sleep charms, etc.
+
+In order to carry out the principal conditions of the compact, namely,
+to do harm, they made pseudo-love charms as follows:--
+
+They procured the hair of a girl whom they knew to be an incorrigible,
+and, at the same time, heartless flirt; and, in the manner described
+(and related in the last chapter) made a magnes microcosmi of it. When
+ready for use, _i.e._ after it had been in immediate contact with the
+girl's flesh, so as to get it fully charged, they had portions of it
+set in rings, lockets and pendants. And the purchaser of any one of
+these trinkets had only to persuade the object of his (or her)
+affection to wear it, and his (or her) love would at once be
+reciprocated.
+
+Had the magnes microcosmi been charged with real, deep-rooted love,
+the effect on the wearer would have been highly satisfactory, but
+charged as it was with the effervescent and fleeting fancy of a flirt,
+the effect on whoever wore it could not be more disastrous. The
+sentiments of the hopeful purchaser would be reciprocated for a time,
+which would probably lead to marriage--after which the affection his
+adored had professed would suddenly decrease, and before the honeymoon
+was over, would have vanished altogether.
+
+During the week following the announcement of the sale of these
+spells, over a thousand were sold, the applicants being mostly shop
+girls, typists, clerks and servants; in the second week the sales rose
+to three thousand, and every succeeding week showed a still greater
+increase.
+
+In charging the magnes microcosmi, the motive of the purchaser had
+always to be taken into account. If the love charm were wanted by a
+woman--a housekeeper may be, who desired some rich old man to fall in
+love with her, in order that she might come into his property; or by a
+woman--a companion probably--who, having wormed herself into the
+confidence of some eccentric old lady, was anxious that that lady
+should leave her all her money--Hamar took care that the magnes
+microcosmi should be charged with a lasting infatuation; and the sale
+of this love spell--the spell that was sought solely that the
+purchaser might inherit property to which he (or she) had no
+claim--far exceeded the sale of any other spell. Indeed, it was
+extraordinary how many people--people one would never have
+suspected--desired spells that would do other people harm.
+
+Lady De Greene, the well-known humanitarian, who was most
+indefatigable in getting up petitions to the Home Secretary, whenever
+the perpetrator of any particularly heinous and inexcusable murder was
+about to be hanged, and who was universally acknowledged "incapable of
+harming a fly," called, surreptitiously, on Hamar.
+
+"I understand," she said, "everything you do here is in strict
+confidence!"
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly!" Hamar said. "We make it a point of
+honour to divulge--nothing!"
+
+"That being so," Lady De Greene observed, "I want you to tell me of a
+spell that will hasten some very obnoxious person's death."
+
+"If you will give me a rough idea of their personal appearance," Hamar
+said, "I will make a wax image of them, and undertake they will
+trouble you no longer."
+
+But Lady De Greene shook her head. She had no desire to commit
+herself.
+
+"Can't you do it in any other way," she said, "can't you let me give
+them an unlucky charm--the sort of thing that might bring about a taxi
+disaster?"
+
+Hamar thought for a moment and then--smiled.
+
+"Yes!" he said, "I think I can accommodate you."
+
+Leaving her for a few minutes, he went to the laboratory, and from a
+tin box marked homicidal lunatic, he took a plain, gold ring. With
+this he returned to Lady De Greene, murmuring on the way the prayer he
+had learned from the table.
+
+"Here you are," he said handing the ring to Lady De Greene, "give it
+to the person you have mentioned to me--and the result you desire will
+speedily come to pass."
+
+Three days later, London was immeasurably shocked. It read in the
+papers that the highly accomplished Lady De Greene, beloved and
+respected by all, for the strenuous exertions on behalf of
+humanitarianism, had been barbarously murdered by her husband (from
+whom--unknown to the public--she had been living apart for years), who
+had suddenly, and, for no apparent reason, become insane. Hamar, who
+was immensely tickled, alone knew the reason why.
+
+This was no isolated case. Scores of Society women came to the trio
+with the same request. "A spell, or charm, or something, that will
+bring about a fatal accident--not a lingering illness"--and the person
+for whom the accident was desired, was usually the husband. And the
+trio often indulged in grim jokes.
+
+Without a doubt, Lady Minkhurst got her heart's desire when her
+husband abruptly cut his throat, but alas, amongst those decimated,
+when the charm fell into the hands of one of the footmen, was her
+ladyship's lover.
+
+Again, Mrs. Jacques, the beauty, who, at one time, wrote for half the
+fashion papers in England, certainly secured the demise of Colonel
+Dick Jacques, who tumbled downstairs and broke his neck, but as in his
+fall the Colonel alighted on one of the maids, who was not insured,
+and so seriously injured her that she was pronounced a hopeless
+cripple, Mrs. Jacques--with whom money was an object--had, of course,
+to maintain her for the rest of her life.
+
+Likewise, Sir Charles Brimpton, in jumping out of the top window of
+his house, besides pulverizing himself, pulverized, too, Lady
+Brimpton's pet Pekingese "Waller," without whom, she declared, life
+wasn't worth living; and Lord Snipping, in setting fire to himself,
+set fire to Lady Snipping's boudoir (which he had been secretly
+visiting), and thereby destroyed treasures which she tearfully
+declared were quite priceless, and could never be replaced.
+
+Crowds of young married women were anxious to get rid of their rich
+old relatives, who clung on to life with a tenacity that was "most
+wearying."
+
+"Can you give me a spell that will make my grandmother go off
+suddenly?" a girl with beautiful, sad eyes said plaintively to Kelson.
+"Don't think me very wicked, but we are not at all well off--and she
+has lived such a long time--such a very long time."
+
+"You don't want her to be ill first, I suppose," Kelson inquired.
+
+"Oh, no!" the girl replied, "she lives with us and we could never
+endure the worry and trouble of nursing her. It must be something very
+sudden."
+
+"This will do it," Kelson said, giving her a locket containing the
+mumia or essence of life of a mad dog; "fasten it round the old lady's
+neck, and you will be astonished how soon it acts."
+
+"And what is your fee?" the girl asked, her eyes brimming over with
+joyous anticipation.
+
+"For you--nothing," Kelson said gallantly. "Only tell no one. May I
+kiss your hand."
+
+The firm's sale of spells for getting rid of husbands having risen one
+day to five hundred--and the sale of their spells for putting old
+people out of the way to fifteen hundred--even Hamar, who was no
+believer in the perfection of human nature, was astonished.
+
+"My word!" he remarked. "Isn't this a revelation? Who would have
+thought how many people have murder in their hearts? At least half
+Society would, I believe, become homicides if only there were no
+chance of their being found out and punished. Anyhow, if we go on at
+this rate there will be no old people left."
+
+And it did indeed seem as if such would be the case. For the moment
+the idea got abroad that old people could be thrust out of existence
+with absolute safety and ease, there was a perfect mania amongst men,
+women, and even children, to get rid of them, and the deaths of people
+over sixty recorded in the papers multiplied every day. The following
+is an extract from the _Planet_ of July 28--
+
+    BOLT.--On July 27, at No. ---- Elgin Avenue, S.W., Emily Jane,
+    loved and venerated mother of Mary Bolt, M.D., in her 69th year.
+    Drowned in her bath. And all the Angels wept!
+
+    CUSHMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Sheep Street, Northampton, Sarah
+    Elizabeth, adored mother of Josiah Cushman, Plymouth Brother, in
+    her 88th year. Run over by a taxi. Joy in Heaven!
+
+    STARLING.--On July 27, at No. ---- Snargate Street, Dover, Susan,
+    highly esteemed and greatly beloved mother of Alfred Starling,
+    Wesleyan Minister, in her 71st year. Lost in the harbour. Asleep in
+    Jesus.
+
+    TRETICKLER.--On July 27, at No. ---- The Terrace, St. Ives,
+    Cornwall, Elizabeth, adored grandmother of Tobias Tretickler,
+    Congregationalist, in her 91st year. Fell over the Malatoff. "Oh,
+    Paradise! Oh, Paradise!"
+
+    BROOT.--On July 27, at Charlton House, Queen's Gate, S.W., Jane,
+    greatly beloved mother of John Broot, Labour M.P., in her 83rd
+    year. Fell down the area. Peace, blessed Peace.
+
+    GUM.--On July 27, at No. ---- Church Road, Upper Norwood, Sophia,
+    widow of the late Albert Gum, L.C.C., in her 85th year. Choked
+    whilst eating tripe. Sadly missed!
+
+    PAVEMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol,
+    Anne Rebecca, dearly beloved mother of Alfred Paveman, grocer, in
+    her 74th year. Accidentally burned to death! At rest at last.
+
+But it must not be supposed from these few notices, selected from at
+least a hundred, that the applicants for spells were by any means
+confined to the upper and middle classes. By far the greater number of
+spells were sold to the working people--to those of them who, prudent
+and respectable, counted amongst their aged relatives, at least, one
+or two who were insured.
+
+Nor was the sale of spells confined to adults; for among the numbers,
+that flocked to consult the trio, were countless County Council
+children.
+
+"Can you give me a spell to make teacher break her neck?" was the most
+common request, though it was frequently varied with demands such as--
+
+"I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more
+than three lumps of sugar in my tea;"--or, "Mother has got very teazy
+lately. I want a spell to make her fall downstairs"--or, "Father only
+gives me twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a
+spell to make him have an accident whilst he's at work." And it was
+not seldom that the trio were petitioned thus: "Please give us a spell
+to make our parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect
+freedom is the birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have
+perfect freedom whilst our parents are alive."[22]
+
+The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the
+week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were--over sixty
+years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and
+sixty, six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were
+responsible.
+
+The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham,
+Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants
+became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with
+them, and were forced to raise their charges.
+
+Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant
+Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson.
+
+"Give me a spell," demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a
+half-up-to-the-knee skirt, "one that will cause the roof of the House
+of Commons to fall in and smash everybody--EVERYBODY. This is no time
+for half-measures."
+
+Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented,
+but he had no sympathy with the ugly--they set his teeth on edge--he
+loathed them.
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly," he said, "here is a spell that will
+have the effect you desire," and he handed her a ring containing a
+magnes microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot.
+"Wear it," he said, "night and day. Never be without it."
+
+She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home
+for incurables.
+
+Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him
+with a similar request.
+
+"Let me have a spell at once," she said, "that will make every member
+of the Government be run over by taxis--and killed. They are monsters,
+tyrants--I abominate them. Let them be slowly--very slowly--SQUASHED
+to death!"
+
+"Very well, madam," Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, "here
+is what you want--wear it next your heart;" and he gave her a locket,
+containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a
+leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense.
+
+"I consider your fee far too high," the Suffragette said. "You take
+advantage of me because I'm a woman."
+
+"Very well, madam," he said, "I will make an exception in your case,
+and let you have it for half the sum."
+
+With a good deal more grumbling she paid the half fee, and, fastening
+the locket round her neck, flounced out of the building. As Kelson
+gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
+such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
+Suffragette--a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
+animosity.
+
+"Quick! Quick!" she cried, bursting into the room where he was
+sitting. "Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet
+Minister, and their wives and families as well."
+
+"Such an ambitious request as that, madam," Kelson rejoined, "cannot
+be granted in a hurry. I must have time--to--"
+
+"No! No! At once!" the lady cried, stamping her feet with
+ill-suppressed rage.
+
+"--to consider how it can best be done," Kelson went on calmly. "I
+must have time to think."
+
+The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
+gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its
+head off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her
+description had been run over by a train at Chislehurst--and
+decapitated.
+
+Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only
+plain but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.
+
+"Look here," he said, "it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
+decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
+longer." And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic
+to humour him.
+
+"Very well, Matt," he said, forcing a laugh. "I'll try and arrange
+differently in future. After to-day you shall have your share of the
+pretty ones--anything to keep the peace. Only--remember--no falling in
+love."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 22: Lest the reader should query this, let him consult the
+  police in any of our big centres, and he will learn that crime and
+  prostitution is immensely on the increase among children. In
+  Newcastle it is estimated that there are over two thousand girls, of
+  under fourteen years of age, voluntarily leading immoral lives, and
+  making big incomes.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+
+Hamar's one great idea on reaching stage four was to utilize the
+torments as a means of getting Gladys. Though he saw crowds of pretty
+girls every day, none appealed to him as she did--and the very
+difficulty of getting her enhanced her value and stimulated his
+passions.
+
+"I will give her one more chance," he said to himself, "and then if
+she won't have me I'll plague her to death."
+
+He went to the Imperial, and passing himself off as her father to the
+new official at the stage-door entrance, was shown into the ante-room
+(which led to her dressing-room). It took a good deal to scare Hamar,
+but he admitted afterwards that he did feel a trifle apprehensive
+whilst he awaited her advent; and his anticipations were fully
+realized.
+
+"Why, father!" she began, as the door of her dressing-room swung open
+and she appeared on the threshold, clad in a shimmering white dress,
+that intensified her fair style of beauty, "what brings you--" The
+smile on her face suddenly died away.
+
+"You!" she cried, "how dare you! Go! Go at once! And if you dare come
+here again or attempt to molest me in any way, I'll prosecute you!"
+
+Hamar, dumbfounded at such an exhibition of wrath, slunk out of the
+room without uttering a syllable.
+
+"The vixen," he muttered as soon as he found himself in the street. "A
+thousand cats in one! Treated me like mud. Jerusalem! I'll pay her
+out. And I'll lose no time about it either. She'll look differently at
+me next time we meet."
+
+He hurried back to Cockspur Street and going into the laboratory,
+threw himself into a chair and--thought.
+
+That same evening at nine-thirty, in the interval between her first
+and second "going on," Gladys hastened to her dressing-room, and was
+preparing to partake of the light refreshments she had ordered,
+when--to her horror--she perceived crawling towards her, across the
+floor, a huge cockroach--a hideous black thing with spidery legs and
+long antennae that it waved, to and fro, in the air, as it advanced.
+It was at least double the size of any Gladys had hitherto seen, and
+her feelings can best be appreciated by those who fear such
+things--her blood ran cold, her flesh crawled, she sat glued to her
+chair, terrified to move, lest it should run after her. She screamed,
+and her dresser, startled out of her senses, came flying into the
+room.
+
+"What is it, madam? What is it?" she cried.
+
+Gladys pointed at the floor.
+
+"Kill it!" she shrieked. "Stamp on it! Oh, quick, quick, it is coming
+towards me."
+
+But the moment the dresser caught sight of the cockroach, she sprang
+on a chair and wound her skirts round her.
+
+"Oh, madam," she panted, "I daren't! I daren't go near it. I'm
+frightened out of my life, at beetles. And there's another of
+them"--and she pointed to the wainscoting--"and another! Why, the
+room's full of them!"
+
+And so it was. Everywhere Gladys looked she saw beetles crawling
+towards her--dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds--and all of
+the same monstrous size and ultra-horrible appearance.
+
+"Look!" she screamed. "They are climbing on to my clothes. One's got
+into my shoes, and another will be in them, in a second. There's
+another--crawling up my cloak--and another on my skirt. Oh! Oh!" and
+her cries, and those of the dresser, speedily brought a troop of
+actors and actresses to the door. The instant, however, the cause of
+the alarm was ascertained, there were loud yells, and a wild stampede
+down the passages. The Stage Manager was called, but one glance at the
+floor was enough for him--he fled. And in the end three of the supers
+had to be fetched. Hot water, brooms, ashes, and quicklime were used,
+and although thousands of the cockroaches were killed, thousands more
+came, and so hopeless did the task of getting rid of them become, that
+the room eventually had to be vacated, and the cracks under the door
+securely sealed.
+
+Before Gladys left the theatre, she was called on the telephone.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked.
+
+"Hamar," came the reply, in insinuating tones. "How do you like the
+beetles? You'll never see the end of them till--"
+
+But Gladys rang off.
+
+On her return home something scuttled across the hall floor in front
+of her. She sprang back with a scream. It was a gigantic cockroach.
+The hall was full of them. She summoned the servants, and they set to
+work to kill them. But they might as well have tried to stop Niagara,
+for as fast as they squashed one battalion, another took its place.
+They came out of cracks in the floor, from behind the wainscoting,
+from every conceivable place in the kitchens, and in a dense black
+ribbon some six inches broad, ascended the staircase. Gladys tried to
+barricade her room against them, but it was of no avail. They came
+from under the boards of the floor and poured down the chimney. They
+swarmed over the furniture, in the cupboards, chest of drawers, the
+washstand (where they kept continually falling into the water), in her
+clothes (her dressing-gown was covered with them), over the bed, and
+the climax was reached when they approached the chair she stood on.
+Too fascinated with horror to move, she watched them crawling up to
+her. She was thus found by her father. He had come to her assistance
+in the very nick of time, and after lifting her from the chair and
+taking her to a place, as yet safe from molestation, returned to her
+room, where, with savage blows, smashing, equally, beetles and
+furniture, he remained till daybreak.
+
+With the first streak of dawn the beetles decamped, and the fray
+ended. The work of devastation had been colossal. Corpses were strewn
+everywhere--and it took the combined household hours, before all
+evidences of the slaughter were obliterated. As for Gladys, she had
+not slept all night and was a wreck.
+
+"I can never go through another night of it," she said to Miss
+Templeton. "Do you think we shall ever get rid of the horrible
+things?"
+
+"We can but try, dear!" Miss Templeton said consolingly, and she
+accompanied Gladys up to town, where they inquired of doctors, and
+chemists, and all sorts of possible and impossible people; and
+returned to Kew laden with chemicals, and patent beetle destroyers.
+But though they tried remedies by the score, none were of use, and the
+beetles repeated their performance of the preceding night.
+
+Gladys did not go to bed: surrounded with lighted candles, she sat on
+the top of a wardrobe till daybreak. The following morning the house
+was fumigated with sulphur; and people were told off to kill the
+cockroaches, as they made their escape out of doors. By this means an
+enormous number were killed; but at night they were just as bad as
+before.
+
+An engineer friend then suggested a freezing-machine. The temperature
+of the house was reduced to ten degrees below zero; the pipes froze
+(and burst next day), the milk froze, the housemaid's toes and the
+cook's little finger of the left hand froze, everything froze; and
+presumably the beetles froze, for there was not one to be seen.
+
+However, it was quite impossible to resort again to this extreme
+measure. John Martin had the most agonizing attacks of lumbago. Gladys
+had neuralgia, and Miss Templeton--a slight touch of pleurisy.
+
+When Gladys reached the Imperial that evening, she found that the
+staff had been battling with cockroaches all day, and that they had at
+last succeeded in getting rid of them with a fumigation mixture of
+camphor, cocculus, sulphur, bezonia and assafoetida--suggested to them
+by a Hindoo student.
+
+For the next week not a beetle was to be seen at the theatre nor at
+the Cottage; and Gladys was beginning to hope that Hamar had ceased
+plaguing her (in despair of ever winning her), when the persecutions
+suddenly broke out again.
+
+She had been in bed about half an hour, and was falling into a gentle
+and much needed sleep, when a tremendous rap at the wall, close to her
+head, awoke her with a start, and set her heart pulsating violently.
+Thinking it must be some one on the landing, she got up and lit a
+candle. There was no one there. The moment she got into bed again, the
+rapping was repeated, and it continued, at intervals, all night. This
+went on for a week, during which time Gladys was never once able to
+sleep.
+
+A brief respite ensued; but it was abruptly terminated one morning,
+when Gladys awoke feeling as if some big insect were attempting to
+penetrate her body. Uttering a shriek of terror, she whipped the
+clothes from her, and sprang out of bed. Miss Templeton, who slept in
+the next room, came rushing in, and they both saw an enormous insect,
+half beetle and half scorpion, dart under the pillow. John Martin was
+fetched, but although he searched everywhere, not a trace of the
+insect could be found.
+
+That night, directly Gladys got in bed and blew out the light, she
+heard a ticking sound on the sheets, and a huge insect with long hairy
+legs ran up her sleeve. Her shrieks brought the whole household to the
+room, but the insect was nowhere to be seen.
+
+She was thus plagued for nearly a fortnight. One insect only--never a
+number, but only one, of prodigious size and terrifying form--appeared
+to her in the least suspected places, _i.e._, on the dressing-table or
+chimney-piece, in her shoes, or pockets; crawled over her in the dark;
+and could never be caught.
+
+These perpetual frights, and consequent sleeplessness, wore Gladys
+out. She grew so ill that she had to give up acting, and go into a
+home to try the rest cure.
+
+Hamar then communicated with her, through a third person, and offered
+to leave off tormenting her, if she would agree to be engaged to him.
+
+"I never will!" she said.
+
+"Then I will never leave off persecuting you," was his retort.
+
+But he was wary. He had no wish to kill her or to damage her looks--so
+he let her get well and remain thus for a brief space. When she was
+once again in full vigour, acting at the Imperial, he recommenced his
+unwelcome attentions.
+
+At first he confined his new plague to the servants at the Cottage.
+The cook was one day turning out a drawer in the kitchen dresser, when
+she was horrified out of her senses to find squatting there, a large,
+black toad, which stared most malevolently at her, and then sprang in
+her face. She shrieked to the housemaid to help her kill it, but
+before a weapon could be got, the creature had bounced through an open
+window, and disappeared.
+
+After this incident the servants knew no peace. Their bedclothes were
+thrown off them at night, their dresses torn and bespattered with ink,
+their brushes and combs thrown out of the window, and the water they
+poured out to wash in was sometimes quite black, sometimes full of a
+bright green sediment, and sometimes boiling, when it invariably
+cracked both the jug and basin.
+
+Unable to stand these annoyances the servants left in a body. Their
+successors fared the same, and worse. Besides having to endure the
+above-named horrors, pebbles were thrown through the windows, their
+chairs were pulled away as they were about to sit down (the cook, who
+was one of those upon whom this trick was played, thereby seriously
+injuring her spine), and all sorts of obstacles were placed on the
+stairs, so that those who ran down unwarily tripped over them and hurt
+themselves (two successive housemaids broke their legs, whilst another
+sprained her wrist).
+
+The meat, too, was a constant worry--it went so bad that enormous
+maggots crawled out of it by the thousand and covered the table and
+floor; and the milk, of which a large quantity was taken daily,
+"turned" in a very curious manner. After being deposited, in its usual
+place, in the pantry, it began to darken; first of all it became light
+blue, then deepened into an almost inky blackness, exhibiting curious
+zigzag lines; and, lastly, the whole mass began to putrefy and to emit
+a stench so overpowering that every one in the house retched, and the
+whole place had to be disinfected. This occurred day after day.
+Nothing would stop it. The dairyman who supplied the milk did all he
+could to counteract it. He had his dairies constantly cleansed, he saw
+that the cattle had a change of food, he bought an entirely new stock
+of dairy utensils, and no milk was ever sent to the Cottage that he
+had not had carefully analyzed.
+
+The troubles continued for three weeks, at the end of which period
+John Martin received a telephone call from Hamar.
+
+"Hullo!" the latter said, "I guess you've had about enough of it by
+this time. Wouldn't you like some sweet-smelling milk for a change, or
+do you prefer to go on till you all get typhoid? The remedy, you know,
+lies in your own hands. You've only to tell that daughter of yours to
+accept me, and I'll undertake all your troubles shall cease."
+
+"I'll see you hanged first," John Martin answered.
+
+"Very well, then, you old mule," Hamar shouted, "look out for
+yourself--and Miss Gladys."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LOVE
+
+
+To bring about plagues of insects Hamar had resorted to a very simple
+method. He had first of all made a wax image representing a
+cockroach--scorpion--centipede, or whatever other species came into
+his mind. Then, placing the image he had made in front of him, and
+repeating the prayer he had learned from the Unknown, through the
+medium of Mrs. Anderson-Waite's table, he had concentrated body, soul,
+and spirit on plaguing Gladys with the insect, which the image
+represented. When his concentration reached the highest degree,
+insects in their actual physical bodies were transported from the
+tropics;[23] but when he was unable to concentrate to the utmost, only
+the ethereal projections of the insects were obtainable; hence the
+hybrid--partly scorpion and partly beetle, that appeared and
+disappeared in Gladys's bed and bedroom.
+
+To produce the rappings on the walls of Gladys's room, he had made a
+wax representation of a wall, and whilst concentrating to the very
+utmost, had struck it with his knuckles.
+
+The plaguing of the servants Hamar had also accomplished by means of
+images and concentration.
+
+But in order to bewitch milk, he had been obliged to resort to other
+means. He had converted the mumia of an idiot into a magnes
+microcosmi; and bribing the man who delivered the milk, he gave him
+instructions to soak the magnes microcosmi, for a few minutes, in
+every portion that he left at the Cottage.[24]
+
+At length Hamar having failed to gain his object by plaguing Gladys
+and the servants, set about tormenting John Martin. He made a wax
+image of the latter, and after pronouncing the necessary prayer, stuck
+the image full of pins, crying out as he did so "John Martin, I hate
+you. John Martin, I curse you. John Martin, a plague on you." And each
+time Hamar stuck a pin in the image he had made of John Martin, the
+real John Martin felt an acute pain in the region of his body
+corresponding to that in which the pin was stuck.
+
+The doctor, who was called in, could make nothing of the malady, but,
+following the etiquette of the profession, cloaked his ignorance with
+a look of profound wisdom, and the pronouncement that he would tell
+them, in a day or two, what was the matter. In the meanwhile, he found
+it necessary and politic to prescribe a non-committal mixture of chalk
+and rhubarb, which, although disguised under the usual fanciful
+pharmacopoeia appellation, did not, however, allay the pain. Sharp,
+agonizing pricks, now on the neck now in the chest, now in the most
+sensitive part of the knee-cap, now under the toe-nail, now--most
+painful of all--under the finger-nail--continued to torment John
+Martin, who, though as a rule fairly stoical, could not stand these
+attacks with any degree of composure. He screamed, and swore, and
+cursed, until the whole household was terrified--and Gladys, pretty
+nearly out of her mind.
+
+During a lull--an interval, wherein John Martin enjoyed a brief
+respite, the telephone bell rang.
+
+"Hulloa," called a voice, "I'm Hamar. Haven't you had about enough of
+it? Remember, you've only to say the word and I'll stop."
+
+"Tell him I'll do nothing of the sort," John Martin said, "that he'll
+never get the better of me this way."
+
+Miss Templeton gave the message, and Hamar replied "Wait! Wait and
+see!"
+
+He then thrust wool, pins, horsenails, straw, needles and moss into
+the mouth of the image, and John Martin had such frightful pains in
+his stomach that he went into convulsions; and, after an emetic had
+been given him, vomited up all the above-named articles, save the pins
+and needles which worked their way out through his flesh, causing him
+the most exquisite tortures.
+
+Gladys, having given up going to the theatre in order to be with her
+father during these attacks, now declared that she could no longer
+bear to see him in such excruciating pain, whilst it was in her power
+to prevent it.
+
+"Tell him," she said, "tell Hamar you'll accept his conditions. Don't
+think of me! I would rather do anything than see you suffer like
+this."
+
+"I can hold out a bit longer," he groaned, "at any rate I needn't give
+in yet."
+
+Every now and then there came a respite--perhaps for several hours,
+perhaps for several days--then the tortures recommenced. And always
+John Martin steeled himself to bear them. At last came the climax.
+
+Hamar, infuriated that his efforts, so far, had proved fruitless,
+resolved, since time was pressing, to play his trump card and either
+win, or lose all. He rang up Gladys on the telephone.
+
+"My patience is exhausted," he said. "I'll give you one more chance,
+and one--only. Agree to be engaged to me at once--or I'll smite your
+father with the most virulent form of cancer, and leave him to die."
+
+There was no question now in Gladys's mind as to what she should do.
+Of all things in the world, she dreaded cancer most, and after the
+many evidences Hamar had given her of his skill in Black Magic, she
+did not doubt for one instant that he could, immediately he chose,
+carry out his threat.
+
+"I have decided," she said faintly, "to--to--give in."
+
+"You accept me, then?" Hamar said.
+
+"Y-yes!"
+
+"When may I see you?"
+
+"When you like."
+
+"Then I'll come at once," Hamar replied. "_Au revoir._"
+
+But Hamar, when he arrived at the Cottage, did not realize any of the
+gleeful anticipations he had indulged in _en route_. Gladys was
+ill--so Miss Templeton informed him--at the same time begging him, if
+he really had any regard for Miss Martin, not to ask to see her for
+the next few days; and to this request Hamar, seeing no alternative,
+was obliged to assent.
+
+Shortly after he had gone, Shiel Davenport called, and found Gladys
+alone in the garden.
+
+"I've been told that your father is ill," he said, "and should like to
+hear better news of him. How is he?"
+
+"I think he's all right now," Gladys replied, "but he has suffered
+frightfully. Indeed, we've all had a terrible time," And she told him
+what had happened.
+
+"Then you've not been acting at the Imperial lately?" Shiel asked.
+
+"Not for the past week," Gladys replied. "I couldn't leave father."
+
+"How has Mr. Bromley Burnham got on without you?" Shiel asked
+bitterly.
+
+"I don't understand you," Gladys said quietly. "I have an understudy,
+and from what I am told she has given every satisfaction. I have some
+news which I fear won't be altogether welcome to you."
+
+Shiel turned a shade paler. "What is it?" he faltered.
+
+"I'm engaged to be married."
+
+For a few moments there was silence, and then Shiel exclaimed
+mechanically "Engaged to be married! To whom?"
+
+"To Leon Hamar! I couldn't help it." And she explained the position.
+
+"But he'll never keep you to it," Shiel said. "He couldn't be such a
+brute."
+
+"I'm afraid he will," Gladys replied. "He's shown pretty clearly that
+he's capable of anything. I've given him my promise--I must keep it."
+
+"Then it's good-bye to all interest in life--for me," Shiel said, with
+a gulp. "I've thought of no one but you since we first met. For
+you--in the hope of someday winning you, I've struggled on; I've
+reconciled myself to a bare existence. Now I've lost you, I've lost
+everything. I hate life. I shall--"
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort," Gladys interrupted, "unless you want
+me to regret ever having met you. I wonder that you say 'I've nothing
+to live for'--when we can still be friends; and when you can, at
+least, win my respect, by putting your shoulder to the wheel, and
+exerting yourself to the utmost to get on."
+
+"And you--what about you?"
+
+"Never mind me--I can well look after myself."
+
+"You'll live in Hell," Shiel cried, her eyes goading him to madness.
+"Even though you may not care for me, I do not choose to stand quietly
+by, whilst you spend your life in Purgatory. Hamar has won you through
+some diabolical trickery, and if I can't thwart him in any other
+way--I'll kill him. He shan't marry you."
+
+"He will," Gladys sighed. "No one can stop him. He is omnipotent."
+
+Apparently, Gladys's statement was more or less true; and ninety-nine
+men out of a hundred, in the same circumstances as Shiel, would have
+now recognized the hopelessness of the situation. But Shiel was
+abnormal. As he walked home from the Cottage that evening he kept on
+repeating to himself "Gladys is my goal. I want only Gladys. I'll have
+only Gladys." And having once made up his mind to get Gladys, it
+seemed to him, as if out of every obstacle, that lay between him and
+Gladys, he could and would merely make a stepping-stone. "Since," he
+argued to himself, "all's fair in love and war, I'll win Gladys
+through another woman."
+
+And he straightway telephoned to Lilian Rosenberg to have tea with
+him.
+
+The latter had already made an engagement for the afternoon; but, all
+the same, she accepted Shiel's invitation.
+
+"Will you do me a favour?" he asked.
+
+"If it is anything that lies in my power," she said. "What is it?"
+
+"I want you to find out how Hamar works his spells. I asked you
+before?"
+
+"I know you did and I've not forgotten," Lilian said, "but I have to
+be very careful. I've played the part of eavesdropper once or twice,
+and heard enough to confirm me in my suspicions that Hamar is in touch
+with evil, occult powers. I've heard him praying aloud to them on more
+than one occasion, and I've also a shrewd idea he performs, at least,
+some of his spells by means of wax images. But why do you want to
+know?"
+
+"Only curiosity. I am intensely interested in the occult."
+
+"You don't want to start a rival show, do you?" Lilian asked
+jestingly.
+
+"With a maximum capital of two pounds--and a minimum of knowledge!"
+Shiel laughed. "Hardly. I wish I could. I would offer you the post of
+manageress."
+
+"Partner!"
+
+"Well, partner, if you like. Would you take it?"
+
+"Perhaps!" she said, looking at him with a sudden shyness. "What a
+pity you are not rich. Can't you get a post that would bring you in
+about £200 a year for a start? I believe you really want something to
+stimulate you, to make you work in grim earnest--then you would
+succeed. There's grit in you--I love grit--but at present it's latent,
+it wants bringing out."
+
+"You are very kind," Shiel said, "but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case,
+and, being such, have no business to be in your company. Will you come
+to the theatre with me?"
+
+"The theatre! When you've no business to be in my company, and when it
+is as much as you can do to pay the rent of a back attic!"
+
+"Oh, never mind that. I've had tickets given me. I've been doing odd
+bits of journalism lately, and a dramatic critic I know has given me
+two stalls at the Imperial!"
+
+"The Imperial!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "That's where Gladys
+Martin is acting, surely! I can't bear her!"
+
+"She's not the only person in the cast," Shiel observed drily, "and
+the play's a good one! Do come!"
+
+With a little more persuasion Shiel gained her consent; and both he
+and she enjoyed the play, or more correctly speaking, the occasion,
+immensely. So long as Gladys was on the stage Shiel's eyes never once
+left her; whilst throughout the performance Lilian Rosenberg saw only
+Shiel, thought only of Shiel. The interest she had taken in him, the
+interest she had so confidently asserted was only interest, had grown
+apace--had grown out of all recognition. It needed only a fillip now
+to convert that interest into something warmer; and the fillip was not
+long in coming.
+
+Shiel was seeing Lilian home to her lodgings in Margaret Terrace, a
+turning off Oakley Street, when a man knocked a woman down right in
+front of them. He was just the ordinary type of street ruffian--the
+whitewashed English labourer--and the woman, having without doubt been
+served by him in the same manner fifty times before, was probably well
+used to such treatment. But it was more than Shiel, who had spent so
+much of his life where they treat women differently, could stand, and
+before Lilian Rosenberg had time to remonstrate, he had rushed up to
+the prostrate woman, and was holding the man at bay. A scuffle now
+began, in which the woman, whom Shiel had helped to regain her feet,
+joined. Both man and woman now attacked Shiel, who, placing himself
+with his back against the railings, defended himself as best he could.
+
+The hour was late, there were no police about, and it seemed only too
+probable that the fracas would end in a tragedy. The labourer was a
+burly fellow, shorter than Shiel, but far broader and heavier, and any
+one could see at a glance that Shiel stood no chance against him.
+Lilian Rosenberg, at her wits' end to know what to do, ran into Oakley
+Street, and as there was no one in sight, she made for the nearest
+lighted house and rang the bell furiously. A man came to the door,
+whom, unheeding his expostulations, she caught by the arm and dragged
+into the street.
+
+They arrived on the scene of action, just as the ruffian, breaking
+through Shiel's guard, struck him a terrific blow on the forehead,
+which sent him reeling against the railings. The newcomer (upon whom,
+both man and woman, seeing Shiel incapacitated, instantly turned)
+would probably have shared the same fate, had not the occupants of
+several of the neighbouring houses--amongst whom were some half-dozen
+athletic young men--roused by the noise, come out into the street, and
+the ruffian and his companion, seeing the odds were against them,
+decamped.
+
+Shiel had not fully regained consciousness, when Lilian Rosenberg,
+regardless of propriety, led him into her sitting-room, bathed his
+forehead, dosed him with brandy, and making up a bed for him on the
+sofa, bade him rest there, till the morning.
+
+When he took his departure, he had quite recovered, and Lilian
+Rosenberg had, at last, realized that she loved him.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 23: There is no doubt that Moses inflicted the plagues,
+  with which he tormented Pharaoh, in this way.]
+
+  [Footnote 24: In stage two this might have been performed by
+  ethereal projection, but Hamar could not resort to this method as
+  the power of projection had now passed from him.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE SUBPOENA
+
+
+A few days after the incident in Margaret Terrace, Shiel had an
+inspiration. He was lunching with an old schoolfellow whom, quite by
+chance, he had met in Lincoln's Inn, having previously lost sight of
+him for many years, and the conversation, which had at first been
+confined to the old days, had gradually drifted to what was ever
+uppermost in Shiel's mind--namely, the Modern Sorcery Company, _i.e._
+Hamar, Kelson and Curtis.
+
+"Did you know," his friend remarked, "that the old statute, introduced
+in Henry the Fifth's reign against sorcery, has never been repealed?"
+
+"You don't mean to say so," Shiel cried excitedly--a vague idea
+dawning on him. "Tell me all about it."
+
+"Well, that's rather a long order. For one thing, it imposes all kinds
+of penalties from capital punishment to fines. For another, it was in
+force up to the beginning of George the Third's reign, when the last
+case of a person being burned for witchery in England occurred, and
+since then it has fallen into disuse."
+
+"Could it be revived?" Shiel asked, a sudden wild hope surging through
+him.
+
+"For all I know to the contrary, it could," his friend--who, by the
+way, was a barrister--replied. "Of course no one could be burned or
+hanged under it, but they might be fined or imprisoned."
+
+"Then I wish to goodness you would file a case against the Modern
+Sorcery Company! I'd move heaven and earth to get the scoundrels sent
+to prison!" And he told his friend how matters stood between Gladys
+and Hamar.
+
+The barrister--whose name was Sevenning--H.V. Sevenning, of T.C.D. and
+Cheltenham College renown--was keenly interested. It was not only that
+his sense of chivalry was stirred, but he saw sport. Consequently, the
+foregoing conversation resulted in a prosecution which, taking place
+some four weeks later, was reported in the London Herald as follows--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE HEARD AT THE OLD BAILEY.
+
+    REVIVAL OF AN ANCIENT STATUTE.
+
+    Yesterday, at the Old Bailey, before His Honour Judge Rosher, Leon
+    Hamar, Edward Curtis and Matthew Kelson, of the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., were indicted under the 23rd of Henry the Fifth, C.
+    15, which makes it a capital offence to practise and administer
+    spells. The case for the prosecution promises to be a lengthy one.
+    An enormous number of witnesses, who are most anxious to make
+    statements, will be called; and it is anticipated that much of
+    their evidence will be of a most extraordinary nature.
+
+    The accused are cited with having worked spells to the
+    injury--which injury, in many instances, has been fatal--of a vast
+    number of people, representative of every rank in life.
+
+    Hilda, Countess of Ramsgate, who appeared in heavy mourning, was
+    the first witness called. In her evidence she stated, that it was
+    owing to an advertisement she had seen in the _Ladies' Meadow_,
+    that she had consulted the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., with the
+    object of buying a spell to prevent her Pekingese pet, Brutus,
+    catching colds on his liver. She had hoped to see Mr. Kelson, as
+    she had heard that he was more sympathetic, where ladies were
+    concerned, than either Mr. Hamar or Mr. Curtis, but as Mr. Kelson
+    was engaged, she had consulted Mr. Edward Curtis instead. The
+    latter had given her a spell which he had assured her would have
+    the desired effect, but directly she got home, her adored Brutus
+    developed melancholia, and died raving mad, after having bitten
+    her child, who, by the way, had died, too.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., declared that the spell his
+    client had given the Countess was perfectly harmless; that it
+    could not possibly have produced either melancholia or madness.
+    "Can any dependence," he said, "be placed on a woman, who
+    obviously thinks more of her dog's death than that of her child!"
+
+    The Court was adjourned till to-morrow.
+
+In the following day's paper, the evidence for the prosecution was
+continued. Lady Marjorie Tatler, who, in the weekly and illustrated
+journals, for no other reason than her reputed beauty, was reintroduced
+over and over again to the long-suffering public, was the first to
+step into the witness-box.
+
+    She declared that Edward Curtis, instead of giving her a spell to
+    make Florillda win the Derby, had given her a diabolical something
+    that had brought out spots all over her face, and that she had to
+    undergo a most expensive treatment before they could be got rid
+    of.
+
+    In cross-examination, Lady Marjorie Tatler admitted that she had
+    asked Edward Curtis for a spell that would cause all the horses
+    running in that particular race, save Florillda, to be taken ill.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., explained that his client was
+    so disgusted at the immorality of Lady Marjorie's request, that he
+    had purposely given her a spell that would have no effect upon a
+    horse, and could not possibly bring out spots on her Ladyship's
+    face. "The spell Edward Curtis gave her," Gerald Kirby said, "was
+    a mixture of hempseed and sago, flavoured with violet powder, and
+    my client instructed her Ladyship to wear it next her heart."
+    (Loud laughter.)
+
+    Lady Coralie Mars, the next witness, who declared she had sought a
+    spell to make the man, she was forced into marrying, fall into a
+    trance, just before the marriage ceremony was to take place; and
+    that, instead of bringing this about, the spell Edward Curtis had
+    sold her had caused her to have St. Vitus's Dance,--was adroitly
+    trapped into admitting that she had really wanted her fiancé
+    smitten with paralysis. "A wish," Gerald Kirby announced, with a
+    dramatic flourish of his hands, "that so aroused my client's
+    indignation that, instead of giving her the spell she wanted, he
+    gave her one that would make her affianced husband more than ever
+    hungry for the marriage hour to arrive. As for St. Vitus's Dance,
+    would any woman, with an emotional and hysterical-nature, such as
+    obviously was that of Lady Coralie Mars, ever be free from such a
+    complaint?"
+
+    The Hon. Augusta Mapple, who stated that she had visited the
+    Modern Sorcery Company, for the purpose of obtaining a spell to
+    bring about a defeat of the Government, by afflicting the bulk of
+    their supporters with such bilious attacks as would necessitate
+    their absence from the House, and that, instead of giving her such
+    a spell, Edward Curtis had given her one which had caused every
+    member of her household to fall downstairs--admitted, under
+    cross-examination, that she had asked for a spell that would make
+    every supporter of the Government in the House be suddenly seized
+    with tetanus. "A diabolical request, your lordship," Gerald Kirby
+    said, "and one to which my client could not possibly accede.
+    Consequently, as a punishment for such cruelty, he sold her a
+    spell that would result in her having a sharp attack of toothache.
+    It could not possibly have produced any of the mishaps she
+    attributes to it."
+
+It is unnecessary to quote further. By far the greater number of these
+witnesses, on being cross-examined by Mr. Kirby, who defended with an
+ability that has rarely, if ever, been excelled, were made to confess
+that they had wanted the spells for a far more subtle and dangerous
+purpose than they had previously stated; admissions which, of course,
+were highly prejudicial to the case for the prosecution.
+
+Shiel lost hope. He had looked forward to the trial with an excitement
+that almost bordered on frenzy. It was never out of his mind. He
+thought of it at meals, he thought of it at his work, he thought of it
+out of doors, and, when he went to bed, he dreamed of it.
+
+"I'll save you! I'll save you yet!" he wrote to Gladys. "The trial can
+only result in one thing--the breaking up and imprisonment of the
+trio."
+
+But when he read the papers each day, and saw how, in almost every
+instance, evidence which ought to have been damning to the accused,
+had been twisted into their favour, his heart sank.
+
+There was only one chance now--Lilian Rosenberg. She, of all the staff
+employed in the Hall in Cockspur Street, was best acquainted with the
+_modus operandi_ of Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson.
+
+"We must get hold of that girl at all costs," H.V. Sevenning remarked
+to Shiel. "You say you feel sure she likes you. Work upon her feelings
+to show the Firm up."
+
+"I don't much like the idea of it," Shiel said, "but I suppose the end
+justifies the means."
+
+"Of course it does!" Sevenning retorted. "It's your only chance of
+saving Miss Martin."
+
+Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the
+subject.
+
+"What about the spells?" he asked her. "Have you found out yet how
+Hamar works them?"
+
+"I have only heard him muttering in his room again," she said, her
+cheeks paling. "And--you will only laugh at me--I have seen queer
+shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages,
+shadows that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before
+I came to Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been
+almost too afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see
+something standing outside."
+
+"You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio
+practise sorcery?"
+
+"I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits."
+
+"Do you approve of such proceedings?"
+
+"I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into
+the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but
+until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone."
+
+"If you think like that," Shiel said, "how can you reconcile yourself
+to working for these people?"
+
+"How can I help myself?" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "Beggars can't be
+choosers. I am not responsible for what they do."
+
+"But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous
+crime, wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?"
+
+"That depends," Lilian Rosenberg said. "If I could stop them without
+running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop
+them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly
+shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays--especially good
+paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!"
+
+"Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?" Shiel
+said slowly.
+
+"That depends on the degree of friendship," Lilian replied. "If it
+were for some one I liked very much, then--perhaps!"
+
+"Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you
+being very fond of any one."
+
+"Couldn't you?" Lilian said, with a faint laugh. "You don't think me
+capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman
+doesn't always wear her heart on her sleeve."
+
+"I confess I don't understand women," Shiel said, "and I had best come
+to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio--or at least one
+of the trio--is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable--a
+cruel and shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I
+may not be able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?"
+
+"How _can_ I?" Lilian asked.
+
+"Why, by finding out something which might be damning evidence against
+them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of
+staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by
+getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them."
+
+"Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What
+would become of me?"
+
+"Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a
+noble action."
+
+"How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on
+you personally?"
+
+"It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted."
+
+"Some one you like?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"A relation?"
+
+"That I can't say."
+
+"Then I can't help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as
+you know, a woman's privilege. You must tell me all."
+
+"It's for a friend, then!"
+
+"A man?"
+
+"No," Shiel replied, "for a girl!"
+
+There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.
+
+"Have I ever heard you mention her?"
+
+"Occasionally," Shiel replied.
+
+There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly--
+
+"You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else."
+
+"I do mean her!" Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. "She is to be
+coerced into marrying Hamar."
+
+"The silly fool!" Lilian Rosenberg said. "I would like to see any one
+trying to coerce me. And it is to serve _her_ you want me to sacrifice
+myself." And she turned away in disgust.
+
+After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
+at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to
+H.V. Sevenning.
+
+"We must subpoena her," said Sevenning.
+
+"You'll never get her to speak that way," Shiel said. "If once she has
+made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her."
+
+"I have heard that said of people before," H.V. Sevenning replied
+dryly, "but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the
+most mulish tongues in a marvellous manner."
+
+"It wouldn't hers," Shiel maintained.
+
+H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best--what lawyer doesn't?
+Moreover, it was all part of the game--the great game of becoming
+notorious at all costs. He served the subpoena.
+
+Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
+this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up
+with the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly
+what she thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however,
+the unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion,
+and confronted for the first time in her life with the startling
+proposition of "self-sacrifice." She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry
+him for the very simple reason he had no money--but that only added
+poignancy to the situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel
+loved Gladys Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another
+matter--but he loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had
+been so abruptly thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should
+sacrifice herself, not only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar,
+but to pave the way for Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile
+herself to penury, to marry her himself. In other words she had been
+called upon to give up what was, at the moment, dearest to her in the
+world, and to court all the inconveniences and worries of being thrown
+out of employment--for if she gave evidence that would in any way tend
+to damage the firm of Hamar, Curtis & Kelson, she would undoubtedly
+lose her post and, in all probability, never get another--at least not
+another as good--for the sake of a woman whom she did not know, but,
+nevertheless, hated.
+
+Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
+date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she
+would have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
+actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it,
+too, until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up
+her mind to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the
+subpoena was served.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CURTIS IN A NEW RÔLE
+
+
+In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would
+adopt.
+
+"What a disgusting thing to do," she indignantly exclaimed. "I
+wouldn't have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give
+evidence--of forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the
+woman he thinks he loves! I shan't do it!"
+
+And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
+witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
+appearance--she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women
+who had hitherto appeared in the witness-box--though many of them were
+so-called Society beauties.
+
+"You were wrong," was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
+eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. "She is on our side."
+
+But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
+lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
+assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
+misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
+favour of the trio.
+
+The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
+Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
+proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
+centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
+counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution.
+
+"Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
+the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
+yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
+and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
+medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
+their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
+Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
+along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
+intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
+efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
+lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
+to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
+this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
+that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
+assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
+trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
+as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them. But, of
+course you did not believe the statements of such witnesses. How could
+you? How could you expect anything but falsehood from women who, upon
+cross-examination, had owned that their object in obtaining the spells
+was a far more dangerous object than they had at first led you to
+suppose. They sought spells that would do evil, and that evil was not
+accomplished. Now, I ask you, if the Firm worked their spells through
+the instrumentality of evil spirits--for it is assuredly only evil
+spirits that are associated with Sorcery--would not the spells they
+sold naturally have brought about the sinister results for which they
+were required? Undoubtedly they would! And they failed to produce the
+desired effect, simply because their efficacy depended, not on spirit
+agency, but on human will power; which power one could only too
+plainly see the society ladies--who had witnessed for the
+prosecution--did not possess.
+
+"It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
+spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'--and
+so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.
+'The Sorcery Company' is an attractive title, a 'catchy' title, and
+for this reason, which is surely a legitimate one, since it is
+strictly in accordance with the prevailing custom of advertisement--the
+firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson adopted it. They did not expect--they
+were not so extraordinarily foolish as to expect--any one would take
+them literally. They thought--as you and I think--that sorcery cannot
+be taken seriously--that it is confined to fairy tales--and that, as a
+fairy tale, it is potent only in the nursery."
+
+This was the gist of counsel's speech for the defence. A number of
+witnesses then gave evidence for the defendants; and when the
+prosecuting counsel rose, it was only too evident that he was pleading
+for a lost cause. The Court with ill-concealed derision barely
+accorded him a hearing.
+
+Two hours later the _Meteor_, always the first in the field when
+sensations crop up, headed the first column of their front page with--
+
+    COLLAPSE OF THE SORCERY CASE
+    CRUSHING SPEECH BY GERALD KIRBY, K.C.
+    ACQUITTAL OF THE DEFENDANTS
+
+"The Judge"--so the _Meteor_ reported--"expressed himself in absolute
+agreement with the defending counsel. 'The action,' he said, 'ought
+never to have been brought--it was sublimely ridiculous to accuse any
+one of being in league with forces in the existence of which no sane
+person could possibly believe.'"
+
+Shiel was in despair. All chance of saving Gladys seemed to be fast
+disappearing. He telephoned to her, and was answered by Miss Templeton.
+
+"Gladys," she said, "had gone out with Hamar, who had motored down to
+the cottage the moment the trial was over and the verdict known."
+
+"I wish to God we had won the case," Shiel observed.
+
+"So do I," Miss Templeton replied, "and so did Gladys--she regards her
+position now as absolutely hopeless!"
+
+"Tell her not to lose heart," Shiel answered hurriedly. "If I can't
+find any other means, I'll--" but Miss Templeton rang off, and he
+spoke to the wind.
+
+Full of wrath against Lilian Rosenberg, he went round to see her, and
+met her, just as she was entering her house.
+
+"I've come to see you for the last time," he announced. "After the way
+you behaved in Court, we can no longer be friends."
+
+"I don't understand," she said in rather a faltering voice. "What have
+I done?"
+
+"Only perjured yourself," Shiel retorted. "The tale you told the judge
+was very different to the tale you told me, therefore it is impossible
+for us to continue our friendship. I could never have anything to do
+with a woman whose word I can't rely upon--whose character I scorn,
+whom I despise--and--" he was going to add, "detest," but checked
+himself, and unable to trust himself in her presence any longer, he
+gave her a glance of the utmost contempt, and wheeling round, walked
+quickly away.
+
+As in a dream, Lilian Rosenberg went upstairs to her room, and
+throwing herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow and
+indulged in a fit of crying. It was not the thought of losing Shiel
+that was so painful to her--she might have grown reconciled to
+that--it was the thought of losing his esteem. Most people would agree
+with her--would assure her she had done the right thing in looking
+after number one. "What, after all, is perjury?" she argued. "Nearly
+every one in this world perjure themselves at one time or
+another--certainly all women."
+
+But it was not the opinion of the majority she cared about--it was the
+respect of the one; the respect she had wilfully and spitefully
+sacrificed.
+
+Was it too late to recover it?
+
+With regard to Gladys she was very sceptical. The reluctance to accept
+Hamar as her future husband she still believed to be all pretence, and
+she felt convinced that Gladys, in her heart of hearts, was only too
+glad to get the chance of marrying any one so rich. This being so, she
+could not bring herself to think she had done Shiel any actual wrong.
+Gladys would never marry him. The only person she had harmed was
+herself. She had lied, and Shiel was not the sort of man to condone an
+offence of that sort easily. Still, weeping would do no good; it would
+only make her ugly. She got up, had tea, and went out. She could think
+better in the open air--it soothed her. For some reason or
+other--custom perhaps--she strolled towards Cockspur Street, and there
+ran into one of the few people she particularly wished to
+avoid--Kelson.
+
+He was delighted to see her.
+
+"It's nectar to me to be out again," he said. "Jerusalem!--it was
+awful in the Courts. Have supper with me."
+
+It was a fine starlight night--the air cool and refreshing, and a wild
+abandonment seized Lilian Rosenberg. She would have supped with the
+devil had he asked her.
+
+"I've nothing to lose now," she said to herself. "Nothing! I'll have
+my fling."
+
+"Where shall we go?" she asked. "It must be somewhere entertaining."
+
+"Why not to my rooms?" he said. "We can talk better there--we shall be
+all alone!"
+
+She raised no objection, and they were about to step into a taxi, when
+Hamar and Curtis suddenly put in appearance.
+
+"Matt!" Hamar cried, seizing his elbow. "I want a word with you."
+
+"Not now," Kelson protested, looking hungrily at Lilian.
+
+"Yes, now!" Hamar said. "At once! I shan't keep you more than five
+minutes"--and he dragged Kelson away with him.
+
+The moment they had gone, Curtis, who was obviously the worse for
+drink, addressed Lilian.
+
+"Kelson won't come back," he said. "Hamar is mad with him. He says if
+he ever sees you two together again he'll sack you. Let me take his
+place!"
+
+A sudden inspiration came to her. There were one or two things she
+badly wanted to know--and with a bit of coaxing, Curtis, in his
+present state, might tell her anything. She would try.
+
+"All right," she said. "I'll come."
+
+They got into the taxi and Curtis, as far as his fuddled senses would
+allow, made violent love to her.
+
+After supper--they had supper in his rooms--he grew a great deal more
+amorous. She let him sit close beside her, she let him put his arm
+round her waist; but before she let him kiss her, she struck her
+bargain.
+
+"No!" she said, thrusting him away. "Not just yet. That can come
+later--if you are good. I want you to tell me something first. About
+this marriage of Mr. Hamar and Miss Martin--is it likely to come off?"
+
+"Ish it likely!" Curtis said with a stupid leer. "Ish it likely! Not
+much. Leon means nothing! He only wants the fun of being engaged to a
+pretty girl--like I wantsh fun with you. Nothing more."
+
+"Then he'll throw her over after a while."
+
+"After he gets what he wantsh to get."
+
+"And suppose she prove different to what he expects?"
+
+"After he pashes stage seven--that will be all right!" Curtis said
+giving her waist an emphatic squeeze. "Everybody will be all right
+then. You and Matt--for exshample--and I and--and--whishky!"
+
+"Stage seven! What do you mean?"
+
+"Why don't--you know!" Curtis gurgled--and then a sudden gleam of
+intelligence coming into his watery eyes, he added. "Then I shan't
+tell you--nothing shall make me. It's a shecret!"
+
+"I won't kiss you till you do!" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll make you."
+
+"Oh, no, you won't," Lilian Rosenberg cried, disengaging herself from
+his grasp, and rising. "Don't you dare touch me. I'm going."
+
+Curtis watched her with a helpless grin. Then he suddenly cried out,
+"Come back! Come back, I shay!"
+
+"Well, will you do as I want?" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll do anything--anything to please you--if only you shtay with me."
+
+She sat down, and his arm once again encircled her.
+
+"Now," she said, pushing his face away. "Tell me!"
+
+Bit by bit she drew out of him the whole history of the compact with
+the Unknown, how in stage five, the stage they were about to enter,
+they would have fresh powers conferred upon them--their present power,
+_i.e._ of working spells and causing diseases, being then cancelled;
+how they would obtain supreme power over women when they reached the
+final stage--stage seven; and how the compact would be broken and
+their ruin brought about, should either of them marry, or should
+anything happen before this final stage was reached, to disunite them.
+
+Lilian could account for a great deal now. The uncanny feeling she had
+always experienced in the building; the curious enigmatical shadows
+she had seen hovering about the doorways and flitting down the
+passages; the extraordinary nature of the feats and spells; Hamar's
+mutterings and his fury, whenever Kelson spoke to her--were no longer
+wholly unintelligible. But she must know all. She must be most
+exacting.
+
+Finally, she got from Curtis everything there was to be got from him,
+and she laughed immoderately, when he excused himself on the grounds
+that it was all Leon's doings--Leon had told him to offer her a little
+compensation for the loss of her escort.
+
+"And you have compensated me more than enough," Lilian Rosenberg said.
+"Now you shall have your reward," and she kissed him--kissed him three
+times for luck.
+
+"But you're not going?" he said, staggering to his feet and attempting
+to hold her. "You're not going till the roshy morning sun shines
+shaucily in on us."
+
+"Oh, yes, I am," she said. "I've had quite enough of you! Good-bye!"
+
+And before he could prevent her, she had run to the front door and let
+herself out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+
+But now that Lilian Rosenberg was possessed of all this information
+respecting the trio, she was once again in doubt how to act, or
+whether to act at all. Supposing she were to attempt to warn Gladys
+Martin against Hamar, how would Gladys take the warning? Would she pay
+any attention to it? The odds were she would not; that having set her
+heart on marrying Hamar for his money, she would blind herself to his
+faults and resolutely shut her ears to anything said against him. Also
+there was the very great possibility of Gladys being rude to her--and
+even the thought of this was more than she could bear to contemplate.
+If only Shiel were reasonable! If only he could be made to see how
+utterly ridiculous it was for him to think of winning such a girl as
+Gladys--Gladys the pretty, dolly-faced, pampered actress, who had
+never known a single hardship, had always had a well-lined purse, and
+would never, never marry poverty! Then back to Lilian Rosenberg's mind
+came her parting with Shiel--she recalled his intense scorn and
+indignation. A liar! He did not wish to have anything to do with a
+liar! It's a good thing every man is not so fastidious, she said to
+herself bitterly, or the population of the world would soon fizz out.
+She laughed. He had never questioned her morals in any other
+sense--perhaps, in his innocence or assumed innocence, he had thought
+them spotless--at all events he had most graciously ignored them. But
+a liar! A liar--he could not put up with. And why! Because the lie had
+touched him on a sore point. When lies do not touch a sore point,
+they, too, are ignored.
+
+She walked to the Imperial and looked again at Gladys's photographs.
+How any man could fall madly in love with such a face, was more than
+she could conceive. It was a mincing, maudlin, finicking face--it
+irritated her intensely. She turned away from it in disgust, yet came
+back to have another look--and yet another. God knows why! It
+fascinated her. Finally she left it, fully resolved to let its odious
+original go to her fate--without a warning. Soon after her return to
+the Hall in Cockspur Street, she was sent for by Hamar.
+
+"Didn't I tell you," he said, "that you were on no account to
+encourage Mr. Kelson?"
+
+"You did!" Lilian Rosenberg replied.
+
+"Will you kindly explain, then," Hamar said, "why you have disobeyed
+my orders?"
+
+"How have I disobeyed them?" Lilian Rosenberg asked.
+
+"How!" Hamar retorted, his cheeks white with passion. "You dare to
+inquire how! Why, you were on the point of accompanying him to his
+rooms last night to supper, when I stopped you! I have overlooked your
+disobedience so many times that I can do so no longer. Your services
+will not be required by the Firm after to-day fortnight."
+
+"Won't they?" Lilian Rosenberg replied, her anger rising. "I think you
+are mistaken. I know a great deal too much to make it safe for you to
+part with me. I know--for instance--all about your Compact with the
+Unknown!"
+
+"You know nothing," Hamar said, his voice faltering.
+
+"Oh, yes, I do!" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "I know everything. I know
+how you first got in communication with the Unknown in San Francisco;
+I know how you receive fresh powers from the Unknown every three
+months (the old powers being cancelled). I know the penalty you will
+undergo should the Compact be broken--and--what is more--I know how
+the Compact can be broken."
+
+"How the deuce have you learned all this?" Hamar stammered.
+
+"Never you mind. Am I to remain in your service or leave?"
+
+"I think," Hamar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "it is better
+that you should remain--better for all parties. I owe you some little
+recompense for your loyalty to the Firm, and for the admirable way you
+spoke up for the Firm in Court. I will make you out a cheque for a
+hundred pounds now--and your salary shall be doubled at the end of
+this week. Promise to keep out of Mr. Kelson's way in future--for the
+next six months at any rate--after that time you may see him as often
+as you like--and I will give you as a wedding present a cheque for
+twenty thousand pounds!"
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds! You are joking!"
+
+"I'm not. I vow and declare I mean it. Is that a bargain?"
+
+"I will certainly think it well over," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let
+you know my decision later on."
+
+From what Curtis had told her she knew it was the last day of stage
+four, that the trio that evening would be initiated into stage
+five--the Stage of Cures, and a mad desire seized her to witness the
+initiation. But how would the Unknown manifest itself on this
+occasion--and to which of the trio? She could not keep a close watch
+on the three of them. If only she had been friends with Shiel, they
+might, in some way, have worked it together. Curtis had carefully
+avoided her since the supper; but she had seen Kelson, and he had
+looked at her each time he met her as if he yearned to fall down at
+her feet and worship her. Should she attach herself to him for the
+evening--and run the risk of another quarrel with Hamar? She dearly
+loved risks and dangers--and the danger she would encounter in defying
+Hamar appealed to her sporting nature. It was easy to secure
+Kelson--one glance from her eyes--and he would have followed her to
+Timbuctoo.
+
+"Charing Cross--under clock--after show to-night," she whispered as
+she flew hurriedly past him. "I want to speak to you."
+
+Now it so happened that Hamar had given Kelson orders to return to his
+rooms, directly the performance was over, and to remain in them till
+morning, in case he was wanted in connection with the initiation. But
+he might have spared himself the trouble. It was Lilian, and Lilian
+only, that Kelson now thought of--it was Lilian, and Lilian only, that
+he would obey. The idea of meeting her--of having her all to
+himself--of being able to do her a service--filled him with such
+uncontrollable delight, that he hardly knew how to comport himself so
+as not to arouse Hamar's suspicions. Directly the performance was over
+he sneaked out of the Hall, and pretending not to hear Hamar, who
+called after him, he jumped into a taxi, and was whirled away to the
+trysting-place. Lilian Rosenberg, who arrived a moment later, was
+dressed in a new costume, and Kelson thought her looking smarter and
+daintier than ever.
+
+"You shall kiss me at once," she said, "if you promise me one thing."
+
+"And what is that?" he asked, looking hungrily at her lips.
+
+"I want you to let me see the Unknown when it comes to you to-night,"
+she said.
+
+"Good God! What do you know about the Unknown!" he exclaimed, his jaws
+falling, and a look of terror creeping into his eyes.
+
+"A great deal," she laughed, "so much that I want to learn more"--and
+of what she knew she told him, just as much as she had told Hamar.
+"And now," she said, "I repeat my promise--you shall have a
+kiss--think of that--if only you will hide me somewhere so that I can
+see the Unknown or its emissary."
+
+"I would do anything for a kiss," Kelson said, "but I fear it is
+impossible to fulfil the condition, because I haven't the remotest
+idea where or when the Unknown will appear. Besides, it is just as
+likely to go to Hamar or Curtis as to come to me; and up to the
+present I haven't felt the remotest suggestion of its favouring me. Is
+this the only condition I can fulfil, so that you will let me kiss
+you?"
+
+"Certainly," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I am not in the habit of being
+kissed. Such an event can only happen in the most exceptional and
+privileged circumstances--such, for example, as exist at the present
+moment, when I ask you to put yourself to some considerable
+trouble--if not actually to incur danger--in order to accomplish what
+I wish."
+
+"And yet I remember kissing you unconditionally," Kelson commented.
+
+"Memory is a fickle thing," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and so is
+woman. Times have changed. I'll leave you at once, unless you promise
+to do your very utmost to grant my request."
+
+Kelson promised, and--after they had had supper at the Trocadero,
+suggested that they should take a stroll in Hyde Park.
+
+"I hope you are not awfully shocked?" he inquired rather anxiously,
+"but a sudden impulse has come over me to go there. I believe it is
+the will of the Unknown. Will you come with me?"
+
+"We shan't be able to get in, shall we, it's so late?" Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "Otherwise I should like to--I'm rather in a mood for
+adventure."
+
+"They don't shut the gates till twelve," Kelson said, "and it's not
+that yet."
+
+"Very well, let's go, then. I'm game to go anywhere to see the
+Unknown," and so saying Lilian rose from the table, and Kelson
+followed her into the street.
+
+They took a taxi, and alighting at Hyde Park Corner entered the Park.
+It was very dark and deserted.
+
+"It's nearly closing time," a policeman called out to them rather
+curtly.
+
+"We are only taking a constitutional," Kelson explained. "We shall be
+back in five minutes."
+
+They crossed the road to the statue, and were deliberating which
+direction to take, when they heard a groan.
+
+"It's only some poor devil of a tramp," Kelson said. "The benches are
+full of them--they stay here all night. We had better, perhaps, turn
+back."
+
+"Nonsense!" Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I'm not a bit afraid. There's
+another groan. I'm going to see what's up," and before he could stop
+her she had disappeared in the darkness. "Here I am," she called;
+"come, it's some one ill."
+
+Plunging on, in the darkness, Kelson at last found Lilian. She was
+sitting on a chair under a tree, by the side of a man, who was lying,
+curled up, on the ground.
+
+"He's had nothing to eat for two days, and has Bright's Disease,"
+Lilian Rosenberg announced. "Can't we do something for him?"
+
+"Two gentlemen told me just now," the man on the ground groaned, "that
+if I stayed here for a couple of hours--they would pass by again and
+guarantee to cure me. I reckoned there was no cure for Bright's
+Disease, when it is chronic, like it is in my case; but they laughed,
+and said, 'We can--or at least--shall be able to cure anything.'"
+
+"What were the two gentlemen like?" Kelson asked.
+
+"How could I tell?" the man moaned. "I couldn't see their faces any
+more than I can see yours--but they talked like you. Twang--twang--
+twang--all through their noses."
+
+"Sounds as if it might be Hamar and Curtis," Kelson remarked.
+
+"That's it!" the man ejaculated. "'Amar. I heard the other fellow call
+him by that name."
+
+"How long ago is it since they were here?" Kelson asked.
+
+"I can't say, perhaps ten minutes. I've lost count of time and
+everything else, since I've slept out here. They talked of going to
+the Serpentine."
+
+"We had better try and find them," Kelson said.
+
+"If you had the money couldn't you get shelter for the night," Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "It must be awful to lie out here in the cold, feeling
+ill and hungry."
+
+"I dare say some place would take me in," the man muttered, "only I
+couldn't walk--at least no distance."
+
+"Well! here's five shillings," Lilian Rosenberg said, "put it
+somewhere safe--and try and hobble to the gates. If they haven't
+closed them, you will be all right."
+
+"Five shillings!" the man gasped; "that's--it's no good--I can't
+count. I've no head now. Thank you, missy! God bless you. I'll get
+something hot--something to stifle the pain." He struggled on to his
+knees, and Lilian Rosenberg helped him to rise.
+
+"How could you be so foolish as to touch him," Kelson said, as they
+started off down a path, they hoped would take them to the Serpentine.
+"You may depend upon it, he was swarming with vermin--tramps always
+are."
+
+"Very probably, but I run just as much risk in a 'bus, the twopenny
+tube, or a cinematograph show. Besides, I can't see a human being
+helpless without offering help. Listen! there's some one else
+groaning! The Park is full of groans."
+
+What she said was true--the Park was full of groans. From every
+direction, borne to them by the gently rustling wind, came the groans
+of countless suffering outcasts--legions of homeless, starving men
+and women. Some lay right out in the open on their backs, others
+under cover of the trees, others again on the seats. They lay
+everywhere--these shattered, tattered, battered wrecks of
+humanity--these gangrened exiles from society, to whom no one ever
+spoke; whom no one ever looked at; whom no one would even own that
+they had seen; whose lot in life not even a stray cat envied. Here
+were two of them--a man and a woman tightly hugged in each other's
+embrace--not for love--but for warmth. Lilian Rosenberg almost fell
+over them, but they took no notice of her. Every now and then, one of
+them would emerge from the shelter of the trees, and cross the grass
+in the direction of the distant, gleaming water, with silent, stealthy
+tread. Once a tall, gaunt figure, suddenly sprang up and confronted
+the two adventurers; but the moment Kelson raised his stick, it
+jabbered something wholly unintelligible, and sped away into the
+darkness.
+
+"A scene like this makes one doubt the existence of a good God,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"It makes one doubt the existence of anything but Hell," Kelson said.
+"Compared with all this suffering--the suffering of these thousands of
+hungry, hopeless wretches--the bulk of whom are doubtless tortured
+incessantly, with the pains of cancer and tuberculosis, to say nothing
+of neuralgia and rheumatism--Dante's Inferno and Virgil's Hades pale
+into insignificance. The devil is kind compared with God."
+
+"I believe you are right," Lilian Rosenberg said, "I never thought the
+devil was half as bad as he was painted. The Park to-night gives the
+lie direct to the ethics of all religions, and to the boasted efforts
+of all governments, churches, chapels, hospitals, police, progress and
+civilization. There is no misery, I am sure, to vie with it in any
+pagan land, either now or at any other period in the world's history."
+
+"True," Kelson replied, "and why is it? It is because civilization has
+killed charity. Giving--in its true sense--if it exists at all--is
+rarely to be met with--giving in exchange--that is, in order to
+gain--flourishes everywhere. People will subscribe for the erection of
+monuments to kings and statesmen, or to well-known and, often,
+richly-endowed charitable institutes, in exchange for the pleasure of
+seeing, in the newspapers, a list of the subscribers' names, and
+themselves included amongst those whom they consider a peg above them
+socially; or in exchange for votes, or notoriety, they will give
+liberally to the brutal strikers, or outings for poor."
+
+"I suppose, by the poor, you mean the pampered, ill-mannered and
+detestably conceited County Council children," Lilian Rosenberg chimed
+in. "I wouldn't give a farthing to such a miscalled charity, no--not
+if I were rolling in riches."
+
+"And I think you would be right," Kelson replied. "But for these
+really poor Park refugees it is a different matter. Obviously, no one
+will make the slightest effort to work up the public interest on their
+behalf, simply because they are labelled 'useless.' They belong
+nowhere--they have no votes--they are too feeble to combine--they are
+even too feeble to commit an atrocious murder; consequently, for the
+help they would receive, they could give nothing in return. By the
+bye, I doubt if they could muster between them a pair of suspenders--a
+bootlace--a shirt-button, or even a--"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg caught him by the arm. "Stop," she said, "that's
+enough. Don't get too graphic. What's the matter with that tree?"
+
+They were now close beside the banks of the Serpentine; the moon had
+broken through its covering of black clouds, and they perceived some
+twenty yards ahead of them, a tall, isolated lime, that was rocking in
+a most peculiar manner.
+
+[Illustration: THEY GAZED FASCINATED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+
+Though the wind was nothing more than the usual night breeze of early
+autumn, the lime-tree was swaying violently to and fro, as if under
+the influence of a stupendous hurricane. Lilian Rosenberg and Kelson
+were so fascinated that they stood and watched it in silence. At last
+it left off swaying and became absolutely motionless. They then
+noticed, for the first time, that there were three figures standing
+under its branches, and that one of the figures was a policeman.
+
+"Hide quickly," Kelson whispered, "those two are Hamar and Curtis.
+Quick, for God's sake--or they will see you."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg hid behind an elm.
+
+"Hulloa!" Kelson called out, advancing to the group.
+
+"Why it's you, Matt!" Curtis cried. "Hamar said you would come!"
+
+"Said I would come! How the deuce did he know?" Kelson exclaimed. "I
+didn't know myself till the moment before I started."
+
+"I willed you," Hamar explained; "as soon as I got back to my rooms
+after the Show, a voice said in my ears--I heard it distinctly--'Be at
+the Serpentine--the south bank--underneath a lime-tree--you will know
+which--at twelve to-night.' I looked round--there was no one there.
+Naturally, concluding this was a message from the Unknown I hastened
+off to Curtis, who was in his digs--and needless to say--eating, and
+having dragged him away with me in a diabolical temper--I then sought
+you. Where were you?"
+
+"Taking a walk. I felt I needed it."
+
+"Alone! Are you sure you weren't out with some girl."
+
+"I swear it."
+
+"It seems as if I'm not the only liar!" Lilian Rosenberg said to
+herself in her place of concealment. "What would Shiel say to that?"
+
+"Humph! I don't know if I ought to believe you," Hamar remarked. "Did
+you feel me willing you to come here?"
+
+"Rather!" Kelson said. "That is why I came. I seemed to hear your
+voice say 'To Hyde Park--to Hyde Park--the Serpentine--the
+Serpentine.'" Then sinking his voice he whispered, "What's up with the
+policeman, he looks deuced queer?"
+
+"He's in a trance. We found him like this," Hamar said. "He is
+undoubtedly under the control of the Unknown. I expect it to speak
+through him every moment. Get ready to take down all he says. I've
+come prepared," and he handed Kelson and Curtis, each, a pencil and a
+reporter's notebook.
+
+He had hardly done so, when the policeman--a burly man well over six
+feet in height, who was standing bolt upright as if at "attention," his
+limbs absolutely rigid, his eyes wide open and expressionless--began
+to speak in a soft, lisping voice that the trio at once identified
+with the voice of the Unknown--the voice of the tree on that eventful
+night in San Francisco.
+
+"The great secret of medicine--the secret of healing--will now be
+revealed to you," the voice said. "Pay heed. In cases of tumours and
+ulcers take a young seringa, lay it for half an hour over the stomach
+of the afflicted person, then plant it with the mumia, _i.e._ either
+the hair, blood, or spittle of the sick person, at midnight. As soon
+as the seringa begins to rot, the ulcer will heal.
+
+"In phthisis pulmonalis, the mumia of the sick person should be
+planted with a cutting of the catalpa, after the latter has been
+subjected for some minutes to the breath of the diseased person. As
+soon as the cutting shows signs of decay, the sick person will be
+cured.
+
+"In diabetes, plant the mumia of the patient with a bignonia, and as
+soon as the latter begins to rot, the diabetes will go.
+
+"In appendicitis, cover the stomach of the sick person with a piece of
+raw beef, until the sweat enters it. Then give the meat to a cat, and
+as soon as the latter has eaten it, the patient will recover."
+
+"What becomes of the cat?" Kelson asked.
+
+"The appendicitis is transferred to it," the voice explained. "It
+should be killed at once.
+
+"In cancer take the sea wrack Torrek Mendrek--a weed of deep mauve
+colour streaked with white. It must be boiled for three hours in clear
+spring water (3 ozs. of wrack to half a pint of water), and then let
+to cool. When quite cold, a dessert-spoon of it should be taken by the
+sufferer every four hours--and at the end of two days the disease will
+have completely disappeared. The wrack is to be found at the twenty
+fathom level, six miles west-south-west of the Scilly Isles.
+
+"In Bright's disease, the mumia of the afflicted should be planted at
+1 a.m., with a cutting of sassafras, after the latter has been slept
+on, for one whole night, by the sufferer. As soon as the sassafras
+begins to rot, the patient will be cured.
+
+"In dropsy, place a hare, that has been strangled, over the diseased
+portion of the body, and let it remain there for one hour. Then bury
+the hare, together with the mumia of the sick person, and as soon as
+the hare begins to decay, the patient will recover.
+
+"In jaundice and liver diseases (apart from sarcoma), plant the mumia
+of the afflicted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of black walnut, and as
+soon as the latter begins to decay, the sufferer will get well.
+
+"In all skin diseases, the mumia of the patient must be planted, at
+midnight, with a cutting of hickory, and when the latter begins to rot
+the disease disappears.
+
+"In all fevers, the mumia must be planted, at 3 a.m., with laurel
+cuttings, after the latter have been placed under the bed of the
+patient for one night. As soon as the cuttings show signs of rotting,
+the fever abates.
+
+"In acute inflammations, diseases of the heart, rheumatism, and
+lumbago, the mumia must be buried, at midnight, with a raven that has
+been drowned, and placed on a chair by the left side of the patient
+for one night. As soon as the raven begins to rot, the patient will be
+fully restored to health.
+
+"In cases of insanity, hysteria, and nervous diseases the mumia of the
+sufferer must be planted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of white poplar,
+and as soon as the latter shows evidences of decay, the afflicted will
+get well.
+
+"In cases of hypochondria, and melancholia, the mumia of the sufferer
+must be planted, at 4 a.m., with a crocus, and as soon as the latter
+begins to rot, the disease will depart.
+
+"In every case it will be necessary to prelude the performance with
+the following invocation--
+
+"'Oh most powerful and prescient Unknown, before whom the greatest of
+the Atlanteans prostrate themselves. That was in the Beginning, that
+is now and always will be. I conjure thee by the magic symbols of the
+club-foot, the hand with the fingers clenched, and the bat, in this
+the magical year of Kefana, to extend to me thy wonderful powers of
+healing. Rena Vadoola Hipsano Eik Deoo Barrinaz.'"
+
+The lisping voice ceased, and, with a convulsive start, the policeman
+came to himself.
+
+"Hulloa!" he said, in his natural gruff tones, rubbing his eyes. "I
+must have 'dropped off.' Who are you? What are you doing in the Park
+at this time of night?"
+
+"We've been watching you!" Hamar said. "It is a bit of a phenomenon to
+see a London bobby asleep on his beat."
+
+"And to hear him talking in his sleep too," Curtis added.
+
+"I didn't know I was talking," the policeman muttered. "It all comes
+of being too many hours on duty. What have you got those note-books
+out for? Not been taking down anything about me, have you?"
+
+"Show us out of the Park and you'll hear no more about it," Hamar
+said.
+
+"And we'll give you half a sovereign into the bargain," Kelson chimed
+in.
+
+"Follow me then," the policeman said. "I'll take you to one of the
+side entrances."
+
+"Matt!" Hamar exclaimed as they passed the tree behind which Lilian
+Rosenberg was hiding, "I smell scent--and what is more I recognize it.
+It is Violette de mer--the scent that--Rosenberg uses! You were with
+her this evening!"
+
+"I swear I wasn't!" Kelson replied. "I bought some scent in Regent
+Street this afternoon."
+
+"Humph," Hamar grunted. "I have my doubts."
+
+They walked on in silence till they came to a small iron gate, where
+the policemen left them, whilst he went to the lodge for the keys; and
+all the while Kelson was in terror, lest Hamar should catch sight of
+Lilian Rosenberg, who had kept close behind them, and was now
+standing, but a few yards away, trying to conceal her identity and
+escape notice.
+
+But the policeman on his return with the keys called out to her, and
+Kelson, fearing that she might be either taken in charge for loitering
+there, in apparently suspicious circumstances, or made to remain in
+the Park all night--neither of which contingencies he could possibly
+permit--at once came forward, and explained that she was a friend of
+his.
+
+The policeman was satisfied. The sight of another half-sovereign had
+rendered him more than polite, and, without saying a word, he let them
+all out together.
+
+The moment they were in the street, Hamar turned on Kelson, white with
+passion.
+
+"So," he said, "I was right after all--liar! fool! You would risk all
+our lives for a few hours' flirtation with this silly girl."
+
+"If it's only flirtation, Leon, what does it matter?" Curtis
+interposed. "For goodness' sake shut up wrangling and let's get home.
+I'm starving."
+
+"I shall have something to say to you to-morrow morning," Hamar
+remarked, in an undertone, to Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+"And I to you," was the furious reply. "I shall not forget the
+disrespectful way in which you have just spoken of me, in alluding to
+the scent."
+
+She signalled to a taxi, and giving Kelson a friendly good-night,
+jumped into it and was speedily whirled away.
+
+On the whole, the evening had been a disappointment. She had wanted to
+see the Unknown--the awful thing that had inspired Kelson and his
+colleagues with such unmitigated horror--and instead she had seen only
+an obsessed policeman--a cataleptic "copper"--who, had he not spoken
+in a strangely uncanny voice, would certainly have seemed to her
+absolutely ordinary.
+
+With regard to Hamar's displeasure, she was not in the slightest
+degree disturbed. He would never dare say anything to her. And after
+all that had occurred he would never venture to "sack her." All the
+same she hated him. There was just sufficient in her conduct to make
+the name he had called her by applicable--therefore her bitterest
+wrath and indignation were aroused against him. He had behaved
+unpardonably. She could kill him for it.
+
+"I'll just show him," she said to herself, "what that uncivil tongue
+of his can do. He shall see that it can do him infinitely more harm
+than all Kelson's love-making. For one thing I'll spoil his chances
+with Gladys Martin; and--I wonder if I could make use of what I know
+about him, as a means of getting friendly again with Shiel. At all
+events I'll try."
+
+With this object in view she went round to Shiel's lodgings, and was
+informed by the landlady that Shiel was ill.
+
+"Nothing serious I hope?" she asked.
+
+"It has been," the landlady replied, "but he is better now. It all
+came through his not taking proper care of himself."
+
+"May I see him, do you think?" Lilian Rosenberg inquired.
+
+"I don't know," the landlady grumbled. "He's in a very touchy mood--no
+one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
+your trying," she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in
+Lilian Rosenberg's fingers.
+
+She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered.
+Shiel was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had
+very considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some
+resentment, he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation
+for his health. She put his room straight and dusted the furniture,
+got tea for him, and when she had completely won him over by these
+kindly actions, and made him beg her pardon for ever having spoken
+harshly to her, she broached the subject all the while uppermost in
+her mind--the subject of Hamar and Gladys.
+
+"He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her," she said. "All he
+wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
+the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He
+is tremendously taken with her of course--her physical beauty, which
+he had the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he
+had seen, appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't
+give in to him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time."
+
+"I don't understand you," Shiel said feebly; "why in six months'
+time?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.
+
+"So you see," she added, "that if the final stage is reached no woman
+will be safe--the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
+mercy."
+
+"How inconceivably awful!" Shiel exclaimed. "Surely there is some way
+of stopping them."
+
+"There is only one way," Lilian said slowly, "the union between the
+three must be broken--they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership."
+
+"You may be sure they will take good care not to do that."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Matthew Kelson is very
+fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked."
+
+"Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
+Hamar!" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"I might!"
+
+"And you will--you will save Gladys Martin after all!"
+
+Lilian did not reply at once.
+
+"Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty," she
+said, evasively, "poverty like this!" and she glanced round the room.
+
+"I won't ask her to!" Shiel exclaimed. "Whilst I have been lying in
+bed, ill, I have thought of many things--and have come to the
+conclusion I have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult
+for me to earn enough to keep one person in comfort--and I've lost all
+hope of ever earning enough to keep two."
+
+"Well, if you don't ask her," Lilian Rosenberg said, "there's one
+thing, she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out
+of it. If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit--a girl that
+would be a real 'pal' to you--a girl that would help you to win fame!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+
+Had Lilian Rosenberg been able to see the effect of her conversation
+upon Shiel after she had left him, she would have been disappointed.
+He had, prior to this interview with Lilian Rosenberg, as he told her,
+made up his mind to abandon all idea of marrying Gladys Martin; and
+there is a possibility that had her name not been mentioned, had she
+not been recalled so vividly to his mind, he would have adhered to
+that resolution--at all events so long as he refrained from seeing
+her. But such is human nature--or at least man's nature--that directly
+Lilian Rosenberg had left him, Shiel's love for Gladys burst out with
+such wild, invigorated force that it swept reason and everything else
+before it. Gladys! He could think of nothing else! Every detail in her
+appearance, every word she had spoken, came back to him with
+exaggerated intensity. Her beauty was sublime. There was no one like
+her, no one that could inspire him with such a sense of ideality, no
+one that could lead him on to such dizzy heights of greatness. It was
+all nonsense to say, as Lilian Rosenberg had said, there were just as
+many good fish in the sea as had ever come out of it--there was only
+one Gladys. Hamar should never marry her--he would marry her himself.
+She must be told at once of Hamar's infamous designs. A mad desire to
+see her came over him, and disregardful of the doctor's orders that he
+should remain in bed several more days, he got up, and dressing as
+fast as his weak condition would allow him, took a taxi and drove to
+Waterloo.
+
+On reaching the Cottage, at Kew, he found Gladys at home, and to his
+great joy, alone.
+
+There is nothing that appeals to a woman more than a sick man, and
+Shiel, in coming to Gladys in his present condition, had unwittingly
+played a trump card. Had he appeared well and strong she would
+probably have received him none too cordially--for she was very tired
+of men just then; but the moment her eyes alighted on his thin cheeks
+and she saw the dark rings under his eyes, pity conquered. This man at
+least was not to blame--he was not of the same pattern as other men,
+he was not like so many men whose adulations had grown fulsome to her,
+and--he was totally unlike Hamar.
+
+In very sympathetic tones she inquired how he was, and on learning
+that he had been sufficiently ill to be kept in bed, asked why he had
+not told her.
+
+"Aunty and I would have called to see you," she said, "and brought you
+jelly and other nice things. Who waited on you, had you no nurse?"
+
+Fearful lest he should give her the impression he was speaking for
+effect, or trying to trade on her feelings (Shiel was one of those
+people who are painfully exact), he told her as simply as he could
+just how he had been placed.
+
+"But why come here," Gladys demanded, "when you were told to stay in
+bed till the end of the week. It is frightfully risky."
+
+Shiel then explained to her the purport of his visit.
+
+"Then it was to warn me, to put me on my guard against Hamar, that you
+disobeyed the doctor's orders," she said.
+
+Shiel nodded. "You are not displeased, are you?" he asked nervously.
+
+"I am displeased with you for thinking so little of yourself," Gladys
+said, "and more than obliged to you for thinking so much of me. You
+know I only consented to marry Mr. Hamar to save my father--and you
+say he no longer has the power to work spells?"
+
+"I believe that to be a fact," Shiel replied.
+
+"Then he lied to me!" Gladys observed. "He threatened that unless I
+saw him as often as he wished, and went with him wherever he wanted,
+and a good many more things, he would inflict my father with every
+conceivable disease. You are quite sure your information is correct?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Then, thank God!" Gladys said with a great sigh of relief. "I shall
+know how to act now."
+
+"You will break off your engagement?" Shiel inquired eagerly.
+
+"No! I can't do that!" Gladys said sadly. "I've promised to marry Mr.
+Hamar, and, therefore, marry him I must."
+
+"Promises made under such conditions are mere extortions, they don't
+count."
+
+"I fear they do," Gladys replied. "I've never yet broken my word."
+
+"Then there's no hope for me," Shiel gasped. "I must go--it maddens me
+to see you the affianced bride of that devil."
+
+He rose to go, but had hardly gained his feet, when his strength
+utterly failed and he collapsed. Gladys helped him into a chair, and
+then flew for some brandy. In the hall, she met her aunt, who had just
+returned from an afternoon call. In a few words she explained what had
+happened.
+
+"Poor young man," Miss Templeton said. "I thought he looked very ill
+the last time I saw him. And he came here solely to benefit you! Well,
+you have a good deal to answer for, and your face is not only your own
+misfortune, but other people's too. But it will never do for your
+father to see Mr. Davenport. He went off in a very bad temper this
+morning, and if he comes back and finds him here, there'll be a
+scene."
+
+Miss Templeton and Gladys consulted together for some minutes, and
+then decided to send for a taxi and have Shiel conveyed back to his
+rooms, Miss Templeton accompanying him.
+
+Miss Templeton knew that Shiel was poor, but like most people who have
+lived in comfortable surroundings all their lives, she had no idea of
+what poverty was like--the poverty of a seven-and-sixpenny a week room
+in a back street; and when she saw it she nearly swooned.
+
+"Why this is a slum!" she ejaculated as the taxi stopped next door to
+a fried fish shop in a narrow street swarming with children sucking
+bread and jam, and rolling each other over in the gutters.
+
+"I don't wonder the man is ill here!" she said to herself, as the door
+of the house they stopped at opened and she snuffed the atmosphere.
+"The place reeks--and--oh! gracious! is this the landlady?"
+
+Yet the woman was ordinary enough--the type of landlady one sees in
+all back streets--greasy face, straggling hair, dirty blouse, black
+hands, bitten fingernails, short skirts, prodigious feet, a grubby
+child clinging on to her dress and every indication of the speedy
+arrival of another.
+
+"I suppose you're 'is mother hain't you, mum?" she said, gaping at
+Miss Templeton's rather fashionable clothes in open-mouthed wonder. "I
+told 'im 'ee ought not to go out, but 'ee never 'eeds what I says."
+
+Miss Templeton, though not particularly flattered at being taken for
+Shiel's mother--since, like most ladies of mature age, she wished to
+be regarded as much younger--nevertheless, thought it better not to
+disillusion the woman. The poor, she told herself, often have very
+decided views on propriety. With the woman's aid she got Shiel
+upstairs, and, as he was too feeble to undress himself, despite his
+protestations, helped to disrobe him. She had thought, when she first
+saw the slum, of returning to Kew at once, but she did no such thing.
+She stayed with Shiel; persuaded the landlady to make him some gruel
+(which proved to be a sorry mess, but had at least the advantage of
+being hot), and bribed one of the children to fetch the doctor. Shiel
+nearly died. Had it not been for the careful nursing and good food
+provided by Miss Templeton, who visited him every day, he would never
+have turned the corner.
+
+"The poor boy is terribly fond of you," Miss Templeton said to Gladys.
+"In his delirium he talked of nothing but saving you from Leon
+Hamar--from that devil Leon Hamar--and if one can place any reliance
+at all, on the ravings of a sick man, a devil, Leon Hamar undoubtedly
+is. What a pity it is Shiel hasn't money."
+
+These remarks were naturally not without effect on Gladys, and she
+could not help growing more and more interested in the man, whose love
+for her had proved so deep-rooted and ideal, that he had practically
+sacrificed his life, in an attempt to serve her. Finally, she found
+herself awaiting her aunt's daily report of his illness with an
+anxiety that was almost acute.
+
+In the meanwhile, John Martin came home one evening in a rare state of
+excitement.
+
+"What do you think!" he exclaimed, throwing a bundle of letters on the
+table, "one of Dick's speculations has turned out trumps, after all.
+He had invested several thousands of pounds--in Shiel's name--in
+enamel-ivorine, the new stuff for stopping teeth, which looks exactly
+like part of the teeth. I remember I thought it an absurd venture at
+the time, but for once in a way I was wrong--"
+
+"Ahem!" interrupted Gladys.
+
+"There has been a sudden boom in the patent, every dentist is using
+it, and, as a consequence, the shares have risen enormously. I've
+heard from Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand
+pounds!"
+
+"Good heavens!" Miss Templeton ejaculated, "and Gladys has bound
+herself to Hamar! I suppose," she said afterwards, when John Martin
+and she were alone together, "that you would not have any objection to
+Shiel now, if Gladys were free to marry him."
+
+"Certainly not!" John Martin said, "certainly not, I always liked
+Shiel. A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one
+usually meets nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!"
+
+"You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?"
+
+"None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an
+impossibility. Gladys is stubbornness itself--when once she has made
+up her mind to do a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do
+it."
+
+"Wait," Miss Templeton said, "wait and see. I think I can see a
+possible way out of it."
+
+She had learned much from Shiel in his "wanderings." He had constantly
+alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson--and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
+compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact--namely
+through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
+the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
+greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg--and it was from these
+statements that she finally received an inspiration.
+
+Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel--it had always been her custom to
+read between the lines. "Now," she argued, "if Kelson were so easily
+influenced by Lilian Rosenberg, who was young and attractive, it was
+almost a _sine quâ non_ that he was in love with her," and as marriage
+was one of the eventualities strictly forbidden to the trio in the
+compact--"they must neither quarrel nor marry," Shiel had
+exclaimed--here was their chance. Kelson must marry Lilian Rosenberg,
+and by so doing, break the compact and overwhelm the trio in some
+sudden and dire catastrophe. But the marriage must take place within
+six months' time. How could that be arranged? Could Lilian Rosenberg
+be bribed or persuaded into it? for of course Miss Templeton being a
+woman--albeit an old maid--had at once divined that Lilian Rosenberg
+was in love with Shiel--that she did not care a straw for Kelson, and
+that to marry the latter she would need some very strong inducement.
+And the only inducement she could think of was Lilian's genuine love
+for Shiel.
+
+"Yes, it is upon this one weakness of Lilian's that I must work," she
+said to herself. "It is the only way I can see of saving Gladys."
+
+Resolved at any rate to experiment upon these lines, she lost no time
+in seeking out Lilian Rosenberg, who received her very coldly and was
+distinctly rude.
+
+"What have my affairs to do with you? Who sent you here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Humanity!" Miss Templeton replied. "I have come entirely of my own
+accord to plead the cause of one who is seriously ill--possibly
+dying!"
+
+"Seriously ill!--possibly dying!" Lilian Rosenberg said incredulously,
+nevertheless, turning pale. "Mr. Davenport is surely not as bad as all
+that!"
+
+"When did you see him last?" Miss Templeton asked.
+
+"A fortnight ago," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I have been inundated
+with work the past two weeks."
+
+"Then you've not heard that he's had a relapse," Miss Templeton said,
+"and is now in a most critical condition! He has something on his
+mind, and the doctor assures me that whilst he is still worrying over
+that something, there is no chance of his recovery."
+
+"Do you know what it is--the something?" Lilian Rosenberg asked, the
+white on her cheeks intensifying.
+
+"Yes!" Miss Templeton said slowly, and trying to appear calm. "He is
+very worried about Miss Martin's engagement to Mr. Hamar."
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because he knows all about Mr. Hamar--and the compact."
+
+"He has told you?"
+
+"I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium."
+
+"Has he been as ill as that?"
+
+"Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day
+before yesterday."
+
+For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, "Can
+you believe what a man says in delirium?"
+
+"In this instance I feel sure you can," Miss Templeton replied.
+
+"Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
+Davenport?"
+
+Miss Templeton thought for a moment. "Because," she said at last, "he
+is in love with her."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?" and she
+snapped her fingers.
+
+"I think she may care for him a very great deal some day--she has
+begun to care for him already!"
+
+"But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
+Davenport. He is practically starving."
+
+"He was--but he's not now. He's come into money." And she explained
+about the fifty thousand pounds.
+
+"I see!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, "that accounts
+for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some
+one who had been fond of him all along--in the days when he hadn't a
+halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!"
+
+"I should feel very sorry for that person," Miss Templeton said, "but
+setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness--it would be wrong for
+him to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere."
+
+"Which you say it is."
+
+"Which I am sure it is!"
+
+"Well, supposing it is--what does it concern me? Why tell me all
+this?"
+
+"Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
+about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened."
+
+"I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
+can accomplish all this?"
+
+"But I do," Miss Templeton said, briskly. "I believe I am right in
+saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you--that you can make him do pretty
+well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on
+to propose and insist on his marrying you at once--or at all events
+before the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the
+Compact will be broken!"
+
+"That may be," Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, "but where, pray, should I
+come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?"
+
+"Why!" Miss Templeton replied, slowly, "why, because by marrying a man
+you don't care a snap for, you would save the life of a man--I am
+quite sure, you care a very great deal for."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE END AND "THE BEYOND"
+
+
+It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.
+
+"It's extraordinary," she said to herself, "how fond I am of Shiel. I
+used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of
+anyone.... The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with
+him, to give him up to that soft little cat--Gladys Martin! If it
+weren't for this illness--if I could only persuade myself that he
+isn't as ill as Miss Whatever-her-name-is--said, I shouldn't think
+twice--I should let things be--but as I feel sure he is really
+ill--dangerously ill--and the only chance of his recovery lies in the
+possibility of his marrying Martin--I must deliberate. Shall I or
+shall I not? If it were any other woman I shouldn't so much
+mind--but--Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is one hope,
+however, namely--that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
+her--and--and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would
+be! But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because--because--well there--just
+like my infernal luck--I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even
+if there were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could.
+But what is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
+Martin--and--I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to
+settle is--Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can
+marry Shiel?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
+and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another.
+In the end--very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she
+had ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have
+tea with her.
+
+Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large
+mushroom hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that
+face belonged to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had
+a colossal weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.
+
+"Have tea with you? Of course I will," he said. "But we must be
+careful. Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow
+in a taxi, and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance."
+
+"I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever," Lilian Rosenberg
+laughed. "I'm not! I've found him out--he's all talk. But do as you
+will--get your taxi and I'll walk on--we'll have tea in my new flat."
+
+Kelson was so delighted he hardly knew if he stood on his head or his
+heels. "You are prettier than ever," he said, as the taxi-door shut
+and they sped away. "I declare there seems no limit to your beauty."
+
+"Only because you're partial," she said. "I shall grow ugly one day.
+Perhaps--soon." With a savage energy, she set to work to completely
+overcome him. With a languishing expression in her eyes--eyes, which
+she made use of mercilessly, without giving him a moment's
+respite--she watched his whole being vibrate with love and adoration.
+
+They had hardly entered the drawing-room of her flat when he threw
+himself at her feet, and poured forth his worship of her in the most
+extravagant phrases.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Kelson," she said at length, withdrawing the hand it
+seemed as if he would never leave off kissing, "this is all very well;
+but I daresay you make love to countless other girls in this same
+fashion. How can I tell if you are really serious?"
+
+"Don't I look as if I am?" he cried.
+
+"One can never judge correctly by looks," she replied; "they are
+terribly deceptive. You are very emphatic in your avowals of love, but
+you say nothing about marriage."
+
+"Then you do care for me! Jerusalem! How happy I should be if only I
+thought that!"
+
+"Think it, then," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let us come to an
+understanding. Can you afford to keep a wife--keep her, as I should
+expect to be kept--plenty of new dresses, jewelry, theatres, balls,
+motors, Ascot, Henley, Cowes?"
+
+"I reckon I could do all that," Kelson replied. "I've just over a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank, and with this 'cure'
+business, I'm taking on an average ten thousand per week. I would
+settle a hundred thousand on you, and make you a handsome allowance--a
+thousand a week--more if you wanted it."
+
+"Well!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a slight pause, during which
+Kelson had again seized her hand and was kissing it convulsively, "to
+quote one of your Americanisms--I reckon I'll fix up with you. On one
+condition, however."
+
+"And that," Kelson murmured, still kissing her feverishly.
+
+"That we marry a week to-day!"
+
+Kelson dropped her hand as if he had been shot. "We can't!" he cried.
+"The Compact!"
+
+"Oh, damn the Compact!" Lilian Rosenberg said coolly. "You marry me
+then--or not at all!"
+
+"You are joking--you know what the Compact means!"
+
+"I know what you think it means. For my own part I don't see that you
+have the slightest reason to fear. The Unknown cannot really harm you.
+All you have to do is to turn religious. Anyhow you must risk it--that
+is to say, if you want me."
+
+"It will lead to a quarrel with Hamar," Kelson said desperately. "The
+Firm will dissolve--and I shan't get a cent more money."
+
+"I'll be content with what you have in the bank now. We can live on
+the interest of fifty thousand. The hundred thousand you will, of
+course, settle on me at once."
+
+He was silent. She taunted him, she ridiculed him; she at last lost
+her temper with him--whereupon he succumbed. The marriage should take
+place at a registry office within the week.
+
+"There'll be no time for a trousseau!" he said.
+
+"Oh, hang the trousseau!" she said. "I shall have the hundred thousand
+pounds. And now for a word of advice. Be sure that you do not let
+Hamar get any inkling of our approaching marriage, and be most careful
+to avoid doing anything that might arouse his suspicions. It isn't
+that I'm afraid of him--but I don't want rows--I'm sick to death of
+them!"
+
+"You can rely on me to be careful, darling!" Kelson said, kissing her
+on the lips. "I'll be discretion itself," and so he meant to be. All
+the same--as is the case with every lover--every lover worthy of the
+name of lover--who loves with all the full, ripe vigour of genuine
+passion, his heart played havoc with his head; and he was blind to
+everything save visions of his beloved. In other circumstances this
+would not have mattered very much, but with Hamar's lynx eyes
+continually watching him, it was certain to lead to disaster.
+
+"Ed!" Hamar said to Curtis one day. "Matt's been getting into
+mischief. I know the symptoms well. He can't look me in the face, and
+every now and then, when he fancies my attention is attracted
+elsewhere, I catch him peeping furtively at me as if he were
+frightened out of his life I should ferret out some secret. It would
+be deplorable if now that we have got so near the end of the Compact,
+we should be held up by some idiotic blunder--some nonsensical love
+affair of his. I wonder whether it's Rosenberg or some other girl.
+Will you find out?"
+
+"How can I?" Curtis growled. "I'm not his keeper."
+
+"I know that!" Hamar said. "Come be reasonable. You want to be a
+Croesus--so that you can eat and drink your head off--don't you!
+Well! You will! You will be one of the three wealthiest men in the
+world--you will have the world at your feet, if only you stick to me
+for the next seven months: till we have passed the seventh stage. If
+you don't--if either you or Matt deliberately quarrel with me, or
+marry--then, as I've dinned into your ears a thousand times, the
+Compact will be broken, and--not only that, but some frightful
+catastrophe will wipe us off. Now will you do what I ask? Come--a
+dinner with me every night this week, at the Piccadilly--champagne--and
+no vegetables!"
+
+"All right," Curtis said sulkily, "for the good of the cause I suppose
+I must, but I hate spying."
+
+Two nights later in a private room at the Piccadilly, after dinner,
+when the champagne and liqueurs had got into Curtis's head and he was
+leaning back in his chair, smiling and silly, Hamar suddenly said,
+"Ed! you remember what I told you--about watching Kelson. Have you
+discovered anything?"
+
+"Shupposing I have," Curtis replied, "shupposing I haven't--whatch
+then?"
+
+"Ah, but I know you have," Hamar said, striving to hide his eagerness.
+"Come, tell me, another liqueur--I'll square it with the Unknown--it
+won't hurt you!"
+
+"Won't it!" Curtis gurgled. "Wont'ch it! I'll tell you everything.
+No--nothingsh, I mean."
+
+But Hamar when once he had smelt a rat, was not easily put off. He
+coaxed, and coaxed, and eventually succeeded.
+
+"Leonsh!" Curtis said, with a sudden burst of drunken confidence.
+"Leonsh! it's worse than either you or I shuspected. I caught them
+alone this morning--in my offish."
+
+"Them! Rosenberg and Matt!"
+
+"Yesh, of course, shilly! I told Matt I was going out. He thought I
+had--so into the room I came--quite unshuspected, unobsherved. She was
+sitting on hish knees, cuddling--and he was putting a ring on her
+finger. 'Four more days, darling,' shays he, 'and we are married!
+Jerushalem! Damn the Compact and damnsh Hamar!' 'Hamar doesn't
+shuspect, does he?' Rosenberg shays. 'Not a bit--not in the
+slightest,' old Matt replieshes, 'why it is I who amsh brave now.'
+Then he kisshes her, and fearing they would detect my presence, I
+slipsh quietly out."
+
+"Will you swear this is true?" Leon said, his voice trembling with
+excitement.
+
+"I'll schwear it!" Curtis answered, "but you look crossh. Whatsh the
+matter, Leon? _God! What's the matter!_"
+
+An hour later, as Kelson was rising from his chair in front of the
+fire to gaze, for the hundredth time that evening, into the eyes of
+Lilian Rosenberg's portrait on the mantelshelf, the door of his room
+flew open and in staggered Curtis--white, wet and bloated.
+
+"Great heavens!" Kelson cried. "What the deuce have you been doing to
+yourself? You look a perfect devil!"
+
+"I am one!" Curtis groaned. "I am one, Matt! I've given your show
+away."
+
+"My show away! Why, what the deuce do you mean?"
+
+In a string of broken sentences Curtis explained what had happened.
+"I'm damned sorry, Matt, old man," he pleaded. "It was the drink that
+did it--I didn't know what I was saying till it was too late--till I
+saw Leon's face--and that cleared my brain--brought me to myself. It
+was hellish. I remember the moment I mentioned the word marriage--he
+sprang up from his chair, and as he hurried out, I heard him mutter,
+'I'll go to her straight--I'll--' Matt, old man, he meant mischief.
+I'm certain of it. Come with me to her flat--for God's sake--COME."
+And catching hold of Kelson, who leaned against the mantelshelf, dazed
+and stupefied, he dragged him into the street.
+
+To revert to Hamar. Curtis's information had transformed him. He was,
+now, another creature. Prior to his conversation with Curtis, he had
+suspected, at the most, that Kelson might be contemplating a secret
+engagement to Lilian Rosenberg--but a hasty marriage--a marriage in a
+few days' time--he had never dreamt that Kelson could be as mad as
+that. It was outrageous! It was abominable! It was sheer wholesale
+homicide! At all costs the marriage must be stopped. And mad with
+rage, Hamar dashed out of the hotel, and calling a taxi, drove direct
+to Lilian Rosenberg's flat.
+
+He found her alone--alone--and with a strange expression in her
+eyes--an expression he had never noticed in them before. She was in
+the act of examining a magnificent diamond ring.
+
+"You're quite out of breath," she said coolly, "didn't you come up by
+the lift?"
+
+"I've come to talk business," Hamar panted. "It's no use looking like
+that. I know your secret."
+
+"My secret!" Lilian Rosenberg replied, opening her eyes and simulating
+the greatest unconcern, "what secret? I don't understand."
+
+"Oh, yes, you do!" Hamar said, "you understand only too well--you
+deceitful minx. Had I only been smart--I should have given you the
+sack months ago. This marriage of yours with Kelson shall not come
+off."
+
+"My marriage with Mr. Kelson!" Lilian Rosenberg said, turning a trifle
+pale. "I really don't know what you are talking about."
+
+"You do!" Hamar shouted, his fury rising. "You do! You know all about
+it. You were seen sitting on his knee this morning, and all your
+conversation was overheard. I have found out everything. And I tell
+you, you shan't marry him."
+
+"I shan't marry him!" Lilian Rosenberg said with provoking coolness.
+"Whoever thinks I want to marry him?"
+
+"He does--I do!" Hamar shouted--his voice rising to a scream. "You've
+hoodwinked me long enough--you hoodwink me no longer. You've
+encouraged him from the first--made eyes at him every time you've seen
+him--taken advantage of my absence to prowl about the passages to
+waylay him--had him round to your rooms and visited him in his. You've
+no sense of shame or honour--you've broken your promises to me--you're
+a liar!"
+
+"Anything else Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, her eyes glittering.
+"When you've quite finished, perhaps--you'll kindly go and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"Go! Leave you in peace!" Hamar shouted. "Damn you, curse your
+impertinence! Go! I'll not budge an inch till I wring from you an
+oath--a solemn binding oath, that you'll break off your engagement
+with Kelson at once."
+
+"Really, Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, "I cannot put up with
+quite so much noise. Will you go, or shall I ring for the porter to
+turn you out?"
+
+She moved in the direction of the bell as she spoke, but before she
+could touch it Hamar had intercepted her.
+
+"Stop this foolery!" he said catching hold of her wrist, "I'm in grim
+earnest--the lives of all three of us are at stake--jeopardized
+through you--through your infernal greed and selfishness. Do you
+hear!"
+
+"Please let go my wrist," she said quietly.
+
+"I won't!" he shouted. "I'll squeeze, crush it, break it! Break you,
+too, unless you swear to break off your marriage!"
+
+"I'll swear nothing," Lilian Rosenberg said faintly. "You're a brute.
+Let me go or I'll cry for help."
+
+She screamed, but before she could repeat the scream, Hamar had her by
+the throat--and then blind with passion and before he fully realized
+what he was about, he had shaken her to and fro--like a terrier shakes
+a rat--and had dashed her on the floor.
+
+For some minutes he stood rocking with passion, and then, his eyes
+falling on the inanimate form at his feet, he gave a great gasping cry
+and bent over it.
+
+"God in Heaven!" he ejaculated, "she's dead! I've killed her!"
+
+He was still bending over her--still feeling her lifeless pulse, still
+trying to resuscitate her--feebly wondering how he had killed her,
+feverishly debating the best course to pursue--when Curtis and Kelson
+burst in on him.
+
+At the sight of Lilian Rosenberg's lifeless body both men started
+back. "Great God! Hamar!" Curtis gasped. "What have you done to her?"
+
+"Nothing!" Hamar said, turning a ghastly face to them. "I--I found her
+like this!"
+
+"Liar!" Kelson shouted beside himself with fury. "Liar! We heard her
+scream. Look at your hands--there's blood on them! You've killed her!"
+
+Before Curtis could stop him he sprang at Hamar, and the next moment
+both men were rolling on the floor.
+
+"Call for the police, Ed!" Kelson gasped, "the police--or--" But
+before he could utter another syllable, walls, floor and ceiling shook
+with loud, devilish laughter. There was then silence--enthralling,
+impressive, omnipotent silence--the electric light went out--and the
+room filled with luminous, striped figures.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SORCERY CLUB***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sorcery Club, by Elliott O'Donnell</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Sorcery Club</p>
+<p>Author: Elliott O'Donnell</p>
+<p>Release Date: December 10, 2004  [eBook #14317]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SORCERY CLUB***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Nathan Strom,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="cs"><a name="ILLUSTRATION1" id="ILLUSTRATION1" /><img src="images/image1.jpg" width="446" height="750" alt="[Illustration: &quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED]" /><br />
+&quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1 style="font-size:2em;">THE SORCERY CLUB</h1>
+
+<h3 style="margin-top:3em;">BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ELLIOTT O'DONNELL</h2>
+
+<p class="cs">AUTHOR OF <i>BYWAYS OF GHOSTLAND</i>, <i>WERWOLVES</i>,<br />
+<i>DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS</i>, <i>SOME HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND<br />
+AND WALES</i>, <i>SCOTTISH GHOST TALES</i>, <i>HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON</i>, ETC., ETC.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6><i>London<br />
+William Rider &amp; Son, Limited<br />
+8 Paternoster Row, E.C.</i></h6>
+
+<p class="center">1912</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman;">
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">LEARNING TO SIN</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE TESTS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE INITIATION</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE FIRST POWER</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">TWO DREAMS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE GREAT CHALLENGE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE MODERN SORCERY CO. LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">SHIEL TO THE RESCUE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">STAGE THREE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE SELLING OF SPELLS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">LOVE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">THE SUBP&OElig;NA</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CURTIS IN A NEW R&Ocirc;LE</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">WHOM WILL HE MARRY?</a><br /><br /></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">THE END AND 'THE BEYOND'</a><br /></li>
+</ol>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p>
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION1">&quot;FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF,&quot; KELSON SHRIEKED</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Frontispiece</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION2">THE INITIATION</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION3">THEY GAZED FASCINATED</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATION4">THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES</a><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2 style="font-size:2em;"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />THE SORCERY CLUB</h2>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of
+vegetables&mdash;it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller, of
+man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that the
+French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not, Confucius
+alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the Chinese by
+the same factor.</p>
+
+<p>It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a
+second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion to any
+literature saving a financial gazette or the stock and shares column of
+a daily, that nothing would have induced him to get within touching
+distance of a book save the risk of a severe wetting. Now, to his
+unutterable disgust, he found himself surrounded by the things he
+loathed. Books ancient&mdash;very ancient, judging by their bindings&mdash;and
+modern&mdash;histories, biographies, novels and magazines&mdash;anything from ten
+dollars to five cents, and all arrayed with most laudable tact according
+to their bulk and condition. But Hamar was neither to be tempted nor
+mollified. He frowned at one and all alike, and the colossal edition of
+Miss Somebody or Other's poems&mdash;that by reason of its magnificent cover
+of crimson and gold occupied a most prominent position&mdash;met with the
+same vindictive reception as the tattered and torn volumes of Whittier
+stowed away in an obscure corner.</p>
+
+<p>Backing still further into the entrance of the store for a better
+protection from the rain, which, now falling heavier and heavier, was
+blown in by the wind, Hamar collided with a stand of books, with the
+result that one of them fell with a loud bang on the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>A man, evidently the owner of the store, and unmistakably a Jew,
+instantly appeared. Picking up the book, and wiping it with a dirty
+handkerchief, he thrust it at Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See!&quot; he said, &quot;you have damaged this property of mine. You must either
+buy it or give me adequate compensation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; Hamar cried, &quot;compensation for such rubbish as that? Why all
+your books together are not worth five dollars. Indeed I've seen twice
+as many sold at a sale for half that amount. You can't Jew me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men eyed each other quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; the owner of the store observed slowly, &quot;perhaps some of your
+ancestors were once Yiddish. In which case there ought to be a bond of
+sympathy between us. You may have that book for a nickel. What, no! Your
+cheeks are hollow, your fingers thin. A nickel is too much for you. I
+will take your chain in exchange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And leave me the watch!&quot; Hamar retorted, with a grim smile. &quot;You are a
+philanthropist&mdash;not a storekeeper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should leave you nothing!&quot; the Jew laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no watch there! See!&quot; and he pointed to the concave surface of
+the watch-pocket. &quot;I noticed its absence at once. It's been keeping you
+alive for some days past. I'll give you four dollars on the chain&mdash;and
+you may have the book!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The book's no good to me!&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;The money is. Here! hand me
+over the four dollars and you can have the chain. It's eighteen carat
+gold and worth at least ten dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why not take it to some one who will give you ten dollars!&quot;
+sneered the Jew. &quot;Because you know better. You're no greenhorn. That
+chain is fifteen carat at the most, and there's not a man in this city
+who would give you more than four dollars for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then!&quot; Hamar said sulkily. &quot;I agree. No! the money first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Jew dived deep down into his trouser pocket, and, after foraging
+about for some seconds, produced a handful of greasy coins, out of which
+he carefully selected the sum named.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, who had been watching him greedily, grabbed the coins, bit them
+with his teeth, and rang them on the counter. With an air of relief he
+then slipped his watch-chain into the outstretched palm before him,
+remarked upon the fact that the rain had suddenly ceased, and prepared
+to take his departure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's the book!&quot; the Jew ejaculated, whilst his face became suffused
+with a smirk. &quot;Don't go without it. Now! there's no knowing but what we
+may not have further dealings with one another. I'm a money-lender&mdash;I've
+a place down-stairs&mdash;I take all sorts of things&mdash;all sorts of things. On
+the strict Q.T. mind. Sabez!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In another moment Hamar found himself standing on the wet pavement,
+nursing the four dollars in his waistcoat pocket with one hand, and
+mechanically clutching the despised volume with the other. Had he ever
+acted upon impulse, he would most certainly have hurled the book into
+the gutter; but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion that it
+would be better to dispose of it less obstrusively.</p>
+
+<p>It was now evening, and having tasted nothing since mid-day, he
+realized, for at least the hundredth time that week, that he was hungry.
+The touch of the dollars, however, only made him smile. He could eat his
+full for twenty-five cents and yet live well for another four days. And,
+besides, he still had a tie-pin and a fur coat. He might get a dollar on
+the one and two, if not two and a half, on the other; which would carry
+him through till the end of the week when something else might turn
+up&mdash;something which would not involve too hard work and would just keep
+him clear of jail. He turned sharply down Montgomery Street, crossed
+Kearney Street, and slipped noiselessly through the side doorway of a
+restaurant, in a suspicious-looking alley, not a hundred yards distant
+from the gorgeously illuminated Palace Hotel. Here, within five minutes,
+he was served with as good a meal as one could get in San Francisco for
+the money&mdash;and if the table linen was not as clean as it might have
+been, the food was not a whit the less excellent for that. At least so
+Hamar thought; and it was not until there was nothing left to eat that
+he left off eating. When he thought no one was looking in his direction,
+he popped the despised book under his chair and rose to go. Before he
+had gone ten yards, however, one of the waiters came running after him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hi, sir, stop, sir!&quot; the fellow cried. &quot;You've left something behind!&quot;
+And in spite of Hamar's denials the officious menial persisted the book
+was his. In the end Hamar was obliged to submit. He took the book, and
+rewarded the waiter with curses.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar next tried to dispose of it down the area of a Chinese laundry;
+but a policeman saw him, and he only escaped being taken up on
+suspicion, by parting with a dollar. This was the climax. He did not
+dare make any further attempt to dispose of the book, but, with bitter
+hatred in his heart, tucked it savagely under his arm, and made direct
+for his room in 115th Street.</p>
+
+<p>To his annoyance&mdash;for under the circumstances he preferred to be
+alone&mdash;he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They were
+Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues at
+Meidler, Meidler &amp; Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had been
+thrown out of work when the firm had &quot;smashed.&quot; Since that affair Hamar
+had studiously avoided them. It was true he had once been as friendly
+with them as he deemed it politic to be friendly with any one; but
+now&mdash;they were out of employment, and in danger of starvation. That made
+all the difference. He did not believe in poverty encouraging poverty,
+any more than he believed in charity among beggars. He had nothing to
+share with them, not even a thought; and resolving to get rid of his
+quondam friends as soon as possible, he confined his welcome to a frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! what's the matter?&quot; Kelson exclaimed. &quot;When a man frowns like
+that, it usually means he is crossed in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or has an empty stomach, which amounts to the same thing,&quot; Curtis
+interposed. &quot;Come&mdash;let the sun loose, Leon! We've good news for
+you!&mdash;haven't we, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, then?&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;Have you both got cancer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! We've come to borrow from you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've come to the wrong shop! I'm about done, and unless
+something turns up mighty quick I shall clear out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For good?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't count on being a ghost nor yet an angel,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;when
+we've done here, I reckon we've done altogether!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have thought suicide was in your line,&quot; Curtis remarked.
+&quot;More Matt's. I should have credited you with something more original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Original!&quot; Hamar snarled. &quot;I defy any man to be original when he hasn't
+a cent, and his stomach contains nothing but air. Give me money, give me
+food&mdash;then, perhaps, I'll be original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean to say you're cleared out of grub!&quot; Kelson and Curtis
+cried in chorus. &quot;We've come to you as our last hope. We've neither of
+us tasted anything since yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you'll taste nothing again to-day&mdash;at least as far as I'm
+concerned,&quot; Hamar jeered. &quot;I tell you I'm broke&mdash;haven't as much as a
+crumb in the room; and I've pawned everything, save the clothes you see
+me in!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet you can buy books&mdash;unless&mdash;unless you stole it!&quot; Curtis said,
+eyeing with suspicion the volume Hamar had thrown on the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Buy it! Not much!&quot; Hamar cried quickly. &quot;It's one I've had all my life.
+Belonged to my grandfather. I took it with me to-night to see what I
+could raise on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And no one would have it? I should guess not,&quot; Kelson said, drawing it
+towards him. &quot;Why it's got a new label inside&mdash;S. Leipman! I know him.
+He's slick even for a Jew. This looks as if it belonged to your
+grandfather, Leon. If I'm not real mistaken you bought the book
+to-night. There's something in it you thought you could make capital of.
+Trust you for that. Now I wonder what it was!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're welcome to see!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;Perhaps you'd like some water!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Water! Why water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, instead of tea or whisky to help digest the book. Besides, it's
+the only thing I have to offer you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here, Leon,&quot; Curtis interrupted; &quot;what's the good of behaving like
+this? We are all in the same boat&mdash;starving&mdash;desperate. So let us lay
+our heads together and see if we can't think of something&mdash;some way out
+of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Burglary Company Limited, for instance!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;No! I'm not
+having any. I've neither tools nor experience. The San Francisco police
+handle one roughly, so I'm told, and hard labour isn't to my liking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are other things besides burglary!&quot; Curtis said in tones of
+annoyance. &quot;We might work a fake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I work anything of that sort,&quot; Hamar said hastily, &quot;I work alone.
+Think of something else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you Matt and I are pretty well desperate,&quot; Curtis cried, &quot;and if
+we don't think of something soon, we shan't be able to think at all.
+We've tried our level best to get work&mdash;we've answered every likely and
+unlikely advertisement in the papers&mdash;and all to no purpose. So if
+Providence won't help us we must help ourselves. Robbery, burglary,
+fakes, anything short of murder&mdash;it's all the same to us now&mdash;we're
+tired of starving&mdash;dead sick of it. We would do anything, sell our very
+souls for a meal. My God! I never imagined how terrible it is to feel so
+hungry. You appear to be interested, Matt. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, look here, you fellows!&quot; Kelson said slowly. &quot;This book is all
+about a place called Atlantis that is said to have existed in the
+Atlantic Ocean between America and Ireland, and to have been deluged by
+an earthquake owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants. They practised
+sorcery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Practised foolery,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It's tosh&mdash;all tosh! Wickedness is
+only a matter of climate&mdash;and there's no such thing as sorcery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I thought,&quot; Kelson replied; &quot;but I'm not so sure now. The author of
+this book writes darned sensibly, and is apparently at no loss for
+corroborative testimony. He was a professor too. See! Thomas Henry
+Maitland, at one time Professor of English at the University of Basle in
+Switzerland. There's an asterisk against his name and a footnote in very
+old-fashioned handwriting&mdash;the 's's' are all 'f's,' and half the letters
+capitals. Listen&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;'Thomas Maitland, despite the remonstrances of his friends, visited
+     Spain. By order of the Holy Inquisition he was arrested, May 5,
+     1693, on a charge of practising sorcery, and burned alive at the
+     Auto da F&eacute;, in the Grand Market Square, Madrid; having in the
+     interim been subjected to such tortures as only the subtle brains
+     of the hellish inquisitors could devise. On receipt of a message
+     from him, delivered in his supernatural body, we attended his
+     execution, and can readily testify that he suffered no pain,
+     although the torments endured by those around him were pitiable to
+     behold.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;(Signed) <span class="smcap">George Richard Pool</span>, Physician; and <span class="smcap">Robert James Fox</span>,
+     Merchant.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts; August 1, 1693.'&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot!&quot; Hamar said savagely; &quot;don't waste time reading such bunkum.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be bunkum, but if it takes away his mind from his stomach let
+him go on,&quot; Curtis interposed. &quot;It's very obvious you haven't arrived at
+our pitch of starvation yet, Leon, or you would welcome anything that
+would make you forget it even for a moment. Let's hear some more, Matt!
+Go on, tell us something. How to make coyottes out of paraffin paint, or
+convert a Sunday pair of pants into a glistening harem skirt! Anything
+that won't remind us of food.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged Kelson slowly turned over the pages of the book. &quot;I see
+it was printed and published for&mdash;I presume that means by&mdash;A.
+Bettesworth and J. Batley in Pater-noster-Row, London, England, in 1690.
+Basle, London, Boston, Madrid! The author seems to have had wandering on
+the brain. By the bye, Leon, with your features you could easily work
+off a fake as 'the Wandering Jew.' There's money in it&mdash;people will
+swallow anything in that line now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how it would profit you anyhow,&quot; Hamar snarled. &quot;Leave my
+features alone and go on with your reading.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson chuckled&mdash;here was one way at least in which he could
+occasionally get even with Hamar. Hamar's features were Yiddish, and the
+Yids were none too popular in California.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, all right!&quot; he said; &quot;if the subject is so painful I'll try and
+avoid it in future; but it's odd how some things&mdash;for instance, murder
+and noses&mdash;will out. Let me see, what have we here? 'Discovery of
+ancient books, manuscripts, etc., relating to Atlantis.' Apparently,
+Thomas Maitland, when shipwrecked on an island, called Inisturk, off
+Mayo, in Ireland, found a wooden chest of rare workmanship&mdash;he had seen,
+he says, similar ones in Egypt and Yucatan&mdash;containing some very ancient
+books&mdash;curiously bound, and some vellum manuscripts, which, after an
+infinite amount of labour, he managed to translate. The books, he says,
+were standard histories, biographies, and scientific works on
+occultism&mdash;all published in Banchicheisi, the capital of Atlantis&mdash;and
+the manuscripts, he affirms, had been transcribed by one Coulmenes, who
+believed himself to be the only survivor of a tremendous submarine
+earthquake that had destroyed the whole of Atlantis. The manuscripts
+included a diary of the events leading up to the catastrophe&mdash;even to
+the meals! How about this?&mdash;'Sunrise on the day of Thottirnanoge in the
+month of Finn-ra. Breakfasted on cornsop, fish (Semona, corresponding to
+salmon), fruit, and much sweet milk.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For God's sake, don't!&quot; Curtis groaned. &quot;Skip over that part. The very
+mention of grub makes the gnawing pain in my stomach ten times worse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're different to me then!&quot; Hamar grinned; &quot;I love to think of it.
+My word, what wouldn't I give to be in Sadler's now. Roast beef&mdash;done to
+a turn, eh! As only Sadler knows how! Potatoes nice and brown and crisp!
+Horseradish! Greens! Boiled celery! Pudding under the meat! Beer!&mdash;What,
+going?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis had risen from the table with his fingers crammed in his ears.
+&quot;There's a fat splice of the devil in you to-night, Leon!&quot; he panted.
+&quot;I've had enough of it. I'm off. Come on, Matt. If you want us, you know
+where to find us&mdash;only if we don't get something to eat soon&mdash;you'll
+find us dead.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>For some time after Kelson and Curtis had left him, Hamar lolled back in
+his seat, lost in thought. Thought, as he told himself repeatedly,
+should be the poor man's chief recreation&mdash;it costs nothing: and if one
+wants a little variety, and the walls of one's rooms are tolerably
+thick, one can think aloud. Hamar often did, and derived much enjoyment
+from it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm convinced of one thing,&quot; he suddenly broke out; &quot;I'd rather be
+hungry than cold. One can, in a measure, cheat one's stomach by chewing
+leather or sucking pebbles, but I'll be hanged if one can kid one's
+liver. It's cold that does me! A touch of cold on the liver! I could jog
+along comfortably on few dollars for food&mdash;but it's a fire, a fire I
+want! The temperature of this room is infernally low after sunset: and
+half a dozen coats and three pairs of pants don't make up for half a
+grateful of fuel. Hunger only makes me think of suicide&mdash;but cold&mdash;cold
+and a chilled liver&mdash;makes me think of crime. Yes, it's cold! Cold that
+would make me a criminal. I would steal&mdash;burgle&mdash;housebreak&mdash;cut the
+sweetest lady's throat in Christendom&mdash;for a fire!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There! that little outbreak has relieved me. Now let me have a look at
+the book.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He dragged the volume towards him, and despite the feeling of antagonism
+with which it had inspired him, and despite the cynical attitude he
+had, up to the present, adopted towards the supernatural, he speedily
+became engrossed. On a few leaves, somewhat clumsily inserted between
+the cover and first page of the book, Hamar read an account, presumably
+in the author's own penmanship, of how he, Thomas Maitland, after being
+shipwrecked, had remained on Inisturk Island for a fortnight before
+being rescued, and had spent the greater portion of that time in
+examining the books, etc., in the chest he had found&mdash;his only
+food&mdash;shell-fish and a keg of mildewy ship's biscuits.</p>
+
+<p>He was taken, so the account ran, by his rescuers, on the barque
+<i>Hannah</i>, to London, where he lived for five years. His lodgings were in
+Cheapside, and it was there that he compiled his work on Atlantis,
+having obtained his subject matter from the Atlantean books he had
+managed to bring with him, and which, after an enormous amount of
+perseverance and labour, he had translated into English. Though these
+books were subsequently destroyed in a big fire that demolished the
+entire street, luckily for him, he had sent his MS. to the publishers,
+Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley, a week or so before the conflagration
+broke out; so that he was, at any rate, spared the loss of his own
+arduous and invaluable work.</p>
+
+<p>The publishers did not accept the MS. at once. At that time there were
+very severe laws in operation against anything savouring of witchcraft
+and magic, and as the manuscript dealt at length with these subjects,
+and in a manner that left no doubt whatever that he, Thomas Maitland,
+had practised sorcery extensively, Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were
+forced to consider whether it would be injurious to them to publish it.
+Mrs. Bettesworth was eventually consulted&mdash;as indeed she always was, on
+extraordinary occasions&mdash;and her interest in the MS. being roused, she
+decided in its favour. Within a week of its publication, however, it was
+suppressed by law; all the copies saving three presentation ones to the
+author, which he successfully concealed, were destroyed; Messrs.
+Bettesworth and Batley were put in the stocks on Ludgate Hill and fined
+heavily, and he, Thomas Maitland, was ordered to be arrested, flogged
+and imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; wrote Maitland, &quot;I was not to be caught napping. My previous
+adventures and hairbreadth escapes had rendered me unusually wary, and
+perceiving a number of people, among whom were two or three sheriff's
+officers, approaching my house, I at once interpreted their mission, and
+climbing through a trap-door leading on to the roof of the building,
+nimbly made my way to the end of the row, and slipping down a waterpipe
+easily eluded my enemies. London, however, being now too hot to hold me,
+I booked passage on board the <i>Peterkin</i>, a Thames trading vessel of
+some eighty tons, and sailed for Boston. My flight had been so hasty
+that I brought very little with me&mdash;nothing in fact except the clothes I
+stood in&mdash;a stout winter suit of home-spun brown cloth, a cloak, and a
+pair of good, strong leather leggings&mdash;a purse of fifty sovereigns (all
+I had), a knife, pistol and two copies of my precious book, the third
+copy, alas! I had left behind in my hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After giving a few unimportant details as to his life on board ship,
+Maitland went on to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Owing to a succession of storms the <i>Peterkin</i> was driven out of her
+course, and after narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces on the
+Florida reefs, Lat. 24&frac12;&deg; N., Long. 82&deg; W., we ran ashore with the loss
+of only two lives&mdash;the second mate and cabin boy&mdash;on the Isthmus of
+Yucatan, close to the estuary of a river.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Here we were forced to
+spend nearly a year, during which time I made several journeys of
+exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one of
+my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found
+myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once
+recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity,
+elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set to
+work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other
+vegetable growth adhering to it, discovered a superscription in
+Atlantean dialect to the effect that the image had been set up there by
+one Hullir&mdash;to commemorate the destruction of Atlantis, of which
+catastrophe Hullir believed himself and his family, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> his wife
+Ozilmeave and daughters, Taramoo and Nik&eacute;toth, and the crew of his
+yacht, the <i>Chaac-molr&eacute;</i> (ten in number), the sole survivors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here, then, to my unutterable joy, was strong corroborative evidence of
+the great disaster narrated in detail in the manuscripts I had found in
+Inisturk Island. The existence of Atlantis was now thoroughly
+substantiated. On all sides of me I stumbled across further evidences of
+these early settlers. Here, standing in bold outline on a slight
+eminence, was a stone edifice adorned with symbolical carvings of eggs,
+harps, mastodons, triangles, and numerous other objects, all of which
+were capable of interpretation, and indicated that the building was a
+temple to some god.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity in many of the things
+I saw&mdash;notably in the sphinx, idols and symbols&mdash;to many I had seen in
+Egypt, and to some extent in Ireland, and I at once set to work to draw
+up a careful analogy between the languages of those countries.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The word Banchicheisi<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> I found to contain the Celtic ban, a barrow;
+and Coptic isi, plenty; whilst I recognized in the words Coulmenes,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+the Celtic Coul, a man's name, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Finn, son of Coul; in
+Thottirnanoge, the Coptic Thoth, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> name of ancient Egyptian deity,
+and Erse Tirnanoge, the name of the wife of Oisin, the last of the Feni;
+in Chaac-molr&eacute;e<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> the Coptic deity, r&eacute;; in Ozilmeave,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> the Celtic
+Meave, a girl's name; in Taramoo,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> the Celtic Tara, a girl's name; and
+in Nik&eacute;toth,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> toth, the Erse technical form of feminine gender; and
+comparing the alphabets I traced a very striking likeness between the
+Atlantean&mdash;</p>
+
+<table class="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="Table for visual layout/alignment of Atlantean character comparisons.">
+<tr><td>&quot;<img src="images/atl-a.png" alt="[Atlantean: a]" width="19" height="18" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (a)</td><td align="left"> and the Gaelic or Erse <img src="images/ers-a.png" alt="[Erse: a]" width="15" height="16" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-b.png" alt="[Atlantean: B]" width="22" height="22" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (B)</td><td align="left"> and the Coptic <img src="images/cop-b.png" alt="[Coptic: B]" width="18" height="17" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-d.png" alt="[Atlantean: d]" width="20" height="16" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (d)</td><td align="left"> and Erse <img src="images/ers-d.png" alt="[Erse: d]" width="15" height="16" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-g.png" alt="[Atlantean: g]" width="17" height="17" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (g)</td><td align="left"> and Erse <img src="images/ers-g.png" alt="[Erse: g]" width="14" height="18" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td><img src="images/atl-t.png" alt="[Atlantean: T]" width="23" height="16" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /></td><td> (T)</td><td align="left"> and Coptic <img src="images/cop-t.png" alt="[Coptic: T]" width="15" height="12" /></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&quot;and many of the other letters. To the Atlantean </p>
+
+<p class="center">&quot;
+<img src="images/atl-c.png" alt="[Atlantean: C]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (C) <img src="images/atl-o.png" alt="[Atlantean: O]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (O) <img src="images/atl-e.png" alt="[Atlantean: E]" width="17" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (E) <img src="images/atl-z.png" alt="[Atlantean: Z]" width="25" height="31" style="vertical-align:bottom;" /> (Z)<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could, however, find no likeness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From all these similarities, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> in architecture, symbols, letters,
+and words, I could come to no other conclusion than that there was some
+strong connecting link between Atlantis and ancient Ireland and Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Assuredly this great link could not have been merely due to stray
+survivors of the great catastrophe! Was it not much more probable that
+the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Egypt had originally migrated
+from Atlantis, carrying its language, and ways and customs with them?
+Moreover, since the Atlanteans were so deeply versed in magic and
+everything appertaining to the occult, this migration would account for
+the mysticism that has always been so closely associated with Egypt and
+Ireland, and for the psychic faculty so strongly observable in the
+inhabitants of these two countries.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was highly satisfied&mdash;I had proved much and my discoveries had upset
+many of the theories advanced by the modern sages. I could now
+positively assert that the wisdom of the world came not from the East
+but from the West. It was to the golden West&mdash;to Banchicheisi, capital
+of Atlantis, that humanity owed its knowledge of the sciences and arts,
+and of all things good and evil. Eden, if Eden existed at all, was not
+in Asia, it was in Atlantis; and the Deluge, that is recorded in the
+Hebrew Bible, and is traditional in the histories of nearly every tribe
+and nation, was none other than the mighty inrush of the ocean over
+Atlantis, due to some abnormal submarine earthquake.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what eventually became of the Atlanteans whose relics I had so
+opportunely alighted upon, I could only surmise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The last record I found was on a tablet set up by Nik&eacute;toth. On this she
+spoke of the death of Hullir and Ozilmeave, of the inter-marriage of the
+crew of the <i>Chaac-molr&eacute;</i> with native women; of the consequent growth of
+the colony; and of her determination to leave it, and, accompanied by a
+chosen few, to push her way further inland.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;The anxiety of my comrades to leave the continent, perforce put an end
+to my explorations, and in the beginning of the year 1692&mdash;exactly ten
+months after our landing&mdash;the <i>Peterkin</i> was refloated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This time nothing happened to impede our progress, and in April of the
+same year, we sighted Boston. Here I remained for some months, making
+many new friends, and studying magic and sorcery. But the love of travel
+had laid so strong a hold on me that I again took to a roving life. I
+set sail for Spain in November 1692; landed at Corunna, and made my way
+to Madrid, where I arrived on January 1, 1693.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, Hamar had to turn to Messrs. Fox and Pool's addendum,
+<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the footnote that Matt Kelson had read aloud.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was now inclined to regard the book in a very different light.
+What he had read seemed to him to be set down in too simple,
+straightforward, and, at the same time, detailed a manner to be other
+than true. Up to the present he had not believed in ghosts and witches,
+for the very simple reason that&mdash;like all sceptics&mdash;he had never
+inquired into the testimony respecting them. He had pooh-poohed the
+subject, because every one he knew pooh-poohed it, and also because it
+had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But provided he
+thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in anything&mdash;in
+Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or any other creed;
+and granted the book he had in his hands was really written by Maitland,
+and Maitland was <i>bona fide</i> (which Hamar saw no reason to doubt), and
+granted, also, that Maitland was sane and logical&mdash;which from his
+writing he certainly appeared to be&mdash;then there was a certain amount in
+the volume that in Hamar's opinion was &quot;a find.&quot; Needless to say, he
+referred to the magic of the Atlanteans&mdash;the art through the practice of
+which they had got in touch with the Powers that could endow them with
+riches. The actual history of Atlantis&mdash;once he was satisfied there had
+been such a place&mdash;did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly,
+and I append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent
+and disinterested readers.</p>
+
+<p>The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world&mdash;they
+existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their mariners
+and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom their novelists
+wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore Cooper and Mayne
+Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful stories about the
+Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they believed that, in
+the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that some of these
+Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst others&mdash;neither
+benevolent nor malevolent&mdash;were merely neutral. To the benevolent
+creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in the world
+(<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals, insects, and
+pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and agreeable in the
+human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the arts and
+sciences&mdash;in a word all that in any degree affected the welfare of
+mankind; and to the malevolent creative Powers they attributed all that
+was noxious in creation; all that was harmful to man, and detrimental to
+his moral and physical progress (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> diseases, and all savage and
+filthy passions); all races of low intelligence, viz. Paleolithic and
+Neolithic man&mdash;and all those born with black or red skins (those colours
+being particularly significant of the malignant Occult Elements); all
+destructive animals; (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> reptiles such as the teleosaurus,
+steneosaurus, etc.; birds, such as the ptereodactyl, vulture, eagle,
+etc.; mammals, such as the cave lion, cave tiger, etc.; fish, such as
+the shark, octopus, etc.); and all ugly and venomous insects.</p>
+
+<p>These earliest records show that at one time the physical and
+superphysical world were in close touch; all kinds of spirits&mdash;trolls,
+pixies, nymphs, satyrs, imps, Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.&mdash;mixing
+freely with living human beings; but that as the population increased
+and civilization evolved, superphysical manifestations became more and
+more rare, until finally they became restricted to certain conditions
+dependent on time and locality.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Up to this period there had been no state religion&mdash;no temples in
+Atlantis. If any one wished for a particular favour from the Occult
+Powers&mdash;for example, from the Rabs&eacute;s, the Occult Powers of music; the
+Brakvos, the Occult Powers of medicine; or the Derinas, the Occult
+Powers of love, they retired to some secluded spot and held direct
+intercourse with these Powers. The idea of praying to an invisible
+being&mdash;who might or might not hear them&mdash;never entered their minds; they
+were far too matter of fact for that&mdash;and it was not until superphysical
+manifestations had become confined to a very select few, that the plan
+of erecting public buildings in spots frequented by the spirits, so that
+all who wished could assemble there and communicate with them, was
+proposed and put into operation. In these buildings, however, the
+spirits did not choose always, to appear to order&mdash;sometimes they
+quitted the spot where the edifice had been erected; sometimes they
+would only appear there periodically; and sometimes, out of perversity,
+they would appear when least expected. But whether occult manifestations
+really took place in these buildings or not, those assembled to see them
+were persuaded by those in charge of the building, who saw thereby an
+opportunity of making money, that the spirits were actually there; and
+in due time these buildings became known as temples, and their showmen
+as priests. Every temple was dedicated to an individual spirit&mdash;one to
+the Spirit Bara-boo; another to the Spirit Karaboro, and so on; whilst
+in the absence of genuine spirit manifestations, prayers, incantations
+and rituals, invented by the priests, always attracted a large concourse
+of people to these temples, and finally proved a greater source of
+attraction than the spirits themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was to gain favours from the Occult Powers that donations from the
+public were at first invited, then demanded; and the priests in this
+manner accumulated vast fortunes. Later on, too, there sprang up, in
+connection with these temples, colleges for the training of young
+men&mdash;invariably selected from the wealthy classes&mdash;to the priesthood;
+and from the parents of these youthful aspirants large fees, which in
+course of time became exorbitant, were extracted, thereby furnishing
+another source of revenue to the priests. The most famous colleges for
+the training of priests in Atlantis were those of Bara-boo-rek<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> at
+Keisionwo, Karaboro-rek at Diniangek, and Ballygarap-rek at Tijimin.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the reign of Barrahneil,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> fifty-first sovereign of the
+Dynasty of Shaotak, that the evocation of spirits (from which modern
+spiritualism takes its origin) commenced. Barrahneil was most eager to
+see a superphysical manifestation. Being of a somewhat poetical turn of
+mind he was particularly enamoured of fairies, and in the hope of seeing
+one, constantly frequented their favourite haunts, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> woods, caves,
+and lonely isolated habitations. But all to no purpose&mdash;they never would
+manifest themselves to him. At last, he lost patience. Against the
+advice of his oldest and most trusty counsellors, and accompanied by one
+or two of his favourite courtiers, he went to an excessively lonely spot
+in the heart of a desert, and besought spirits&mdash;spirits of any sort&mdash;he
+did not care what&mdash;to manifest themselves. To his surprise&mdash;for he had
+grown extremely sceptical&mdash;an Occult form, half man and half beast,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>
+materialized. It informed them that it was Daramara, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> in Atlantis,
+the Unknown&mdash;that it had no beginning and no end, and that it would
+remain an impenetrable mystery to them during their existence in the
+physical sphere, but would be fully revealed to them when they passed
+over into Malanok&mdash;one of the superphysical planes. On this, and on
+several subsequent occasions, when it manifested itself to them, it gave
+them instructions with regard to evocation, and described to them the
+tests they must undergo before they could acquire the great powers the
+Unknown was able to bestow on them, namely, (1) second sight; (2)
+divining other people's thoughts and detecting the presence of waters
+and metals; (3) thought transference, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> being able to transmit
+messages, irrespective of distance, from one brain to another without
+any physical medium; (4) hypnotism; (5) the power to hold converse with
+animals; (6) invisibility, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> dematerializing at will; (7) walking
+on, and breathing under, water; (8) inflicting all manner of diseases
+and torments; (9) curing all kinds of diseases; (10) converting people
+into beasts and minerals; (11) foretelling the future by palmistry,
+pyromancy, hydromancy, astrology, etc.; (12) conjuring up all manner of
+spirits antagonistic to men's moral progress, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Vice
+Elementals&mdash;Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Taking every care to observe the greatest secrecy, Barrahneil caused a
+full account of these interviews with Daramara, together with all the
+instructions the latter had given him, to be transcribed in a book,
+which he called <i>Brahnapotek</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>&mdash;or the <i>Book of Mysteries</i>; and
+which he kept sealed and guarded in a room in his palace.</p>
+
+<p>During his lifetime no one held communication with Daramara saving
+himself and his friends, but after his death the secret of black magic
+leaked out; countless people sought to acquire it, and ultimately the
+practice of it became universal. But the Atlanteans little knew the
+danger they were incurring. The spirits they conjured up&mdash;though at
+first subservient, that is to say, mere instruments&mdash;at length obtained
+complete dominion over them&mdash;the whole race became steeped in crime and
+vice of every kind&mdash;and so horrible were the enormities perpetrated
+that, fearful lest Man should be entirely obliterated the benevolent
+Occult Powers, after a desperate struggle with the malevolent Occult
+Powers, succeeded, by means of a vast earthquake, in submerging the
+Continent and hurling it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where,
+what remains of it, now lies. This catastrophe took place in the reign
+of Aboonirin, twentieth sovereign of the Dynasty of Molonekin&mdash;three
+thousand years after the reign of Barrahneil.</p>
+
+<p>So ran the history of Atlantis, or at least all of it that need be
+quoted for the elucidation of this story. That Black Magic&mdash;the Black
+Art of the Atlanteans was by no means dead&mdash;Hamar felt convinced, and if
+Maitland could resuscitate it&mdash;why could not he? At any rate he might
+try. He could lose nothing by giving it a trial&mdash;at least nothing to
+speak of&mdash;the outlay on chemicals would be a mere song&mdash;whereas, on the
+other hand, what might he not gain! He eagerly perused the tests&mdash;the
+test he must impose upon himself before he could get in touch with the
+Unknown, and acquire the magic powers&mdash;which, according to Thomas
+Maitland, were copied from the original Brahnapotek, and including a
+preface, ran as follows: (<i>Preface</i>) &quot;It is essential that the person
+desirous of being initiated into the Black Art&mdash;the Art of communicating
+with the Unknown (Daramara) in order to acquire certain great powers,
+should dismiss from his mind all ideas of moral progress, and wholly
+concentrate on the bettering of his material self&mdash;on acquiring riches
+and fame in the physical sphere. His aspirations must be entirely
+earthly, and all his affections subordinate to his main desire for
+wealth and carnal pleasures. Having acquired this preliminary
+psychological stage, for one clear week he must give himself up entirely
+to the breaking of all the conventionalities of morality with which
+society is hedged in. He must practice every kind of deception&mdash;lie,
+cheat and steal, and go out of his way to seek an opportunity to avenge
+any personal injury; and if his mind is earnestly and wholly
+concentrated on acquiring knowledge of the Black Art no bodily mishap
+will befall him. During this time of probation he must will himself to
+dream, at night, of all the deeds he had it in his mind to do, during
+the day; when he will know, by his visions, to what extent he is
+progressing. At the end of the week he must apply the tests to see if he
+is in a ripe state to proceed.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The tests&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 1. At midnight, when the moon is full, place a mirror, set in a
+     wooden frame, in a tub of water, so that it will float on the
+     surface with its face uppermost. Put in the water fifteen grains
+     of bicarbonate of potash, and sprinkle it with three drops of
+     blood, not necessarily human. If the reflection of the moon in the
+     mirror then appear crimson, the test is satisfactorily
+     accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 2. At midnight, when the moon is full, take a black cat, place
+     it where the moonbeams are thickest, sprinkle it with three drops
+     of blood, not necessarily human, and rub its coat with the palm of
+     the hand. Sparks will then be given out, and if those sparks appear
+     crimson the test is satisfactorily done.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 3. Take a human skull&mdash;preferably that of some person who has
+     met with an unnatural end, pour on it a single drop of fresh, human
+     blood&mdash;place it on a couch, and go to sleep with the back part of
+     the head resting on it. If you are awakened, at the second hour
+     after midnight, by hearing a great commotion close at hand, and the
+     room is then discovered to be full of crimson light, the test is
+     satisfactorily fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 4. Take half a score of the berries of enchanter's
+     nightshade,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> two ounces of hemlock leaves in powder, and one
+     ounce of red sorrel leaves. Heat them in an oven for two hours,
+     pound them together, in a mortar, and at midnight boil them in
+     water. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, remove them from
+     the fire and stand them in a dark place; and if the experiment is
+     to prove satisfactory, three bubbles of luminous green light will
+     rise simultaneously from the water and burst.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 5. In the above preparation after the test described, soak a
+     hazel twig, fashioned in the shape of a fork. On meeting a child
+     hold the fork with the V downwards in front of its face, and if the
+     child exhibits violence and signs of terror, and falls down, the
+     experiment is successful.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No. 6. Take a couple of handfuls of fine soil from over the spot
+     where some four-footed animal has recently been buried. Put it in a
+     tin vessel, mix with it three ounces of assaf&oelig;tida and one drachm
+     of quassia chips, to which add a death's-head moth (<i>Acherontia
+     atropos</i>). Heat the vessel over a wood fire for three hours. Then
+     remove it and place it on the hearth, rake out the fire and make
+     the room absolutely dark. Keep watch beside the vessel, and if, at
+     the second hour after midnight, any strange phenomena occur, the
+     test will be known to have been satisfactorily executed. </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;(<i>Addendum</i>) If any of these tests fail the candidate must wait for six
+months before giving them a further trial, and he must occupy the
+interim by training his thoughts in the manner already prescribed. But
+if, on the other hand, the tests have been successfully performed, he
+can proceed with the rites appertaining to the Black Art.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar had read so far when, with a gesture of impatience, he closed the
+book. &quot;What a fool I am!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;to waste my time with such
+stuff!... But Maitland writes in such a devilish convincing way!
+Jerusalem! Any straw is good enough for the drowning man, and if
+witchcraft and sorcery with motors dashing by every second and the whole
+air alive with wireless and telephones, is a bit beyond my
+comprehension, what then? All I care about is money&mdash;and I'll leave no
+stone unturned to get it. If it were possible for man to get in touch
+with Daramara&mdash;the Unknown&mdash;Devil, or whatever else it chooses to call
+itself&mdash;I'll call it an angel if it only gives me money&mdash;twenty thousand
+years ago&mdash;why shouldn't it be possible to get in touch with it now?
+Anyhow as I said before, I'll have a try. As far as the preliminary
+stage is concerned, I fancy I'm pretty well fixed. My mind is occupied
+right enough with things of this world&mdash;I don't give a cent for anything
+belonging to another&mdash;and if only I had half a dozen souls, I'd sell
+them right away now, for less than twenty thousand dollars&mdash;a damned
+sight less. As for these tests&mdash;foolish isn't the word for them&mdash;but it
+won't cost much just to try them.... Now, according to Thomas Maitland,
+the ceremony of calling up the Unknown stands a far greater chance of
+success if there are three human beings present ... but, of course, if
+there is any truth in this business, I'd rather keep the secret of it to
+myself. However, if I try alone, the Unknown may not come to me, and
+then I shall have had all the trouble of going through the tests for
+nothing!... Ah! now I see! If the other two get more of the profits than
+I think necessary&mdash;I can make use of my newly acquired Occult Power
+to&mdash;to dissolve partnership! Ha! ha! I could&mdash;I could trick the Unknown
+if it comes to that. Trust a Jew to outwit the Devil! I'll just look up
+Kelson and&mdash;Curtis.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The river referred to by Maitland is the river Lagartos,
+which was then (1691) unnamed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> For chiche compare the ancient Maya or Yucatan word
+Chicken-Itza (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> name of town in Yucatan where excavations are now
+taking place&mdash;1912).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For Menes compare Mayan Menes, wise men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Compare Mayan Chaac-mol, a leopard.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Compare Ozil, Mayan for well-beloved.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Moo, Mayan for Macaw.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Nik&eacute;, woman's name in Mayan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Recent (1912) discoveries of statues in Easter Island still
+further corroborate the sinking of Atlantis.
+</p>
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin-left: 0px;" summary="Table for visual layout/alignment of Atlantean character comparisons.">
+<tr><td>The&nbsp;</td><td>Atlantean&nbsp;</td><td>character&nbsp;</td><td><img src="images/atl-cs.png" alt="[Atlantean: C]" width="19" height="16" />&nbsp;</td><td>resembles&nbsp;</td><td>the&nbsp;</td><td>Easter Island </td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-cs.png" alt="[Easter Island: C]" width="19" height="15" />&nbsp;</td><td>(C)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-os.png" alt="[Atlantean: O]" width="19" height="24" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-os.png" alt="[Easter Island: O]" width="19" height="23" />&nbsp;</td><td>(O)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-es.png" alt="[Atlantean: E]" width="19" height="15" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-es.png" alt="[Easter Island: E]" width="19" height="18" />&nbsp;</td><td>(E)</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td><img src="images/atl-zs.png" alt="[Atlantean: Z]" width="19" height="13" />&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td align="center">&quot;</td><td>&nbsp;<img src="images/est-zs.png" alt="[Easter Island: Z]" width="19" height="11" />&nbsp;</td><td>(Z)</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+It will be noticed that all the Atlantean characters are distinguished
+by additional curling strokes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In all probability she was the founder of Chicken-Itza, the
+capital of Yucatan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Types of Elementals still to be met with in certain
+localities (vide <i>Byeways of Ghostland</i>, published by Rider &amp; Son).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Compare Egyptian r&eacute;.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil was
+the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is every
+possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to Ireland,
+carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic&mdash;to which might be
+traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Probably a Vice Elemental.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were founded
+on it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in botany
+as <i>Circ&aelig;a</i>. It is found in damp, shady places and was used to a very
+large extent in medi&aelig;val sorcery.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>LEARNING TO SIN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the Popes
+hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are wont to
+entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there were no
+massive granite steps flanked with equally massive pillars&mdash;such as
+herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare glass bow-windows
+looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast betiled hall, with
+rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak staircases; no frescoed
+ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk draperies; and no sweet
+perfumery&mdash;only the smell, if one may so suddenly sink to a third-class
+expression&mdash;only the smell of rank tobacco and equally rank lager beer.
+No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis resided within a stone's throw of the five
+cent baths in Rutter Street&mdash;and that was the nearest they ever got to
+bathing. Their suite of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by
+eight feet, which served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir,
+kitchen, bedroom, and&mdash;from sheer force of habit, I was about to add
+bathroom; but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs
+and chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
+furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
+reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
+six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes&mdash;a pair of discarded
+overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck wrap, a
+yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round and rather
+rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited number of
+culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most important. Its
+handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for frying, roasting
+and boiling, did duty for a teapot and a slop-basin. They had no
+crockery. They had only one thing in abundance&mdash;namely, air; for the
+lower frame of the window having long lacked glass in it, a couple of
+pages of the <i>Examiner</i>, fixed in it, flapped dismally every time the
+wind came blowing down 216th Street.</p>
+
+<p>They had not lived there always. In the palmy days of work, before the
+firm smashed, they had aspired to what might properly be called
+diggings; and, moreover, had &quot;digged&quot; in respectable surroundings. It
+was the usual thing&mdash;the thing that is happening always, every hour of
+the day, in all the great cities of the world&mdash;starvation, through lack
+of employment. Civilization still shuts its eyes to everyday poverty.
+Who knows? Who cares? Who is responsible? No one. Is there a remedy? Ah!
+that is a question that requires time. Time&mdash;always time! Time for the
+politician, and time for the starving ones! Half the world thinks,
+whilst half the world dies; and the cause of it all is time&mdash;too much, a
+damned sight too much&mdash;time!</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson and Curtis could not grumble. They had their room&mdash;bare,
+dirty and well-ventilated&mdash;for next to nothing. Fifty cents a week! And
+they could furnish it as they pleased. Fancy that! What a privilege!
+They were glad of it all the same&mdash;glad of it in preference to the
+streets; and probably, when asleep, they thought of it as home. But on
+leaving Hamar's, that evening, they had fully resolved to convert their
+little room into a cemetery. What else could they do? What can any one
+do who has no money and no prospect of getting any, and who has reached
+the pitch of acute hunger? He has passed the stage of wanting work,
+because, if work were offered to him, he would not be in a fit state to
+do it&mdash;he would be too weak. Too weak to work! What a phenomenon!
+Yes&mdash;to all those who have never missed a day's meals. To others&mdash;no!
+They can understand&mdash;and understand only too well&mdash;the really poor who
+have long ceased to eat, cannot work&mdash;they are beyond it.</p>
+
+<p>When Curtis and Kelson staggered down the stairs of the house where
+Hamar lodged, they realized that unless something turned up pretty soon,
+it would be too late&mdash;they would be past the stage of caring for
+anything&mdash;too feeble to do anything but lie on the ground and pray that
+death would come quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Home?&quot; Kelson inquired, as they emerged on to the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hell!&quot; Curtis answered, and Kelson, taking it for granted that the
+terms were synonymous, at once headed for their garret.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't walk so confoundedly fast,&quot; Curtis gasped; &quot;this pain in my side
+is like a hundred stitches rolled in one. It fairly doubles me up. Ease
+down a bit, for heaven's sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson obeyed, and presently came to a dead halt before a dingy-looking
+restaurant. Both men leaned against the window and gazed wolfishly at
+the food. A warm, f&oelig;tid rush of air from under the grating at their
+feet tickled their nostrils and mocked their hunger with a mockery past
+endurance. Arranged on the window-sill was a miscellaneous collection of
+very smeary plates and dishes, containing an even more miscellaneous
+collection of food. A half-consumed ham, with more than a mere suspicion
+of dirt on its yellowish-white fat; some concoction in a bowl that might
+have been brawn made from some peculiarly liverish pig, or&mdash;from one of
+the many homeless mongrels that roam the streets at night; a pile of
+noxious-looking mussels, side by side with a glistening mass of
+particularly yellow whelks; a round of what purported to be beef&mdash;very
+fat and very underdone; some black shiny sausages, and a score or so of
+luridly red polonies. A similar assortment was to be seen on the counter
+behind which lolled an an&aelig;mic girl, in a dirty cotton blouse, and a much
+soiled sky-blue skirt.</p>
+
+<p>A month ago such an exhibition would have been an offence in the
+fastidious eyes of Messrs. Kelson and Curtis; but now it was otherwise.
+Their stomachs would have refused nothing short of garbage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Curtis's hands had left off clutching at his belt and were now
+hanging by his side; the fingers twitching to and fro in a manner that
+fascinated Kelson. &quot;Matt! Is there any logic in our starving?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, excepting that we haven't a cent between us!&quot; Kelson rejoined.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that,&quot; Curtis went on slowly, &quot;but&mdash;I mean&mdash;why should we starve
+when all this grub is within two inches of us! It's unreasonable&mdash;it's
+intolerable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doesn't the smell of it satisfy you?&quot; Kelson replied, attempting to
+force a smile, and failing dismally.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D&mdash;n the smell!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;It's the ham I want. I'd give my soul
+for a good munch at it. And just look at that tea, too! Don't you see it
+steaming over there? What wouldn't I give for just one cup! Ten minutes
+more and it may be too late. The pain will come on again&mdash;and it will be
+very doubtful if I shall ever get home. I'm close on the stage when one
+begins to digest one's own stomach. Curse it! I won't starve any longer!
+Matt! she's in there all by herself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I've been thinking,&quot; Kelson murmured, glancing uneasily up and down
+the street. &quot;Still she's a girl, Ed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's just it!&quot; Curtis whispered; &quot;it is because she is a girl. If she
+were a man, in our present condition we shouldn't stand a chance. Come!
+It's this or dying in the gutters. It's our one and only chance. Let's
+go in&mdash;have a feed&mdash;take what we can and make a bolt for it. If she
+tries to stop us we can settle her right enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without being too rough! There's no need to be too rough with her, Ed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't stick at much!&quot; Curtis answered. &quot;Occasions like these
+don't admit of chivalry. Come along! It's the ham I'm after.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis shuffled forward as he spoke, and the next moment Kelson and he
+were standing in front of the counter.</p>
+
+<p>The girl eyed Curtis very dubiously and it is more than likely would
+have refused to serve him had he been alone. But her expression changed
+on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who seldom
+fail to meet with the approval of women&mdash;there was a something in him
+they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined that
+something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you want?&quot; she inquired shortly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ham! Give me some of that ham over there, miss, and a cup of tea! Bread
+too!&quot; Curtis cried eagerly. &quot;Do you know what it is to have a twist on,
+miss? I have one on now&mdash;so please give us a full twenty-five cents'
+worth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson said nothing, but his eyes glistened, and the girl wondered as
+she passed him the polonies.</p>
+
+<p>Both men ate as they had never eaten before, and as they would not have
+eaten now had they paid any attention to the advice of hunger experts.
+However, they survived, and when they could eat no more they leaned back
+in their chairs to enjoy the sensation of returning&mdash;albeit, slowly
+returning&mdash;strength.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was the first to make a move. &quot;Matt,&quot; he murmured, &quot;we've about
+sat our sit. We'd better be off. You go and say a few nice words to the
+girl and make pretence of paying. I'll secure the ham&mdash;there's still a
+good bit left&mdash;and anything else I can grab. The moment I do this, throw
+these chairs on the ground so that the girl will fall over them when she
+makes a dash for me, which she is certain to do. We will then head
+straight away for 216th Street. Don't look so scared or she will think
+there is something up. She has never taken her eyes off you since we sat
+down!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's rather a nice girl!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I wish I didn't look quite
+such a blackguard&mdash;and&mdash;I wish I hadn't to be quite such a blackguard.
+Who'll pay for all this? Will she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't, anyway,&quot; Curtis sneered. &quot;Come, this is no time to be
+sentimental. It was a question of life and death with us, and we've only
+done what any one else would do in our circumstances. The girl won't
+lose much! Are you ready?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose, and Kelson, who was accustomed to obey him, reluctantly
+followed suit. A look almost suggestive of fear came into the girl's
+eyes as they encountered those of Curtis, and she shot a swift glance at
+an inner door. Then Kelson spoke, and as she turned her head towards
+him, her lips parted in a sort of smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nice night, miss, isn't it?&quot; Kelson said, halting half-way between the
+counter and the chairs. &quot;Aren't you a bit lonely here all by yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes,&quot; the girl laughed. &quot;But my mother's in the room there,&quot; and
+she nodded in the direction of the closed door. &quot;And one can't be dull
+when she's about. She's that there active as a rule, there's no keeping
+her quiet&mdash;only just at present&quot;&mdash;here she glanced apprehensively at
+Curtis&mdash;&quot;she's recovering from ague. Gets it every year about this time.
+Your friend seems to have kind of taken a fancy to our ham!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson looked at Curtis and his heart thumped. Curtis's right hand was
+getting ready to spring at the ham, whilst his left was creeping
+stealthily along the counter in the direction of a loaf of bread. Kelson
+slowly realized that an acute crisis in both their lives was at hand,
+and that it depended on him how it would end. He had never thought it
+possible to feel as mean as he felt now. Besides, his natural sympathy
+with women tempted him to stand by the girl and prevent Curtis from
+robbing her. He was still deliberating, when he saw two long dark
+objects, with lightning rapidity, swoop down on the plates and dishes.
+There was a loud clatter, and the next moment the whole place seemed
+alive with movement.</p>
+
+<p>A voice which in his confusion he did not recognize at once shouted&mdash;and
+seemingly from far away&mdash;&quot;Quick, you fool, quick! Fling down the chairs
+and grab those sausages!&quot; Whilst from close beside him&mdash;almost, he
+fancied, in his ears&mdash;came a wild shriek of &quot;Mother! Mother! We are
+being robbed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had the girl appealed to him to help her it is more than likely that
+Kelson, who was even yet undecided what course to adopt, would have
+offered her his aid; but the instant she acted on the defensive his mind
+was made up; a mad spirit of self-preservation swept over him&mdash;and
+dashing the chairs on the ground at her feet, he seized the sausages,
+and flew after Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, Curtis and Kelson, their arms full of spoil,
+clambered up the staircase of their lodgings, and reeled into their
+room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look!&quot; Curtis gasped, sinking into the chair. &quot;Look and see if we are
+followed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no one about!&quot; Kelson whispered, peering cautiously out of the
+window. &quot;Not a soul! I don't believe after that first rush across Rutter
+Street, any one noticed us. To leave off running was far the best thing
+to do. You are a perfect genius, Ed. I wonder if this sort of
+thing&mdash;er&mdash;thieving&mdash;is dormant in most of us? I say, old fellow, I wish
+I hadn't looked at that book of Hamar's. Do you know, directly I took it
+up, an extraordinary sensation of cunning came over me; and I declare,
+when I put it down, I felt it would take very little to make me a
+criminal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're both criminals now&mdash;in the eyes of the law&mdash;anyway!&quot; Curtis
+said. &quot;And now we've got so far there's no alternative but to go on!
+It's easier for a hundred camels to pass through the eye of a needle
+than for a clerk to get work, that's a fact. The markets are hopelessly
+overstocked&mdash;no one wants us! No one helps us! No one even thinks about
+us. The labouring man gets pity and cents galore&mdash;we get
+nothing!&mdash;nothing but rotten pay whilst we work, and when we're out of
+work, dosshouses or kerbstones. D&mdash;n clerks, I say. D&mdash;n everything!
+There's no justice in creation&mdash;there's no justice in anything&mdash;and the
+only people who prate of it are those who have never known what it is to
+want. Say, when shall we take the next lot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When we're obliged, not before!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;Or rather, you do as you
+like&mdash;and I'll do the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'm not going to commit suicide anyhow,&quot; Curtis sneered. &quot;We
+haven't the money to buy poison&mdash;and I've no mind to drown myself or cut
+my throat&mdash;they're too painful! If we don't go on doing what we've done
+to-night, what are we going to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust to luck,&quot; Kelson sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right&mdash;you trust to luck&mdash;but I won't trust any more in Providence,
+and that's a fact,&quot; Curtis retorted. &quot;We've been done enough. Now I'm
+for doing other people. Good-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He tumbled into the makeshift bed as he spoke; and in a few minutes,
+worn out after the unwonted exertions of the evening, both men were fast
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>They were at breakfast next morning&mdash;real <i>d&eacute;jeuner &agrave; la
+carte</i>&mdash;sausages, bread, water&mdash;and they were doing ample justice to it,
+when some one rapped at the door. For a few seconds there was silence.
+Their hearts stood still. Had they been followed, after all? Was it the
+police? Some one spoke&mdash;and they breathed again. It was Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This looks like starving, I must say!&quot; Hamar exclaimed, as he sniffed
+his way into the room and sat on the bed. &quot;Why, from what you fellows
+told me last night I thought you were cleared out. And here you are,
+stuffing like roosters! You look a bit surprised to see me, but you'll
+look more surprised, I reckon, when I tell you what brings me here. You
+remember that book?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson and Curtis nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;I read it after you left last night, and I've
+come to the conclusion that there's something in it that may be of use
+to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Us!&quot; Curtis ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! Us!&quot; Hamar mimicked. &quot;It contains full particulars of how we can
+get in touch with certain Occult Powers&mdash;that can give us money or
+anything else we want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot, of course!&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say that now. But, listen to me,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;Since I've read
+that book, I believe there's a lot more in Occultism than people
+imagine. You may recollect the name of the author of the book&mdash;Thomas
+Maitland? Well! to begin with, he impresses me as being truthful; and he
+not only believed in Magic but he practised it. If he hadn't gone into
+details I shouldn't think anything of it, but he's so darned thorough,
+and tells you exactly what you've got to do to get in touch with the
+Occult Powers and to practise sorcery. He learned it all from that old
+MS. he found, written by an Atlantean; and the Atlanteans, he says, were
+adepts in every form of Occultism. I tell you, this chap himself
+scoffed at it at first; and it was more out of curiosity, he says, than
+because he was convinced, that he began to experiment. He afterwards
+came to the conclusion that the Atlanteans were no fools. What they had
+written about the Occult was absolutely correct&mdash;there was another
+world, and it was possible to get in touch with it. Now, if Thomas
+Maitland was able to practise sorcery, why can't we? There was a gap of
+close on twenty thousand years between his time and that of Atlantis,
+and there's not much more than two hundred years between his day and
+ours. But, of course, if you're going to pooh-pooh the whole thing I
+won't trouble to tell you any more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Leon,&quot; Kelson ejaculated, &quot;magic and sorcery do seem a trifle out
+of date, don't they? Could any one look out of the window at what is
+going on in the streets below, and at the same time believe in fairies
+and hobgoblins? Still the book made a bit of an impression on me, so
+that I'm inclined to agree with you. Anyway, go ahead! Ed is agreeable,
+aren't you, Ed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis gave a sulky nod. &quot;I'm not averse to anything that may put us in
+the way of a livelihood,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, somewhat appeased, briefly informed them of the tests and other
+preliminaries necessary for the acquirement of the Black Art, and
+without more ado proposed that they&mdash;the three of them&mdash;should form a
+Syndicate and call it the Sorcery Company Limited. &quot;To begin with,&quot; he
+said, &quot;we might sell tricks and spells, and later on tackle something
+more subtle. Why, we could soon knock all the jugglers and doctors on
+the head&mdash;and make a huge fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is to say if it isn't all humbug!&quot; Curtis observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well&mdash;do you or don't you think it worth trying?&quot; Hamar cut in. &quot;You
+call me a Jew&mdash;but Jews, you know, have a tolerably cool head, and a
+keen faculty for business. They don't touch anything unless it is pretty
+certain to bring them in money. Will you try?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Y-e-s!&quot; Curtis said slowly; &quot;I'll try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you, Matt?&quot; Hamar queried. &quot;We must have three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mind trying,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I expect it will be only a try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That settles it, then!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Now, we'll get to business. To
+begin with we're all wholly occupied with things of this world&mdash;money
+chiefly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes music!&quot; Curtis said sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And sometimes girls,&quot; Kelson joined in. &quot;Music's a pose on Ed's part. I
+don't believe he really cares a bit for it. He's far too material.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what I want him to be!&quot; Hamar laughed. &quot;Girls are material enough
+too&mdash;especially when you take them out to supper. Anyhow, money is our
+first consideration, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To this there was general assent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The preliminary requirement is fixed then,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Now for the
+week of wild oats! Lying, stealing, cheating&mdash;anything to counteract the
+code of Moses! Let's take them in turn. Lying won't trouble us much.
+Every one lies. Lying is the stock-in-trade of doctors, lawyers, sky
+pilots, storekeepers&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And dentists!&quot; Curtis chimed in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And shop girls!&quot; Kelson added.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All women&mdash;rich as well as poor!&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;Lying is woman's
+birthright. She lies about her age, her looks, her clothes&mdash;everything.
+With a lie she sends callers away, and when she is in the mood,
+entertains them with lies. Women are born liars, but they are not the
+only liars. In these days of keen competition every one lies&mdash;every
+editor, publisher, undertaker, piano-tuner, dustman&mdash;they couldn't live
+if they didn't. Moreover lying is natural to us all. Every child lies as
+soon as it can speak; and education merely teaches him to lie the more
+effectually. Lying comes just as natural as sweating&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or kissing,&quot; Kelson interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or any of the other so-called vices,&quot; Hamar continued. &quot;So we can
+manage that all right. As to cheating&mdash;having nothing to cheat
+with&mdash;according to instructions we've got to keep in with each other, so
+present company is excepted&mdash;we must pass over that. Now&mdash;how about
+thieving!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never done any yet, so can't say,&quot; Curtis exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I either,&quot; Kelson put in rather hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I didn't suppose you had!&quot; Hamar laughed; &quot;though, after all,
+more than half the world does thieve&mdash;all employers steal labour from
+their employ&eacute;s, all tradesmen steal a profit&mdash;the wholesale man from the
+middleman&mdash;the middleman from the retailer. Every Government thieves.
+Look at England&mdash;righteous England! At one time or another she has
+stolen land in every part of the world. But theft is an ugly word. When
+statesmen steal it's called diplomacy, when the rich steal it's called
+kleptomania or business, and it's only when the poor steal that stealing
+is termed theft. We who have every excuse&mdash;we who are starving&mdash;will be
+content with&mdash;that is to say&mdash;we will only take&mdash;just enough to keep us
+alive&mdash;a few lumps of sugar, a handful of raisins, or a loaf of bread.
+How about that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might manage that,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;I might&mdash;but I don't want to get
+caught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mind stealing food so much,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;In the face of so
+much wealth&mdash;and waste too&mdash;it seems a bigger sin to starve than to
+steal a loaf of bread.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The lying and stealing are fixed then,&quot; Hamar laughed. &quot;What you have
+to do, too, is to make the most of every opportunity you can find of
+doing people&mdash;present company excepted&mdash;bad turns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how&mdash;in our present condition&mdash;we can do any one much
+harm,&quot; Curtis remarked. &quot;We haven't even the means to buy a tin sword,
+let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
+instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Possibly&mdash;but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!&quot; Hamar
+said. &quot;Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given you, and
+we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TESTS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door and
+walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see we are all right so far,&quot; he said. &quot;I wondered whether I should
+find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death. Have
+you experimented?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;We've done our best. In what way, we prefer not
+to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps there is no need,&quot; Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf which
+bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's feet
+which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A handsome
+overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his attention; but
+that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been there on the
+occasion of his last visit.) &quot;But you had better dry up now, Ed,&quot; he
+continued somewhat caustically, &quot;or there'll be no chance of forming the
+Sorcery Society; it will be dissolved before it's started. There's no
+need to ask if you've tried to carry out instructions as to thoughts, I
+see it&mdash;in your faces. I could never have believed one experimental week
+in badness would have made such a difference to your looks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You told us to try hard!&quot; Kelson murmured, &quot;and naturally we did. I
+reckon you've done the same by your expression. I should hardly have
+known you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It shows pretty clearly,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;what a lot of bad is latent in
+most people; and that the right circumstances only are needed to bring
+it out. Starvation, for instance, is calculated to bring out the evil in
+any one&mdash;no matter whom. But what puzzles me, is how we have escaped
+being caught!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a good sign,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It bears out what is written in the
+book. If you give your whole mind to doing wrong during this trial week
+you'll meet with no mishap. But you must be heart and soul in it. Hunger
+made us&mdash;hunger has been our friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;if we hadn't been well-nigh starving we shouldn't
+have been able to carry out the instructions quite so thoroughly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you, too, stolen?&quot; Curtis queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have certainly appropriated a few necessaries,&quot; Hamar said shortly,
+&quot;but I mean to stop now. We have higher game to fly at. Now, with regard
+to the tests. I have not been idle I can assure you. I have secured all
+the requisites. The mirror and black cat I&mdash;well, er&mdash;to use a
+conventionalism that comes in rather handy&mdash;the mirror and cat&mdash;I picked
+up. The skull I borrowed from a medical I know&mdash;the moth&mdash;er&mdash;from some
+one's private collection&mdash;and the elderberries, hemlock and chemicals I
+obtained from a drug store man in Battery Street with whom I used to
+deal. The moon will be full to-night so that we may as well begin. Will
+you come round to my room at eleven-thirty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They promised; and Hamar, as he took his departure, again glanced at
+the handsome fur coat hanging on the door.</p>
+
+<p>He was hardly out of hearing when Curtis looked across at Kelson. &quot;Do
+you think he recognised it!&quot; he whispered. &quot;You may bet he did, and he
+had only just stolen it himself! However, it's his own fault. He told us
+to lie and steal, and we've done his bidding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have indeed!&quot; Kelson sighed; &quot;at least you have. For my part I'd
+rather be content with food!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I needed clothes just as much as food!&quot; Curtis snarled. &quot;If I
+went about naked I should only be sent to prison&mdash;that's the law. It
+punishes you for taking clothes, and it punishes you for going without
+them. There's logic for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis and Kelson spent the rest of the day indoors; and at night
+sallied forth to Hamar's.</p>
+
+<p>The solitary attic&mdash;if one could thus designate a space of about three
+square feet&mdash;which comprised Hamar's lodging&mdash;had the advantage of being
+situated in the top storey of a skyscraper&mdash;at least a skyscraper for
+that part of the city. From its window could be seen, high above the
+serried ranks of chimney-pots on the opposite side of the street, those
+two newly erected buildings: William Carman's chewing gum factory in
+Hearnes Street, and Mark Goddard's eight-storied private residence in
+Van Ness Avenue; and, as if this were not enough architectural grace for
+the eye to dwell on, glimmering away to the right was the needle-like
+spire of Moss Bates's devil-dodging establishment in Branman Street;
+whilst, just behind it, in saucy mocking impudence, peeped out the
+gilded roof of the Knee Brothers' recently erected Cinematograph Palace.</p>
+
+<p>All this and more&mdash;much more&mdash;was to be seen from Hamar's outlook, and
+all for the sum of one dollar and a half per week. When Curtis and
+Kelson entered, the room was aglow with moonlight, and Hamar and the
+black cat were stealthily regarding one another from opposite corners of
+the room. From far away&mdash;from somewhere in the very base of the
+building, came the dull echo of a shout, succeeded by the violent
+slamming of a door; whilst from outside, from one of the many deserted
+thoroughfares below, rose the frightened cry of a fugitive woman.
+Otherwise all was comparatively still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a bit early!&quot; was Hamar's greeting, &quot;but better that than late.
+Everything is ready, and all we've got to do is to wait till twelve. Sit
+down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They did as they were bid. Presently the cat, forsaking its sanctuary,
+and ignoring Curtis's solicitations, glided across the floor, and
+climbing on to Kelson's knee, refused to budge. The trio sat in silence
+till a few minutes before midnight, when Hamar rose, and, selecting a
+spot where the moonbeams lay thickest, placed thereon the tub of water,
+in which&mdash;with its face uppermost&mdash;he proceeded to float a small mirror,
+set in a cheap wooden frame. He then calmly produced a pocket knife.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that for?&quot; Kelson inquired nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blood!&quot; Hamar responded. &quot;One of us must spare three drops. The
+conditions demand it&mdash;and after all the ham and sausages you two have
+eaten I think one of you can spare it best. Which of you shall it be?
+Come, there's no time to lose!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt has more blood than I have!&quot; Curtis growled; &quot;but why not the
+cat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would spoil our chances with it for the other experiment,&quot; Hamar
+said. &quot;It's a sulky, cross-grained brute, and would give us no end of
+trouble. Besides it can bite. Look here, let's draw lots!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis and Kelson were inclined to demur; but the proposed method was so
+in accordance with custom that there really did not seem any feasible
+objection to raise to it. Accordingly lots were drawn&mdash;and Hamar himself
+was the victim. Curtis laughed coarsely, and Kelson hid his smiles in
+the cat's coat. A neighbouring clock now began to strike twelve.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look alive, Leon!&quot; Curtis cried, nudging Kelson's elbow. &quot;Look alive or
+it will be too late. The Unknown is mighty particular to a few seconds.
+Let me operate on you. I've always fancied I was born to use the
+knife&mdash;that I've really missed my vocation. You needn't be
+afraid&mdash;there's no artery in the palm of your hand&mdash;you won't bleed to
+death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus goaded, Hamar pricked away nervously at his hand, and, after sundry
+efforts, at last succeeded in drawing blood; three drops of which he
+very carefully let fall in the tub.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish it was light so that we could see it,&quot; Curtis whispered in
+Kelson's ear. &quot;I believe Jews have different coloured blood to other
+people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though Kelson was apprehensive, Hamar did not appear to have heard; his
+whole attention was riveted on the mirror, on the face of which was a
+reflection of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew nothing would happen,&quot; Curtis cried, &quot;you had better wipe your
+knife or you'll be arrested for severing some one's jugular. Hulloa!
+what's up with the cat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was about to tell him to be quiet when Kelson caught his arm.
+&quot;Look, Leon! Look! What's the brute doing? Is it mad?&quot; Kelson gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar turned his head&mdash;and there crouching on the floor, in the
+moonlight, was the cat, its hair bristling on end and its green eyes
+ablaze with an expression which held all three men speechless. When they
+were at last able to avert their eyes a fresh surprise awaited them; the
+reflection of the moon in the mirror was red&mdash;not an ordinary red&mdash;not
+merely a colour&mdash;but red with a lurid luminosity that vibrated with
+life&mdash;with a life that all three men at once recognized as emanating
+from nothing physical&mdash;from nothing good.</p>
+
+<p>It vanished suddenly, quite as suddenly as it had come; and the
+reflection of the moon was once again only a reflection&mdash;a white, placid
+sphere.</p>
+
+<p>For some seconds no one spoke. Hamar was the first to break the silence.
+&quot;Well!&quot; he exclaimed, drawing a long breath; &quot;what do you think of
+that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you sure you weren't faking?&quot; Curtis said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear I wasn't,&quot; Hamar replied; &quot;besides could any one produce a
+thing like THAT? The cat didn't think it was a fake&mdash;it knew what it was
+right enough. Besides, why are your teeth chattering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are yours?&quot; Curtis retorted; &quot;why are Matt's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall we try the second?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Kelson and Curtis said in chorus. &quot;No! We've had enough for one
+night. We'll be off!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I'll come with you,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;after what has happened I
+don't quite relish sleeping here alone&mdash;or rather with that cat.
+Hi&mdash;Satan, where are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Satan was not visible. It had probably hidden under the bed, but as no
+one cared to look, its whereabouts remained undiscovered.</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of the sun, the terrors of the night wore off, and the
+trio separated. Hamar would on no account accept his friends' invitation
+to breakfast on the sausages and ham they had run such risks in
+procuring; he made hasty tracks for a snug restaurant in Bolter's
+Street, where he had a sumptuous repast for a dollar; and then slunk
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight all three met again, and at once commenced
+preparations for the second test. The question arose as to who should
+hold Satan. They all had vivid recollections of the cat's behaviour the
+previous night; consequently no one was anxious to officiate. Finally
+they drew lots, and fate settled on Curtis. An exciting chase now began.
+Satan, demonstrating his resentment of their treatment of him, at every
+turn, knocked over a water bottle, ripped the skin of Kelson's knuckles,
+and made his teeth meet in the fleshy part of Curtis's thumb.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! what are you up to?&quot; Curtis savagely demanded, as Hamar thrust
+a cup at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold your hand over it!&quot; Hamar said sharply. &quot;Don't suck it! We want
+blood for this test and for the next.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish the brute had bitten you!&quot; Curtis snarled; &quot;then, perhaps, you
+wouldn't be so precious keen on economics. You did right to name it
+Satan! and if it doesn't attract devils nothing will. I'm not going to
+touch it again. See if you can hold the beast by yourself, Matt! It
+seems to be less afraid of you than of either of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson called out: &quot;Puss!&quot;, and the cat at once came to him.</p>
+
+<p>As it was now striking twelve, Hamar carefully shook three drops of
+Curtis's blood from the cup on to Satan's back, while he instructed
+Kelson to rub the animal's coat with the palm of the hand. Kelson
+cautiously obeyed. There was a loud crackling and a shower of sparks, of
+the same lurid red colour as the reflection in the mirror on the
+previous night, flew out into the enveloping darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do!&quot; Hamar observed quietly. &quot;Test two is satisfactorily
+accomplished. We must be riper for Hell than we imagined. There is no
+need for you fellows to stay any longer. I can manage the third test
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as his colleagues had gone and he felt assured they were no
+longer within hearing, Hamar took a saucer from the mantelshelf, filled
+it half full of milk, and poured into it some colourless liquid out of a
+tiny phial labelled poison.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here pussy,&quot; he called out, softly. &quot;Pretty pussy, come and have your
+supper! Pussy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Satan, unable to resist the tempting sight of the milk, crept out of
+his hiding-place and quite unsuspiciously dipped his tongue into the
+saucer and lapped. Hamar, in the meanwhile went to a box at the foot of
+the bed and produced a sack. Then he slipped on his boots and coat, and
+opening the door of a cupboard near the head of the bed fetched out a
+small spade.</p>
+
+<p>He was now ready; and&mdash;so was pussy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That paves the way for test six,&quot; Hamar observed; &quot;no one can say I am
+a waster&mdash;I make use of everything&mdash;and every one;&quot; and so saying he
+tumbled the cat into the sack and hurried out.</p>
+
+<p>Some half-hour later he had returned to his room, and was busily engaged
+making preparations for test three. Letting a drop of Curtis's blood
+fall on the skull, he put the latter under his pillow, and retired to
+rest. He had slept for little over an hour, when he awoke with a start.
+The muffled sound of hammering&mdash;as of nails in a coffin&mdash;was going on
+all around him, and occasionally it seemed to him that something big and
+heavy stalked across the floor; but in spite of the fact that the room
+was illuminated with a red glow&mdash;the same lurid red as had appeared in
+tests one and two&mdash;nothing was to be seen. The phenomena lasted five or
+six minutes and then everything was again normal. Hamar was so terrified
+that he lay with his head under the bedclothes till morning, and vowed
+nothing on earth would persuade him to sleep in that room again. But
+sunlight soon restored his courage, and by the evening he was quite
+eager to go on with the next test. He had some difficulty in persuading
+any one to allow him the use of an oven for so pernicious a mixture as
+nightshade and hemlock; but at last he over-ruled the objections of some
+good-natured woman&mdash;the mother of one of the office boys at his former
+employer's&mdash;and test four proved as successful as the previous three.
+The preliminary part of test five was also successfully accomplished;
+but in carrying out the second part of it, Hamar all but met with
+disaster. He was walking along Kearney Street with the specially
+prepared hazel twig carefully concealed beneath his coat, when just
+opposite Saddler's jewelry store, he came across a child standing by
+itself. The nearest person being some fifty yards away, and no policeman
+within sight, Hamar concluded this was too good an opportunity to be
+lost. He whipped out the twig, and held it, in the manner prescribed, in
+front of the child. The effect was instantaneous. The child turned
+white as death, its eyes bulged with terror, and opening its mouth to
+its full extent it commenced to shriek and yell. Then it fell on the
+pavement; and clutching and clawing the air, and foaming at the mouth
+rolled over and over. People from every quarter flocked to the spot, and
+judging Hamar, from his proximity to the child, to be responsible for
+its condition, shouted for the police. The latter, however, arrived too
+late. Hamar, whose presence of mind had only left him for the moment
+seeing a bicycle leaning against a store door, jumped on it and soon put
+a respectable distance between himself and the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>That night the trio met once more in Hamar's room for test six. There
+was a wood fire in the grate, and on it a tin vessel containing the
+prescribed ingredients. Somewhat unpleasantly conspicuous amongst these
+ingredients were the death's-head moth, and the soil from Satan's grave.
+As soon as the mixture had been heated three hours, the vessel was
+removed, the fire extinguished, and the room made absolutely dark. Then
+the three sat close together and waited.</p>
+
+<p>On the stroke of two every article in the room began to rattle, whilst
+out of the tin vessel flew a blood red moth. After circling three times
+round each of the sitter's heads, the moth flew back again into the
+vessel, and the silence that ensued was followed by a soft tapping at
+the window, and the appearance of something, that resembled a big tube
+filled with a thick, pale blue fluid, made up of a mass of distinct
+veins. This tube floated into the room, and passing close to the three
+sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared in the wall,
+behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had broken,
+terminated the phenomena&mdash;the room again becoming pitch dark. But the
+three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
+manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
+huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INITIATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>San Francisco possesses one great advantage&mdash;you can easily get out of
+it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
+turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair as
+any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to one
+side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs can be
+traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of vines and
+weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and climbing to its
+heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the Coast Range&mdash;like
+a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay, sparkling and dancing
+in the sunlight&mdash;steamers flashing their path on its bosom; and tiny
+white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the city, its houses,
+small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas boxes; whilst the
+slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here and there are thick
+clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is partly hidden from view
+by a peak, which rises directly to the west, and is separated from that
+on which one is standing by a deep and thickly wooded valley.
+Descending, by means of a narrow winding path, one passes through dense
+clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash, and walnut trees, whose
+strong lateral branches afford ample protection from the sun, and at the
+same time furnish playgrounds to innumerable bright-eyed squirrels.
+Further down one comes upon gentle elms, succeeded by sassafras and
+locust&mdash;these, in their turn, succeeded by the softer linden, red bud,
+catalpa, and maple; and at the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom
+of the valley, wild shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and
+white poplars. Still following the path down the vale, in a southerly
+direction, one, at length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on
+all sides by trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and
+there, a gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip
+tree of some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and
+profuse blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and
+splendour; there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall
+and slender silver birch. The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most
+part, grass&mdash;soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green. The silence is
+such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San
+Francisco can be little over six miles distant. Though one may strain
+one's ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional
+tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of
+birds. It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so
+impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot
+essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.</p>
+
+<p>The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen&mdash;and the
+conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be a
+new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in
+opposition to Jupiter,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> Hamar and his confederates had to wait
+exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests,
+before they could proceed.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis
+and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and
+bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in
+hiding, they commenced operations.</p>
+
+<p>On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was
+clearly defined. This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner
+circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next
+drawn. In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the
+first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the
+seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven most
+malignant diseases. Within the second circle, and using the same centre,
+was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each part of
+the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and third circles,
+were written the names of the seven types of spirits most antagonistic
+to man's moral progress.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Hamar had brought with him a sack&mdash;the same he had used to transport
+Satan's corpse&mdash;and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby,
+that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was
+tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a good thing there is no member of the Society for the Prevention
+of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near,&quot; Kelson exclaimed, eyeing Hamar
+resentfully. &quot;Wouldn't a mouse or a rat have done as well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the ground;
+&quot;the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat. I got the
+poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just as much as
+you do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How are you going to do it?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar pointed to a chopper. &quot;The conditions say with steel,&quot; he said;
+&quot;only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
+other way. Now help me with the fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
+well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
+tin saucepan.</p>
+
+<p>With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle; and
+the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then poured
+into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic acid, 1
+ounce of verdigris, 1&frac12; ounces of hemlock leaves, &frac12; ounce of
+henbane, &frac34; ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of opium, 1
+ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of poppy-seed,
+&frac12; ounce of assaf&oelig;tida, and &frac12; ounce of parsley. As soon as the
+saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar threw into it
+two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where on earth did you get all those horrors?&quot; Curtis asked, shrinking
+away from the bag which had held them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here,&quot; Hamar said laconically. &quot;It's extraordinary what a lot of nasty
+things there are amid so much apparent beauty. I say apparent, because
+Nature is a champion faker. You have only to rake about in these bushes
+and you'll find snakes galore, whilst under pretty nearly every stone
+are centipedes. Like both of you, who never by any chance poke your
+noses outside the city, I fancied snakes and centipedes were confined to
+the prairies. But I know better now. Besides, where do you think I found
+the toads? Why, in the cellars under Meidlers'!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, our late governor's?&quot; Kelson cried.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar nodded. &quot;Yes!&quot; he said; &quot;under the very spot where we used to sit.
+The water's a foot deep in that cellar, and if there are as many toads
+in the cellars of the other houses in the block, then Sacramento Street
+has a corner in them. I'm going to be executioner now, so look the other
+way, Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson needed no second bidding; and sticking his fingers in his ears,
+walked to some little distance. When Hamar called him back, the deed was
+accomplished&mdash;the conditions prescribed in the rites had been
+observed&mdash;the tabby was in the saucepan on the fire, and its blood had
+been besprinkled on each of the seven sectors of the circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must now take our seats on the ground,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;I'd better be
+in the centre&mdash;you, Matt, on the right, and you, Ed, on the
+left&mdash;allowing three clear feet between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar showed them how to sit&mdash;with legs crossed and arms folded.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes no one spoke. The wind rustled through the bushes and
+an owl hooted. Kelson, feeling the night air cold, drew his overcoat
+tightly around and the others followed suit. Then Curtis said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you really think there's anything in it, Leon? Aren't we fools to go
+on wasting our time like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To which Hamar replied: &quot;Shut up! You were frightened enough doing the
+tests!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From afar off, away on the shimmering bosom of the bay came the faint
+hooting of a steamer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the <i>Oleander</i>!&quot; Kelson murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot!&quot; Curtis snapped. &quot;How do you know? You can't tell from this
+distance. It might be the <i>Daisy</i>, or the <i>San Marie</i>, or any other
+ship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson made no reply; Hamar blew his nose, and once again there was
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the moonlight had now become weird. From the trees and
+bushes crept legions of tall, gaunt shadows, and whilst some of these
+were explicable, there were others that certainly had no apparent
+counterparts in any of the natural objects around them. Even Curtis, in
+spite of his scoffing, showed no inclination to examine them too
+closely; but kept his face resolutely turned to the more cheery light of
+the fire. The soft, cool, sweet-scented air gradually acted as an
+an&aelig;sthetic, and Kelson and Curtis were almost asleep, when Hamar's voice
+recalled them sharply to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's just two!&quot; he said. &quot;Sit tight and listen while I repeat the
+incantation, and for goodness' sake keep cool if anything happens.
+Remember we are here with an object&mdash;namely&mdash;to get everything we can
+out of the Other World.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust you for that!&quot; Curtis sneered; &quot;but all the same nothing's going
+to happen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not sure of that,&quot; Hamar said, and after a brief pause began to
+repeat these words<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" /><a href="#Footnote_18_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Morbas from the mountains,<br /></span>
+<span>Where flow malignant fountains.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Vampires from the passes,<br /></span>
+<span>Where grow blood-sucking grasses,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Vice Elementals pretty<br /></span>
+<span>Give ear unto our ditty<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Planetians, forms so fearful,<br /></span>
+<span>We inform you, eager, tearful,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Clanogrians, things of sorrow.<br /></span>
+<span>Postpone not till to-morrow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Barrowvians, shades seclusive,<br /></span>
+<span>Be not to us exclusive,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!<br /></span>
+<span>Earthbound spirits of the Dead<br /></span>
+<span>Approach with grim and noiseless tread&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We are ready for you&mdash;Come!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He then got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six
+drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux
+vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former
+position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground,
+the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a long
+pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson and
+Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar then cried: &quot;Creastie havoonen balababoo!&quot;; which Hamar explained
+was Atlantean for &quot;devil of the damned appear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He won't!&quot; Curtis muttered, &quot;because he doesn't exist. There are
+devils&mdash;Meidler Brothers were devils&mdash;but there is no one devil! It's
+all&mdash;&mdash;&quot; He suddenly stopped and an intense hush fell upon them all.</p>
+
+<p>A cloud obscured the moon, the fire burned dim, and the gloom of the
+amphitheatre thickened till the men lost sight of each other. A cold air
+then rose from the ground and fanned their nostrils. Something flew past
+their heads with an ominous wail; whilst from the direction of the fire
+came a hollow groan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The advent of the Unknown,&quot; Hamar murmured, &quot;shall be heralded in by
+the shrieking of an owl, the groaning of the mandrake&mdash;there is mandrake
+in the saucepan&mdash;the croaking of a toad&mdash;we haven't had that yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, there it is!&quot; Kelson whispered&mdash;and whilst he was speaking there
+came a dismal croak, croak, and the swaying and crying of an
+ash&mdash;&quot;Hush!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They listened&mdash;and all three distinctly heard the swishing of a slender
+tree trunk as it hissed backwards and forwards. Then, a cry so horrid,
+harsh and piercing that even the sceptical, sneering Curtis gave vent to
+an expression of fear. Again a hush, and increasing darkness and cold.
+Kelson called out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't do that, Leon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not doing anything,&quot; Hamar said testily. &quot;Pull yourself together.&quot;
+A moment later he said to Curtis, &quot;It's you, Curtis. Shut up. This is no
+time for monkeying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are both either mad or dreaming,&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;I haven't
+stirred from my seat. Hulloa! What's that? What's that, Leon?
+There&mdash;over there! Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Curtis spoke they all three became conscious of living things around
+them&mdash;things that moved about, silently and surreptitiously and conveyed
+the impression of mockery. The hills, the valley, the trees were full of
+it&mdash;the whole place teemed with it&mdash;teemed with silent, subtle, stealthy
+mockery. The senses of the three men were now keenly alive, but a dead
+weight hung upon their limbs and rendered them useless. And as they
+stared into the gloom, in sickly fear, the firelight flickered and they
+saw shadows, such as the moon, when low in the heaven, might fashion
+from the figure of a man; but yet they were shadows neither of man, nor
+God, nor of any familiar thing. They were dark, vague, formless and
+indefinite, and they quivered&mdash;quivered with a quivering that suggested
+mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the shadows disappeared; the flickering of the flames ceased;
+and in the place of the fire appeared a seething, writhing mass of what
+looked like white luminous snakes. And in the midst of this mass sprang
+up a cylindrical form, which grew and grew until it attained a height of
+ten or twelve feet, when it remained stationary and threw out branches.
+And the three men now saw it was a tree&mdash;a tree with a sleek, pulpy,
+semi-transparent, perspiring trunk full of a thick, white, vibrating,
+luminous fluid; and that it was laden with a fruit, in shape resembling
+an apple, but of the same hue and material as the trunk. Spread out on
+the ground around it, were its roots, twitching and palpitating with
+repulsive life, and bare with a bareness that shocked the senses. It was
+so utterly and inconceivably unlike what Hamar, Curtis and Kelson had
+imagined the Unknown&mdash;and yet, withal, so monstrous (not merely in its
+shape but in its suggestions), and so vividly real and livid, that they
+were not merely terrified&mdash;they were stricken with a terror that
+rendered them dumb and helpless. And as they looked at it, from out the
+trunk, shot an enormous thing&mdash;white and glistening, and fashioned like
+a human tongue. And after pointing derisively at them, it withdrew;
+whereupon all the fruit shook, as if convulsed with unseemly laughter.
+They then saw between the foremost branches of the tree a big eye. The
+white of it was thick and pasty, the iris spongy in texture, and the
+pupil bulging with a lurid light. It stared at them with a steady
+stare&mdash;insolent and quizzical. Hamar and his friends stared back at it
+in fascinated horror, and would have continued staring at it
+indefinitely, had not Hamar's mercenary instincts come to their rescue.
+He recollected that time was pressing, and that unless he got into
+communication with the strange thing at once, according to the book, it
+would vanish&mdash;and he might never be able to get in touch with it again.
+Thus egged on, he made a great effort to regain his courage, and at
+length succeeded in forcing himself to speak. Though his voice was weak
+and shaking he managed to pronounce the prescribed mode of address,
+viz.:&mdash;&quot;Bara phonen etek mo,&quot; which being interpreted is, &quot;Spirit from
+the Unknown, give ear to me.&quot; He then explained their earnest desire to
+pay homage to the Supernatural, and to be initiated into the mysteries
+of the Black Art. When Hamar had concluded his address, the
+anticipations of the three as to how it would be answered, or whether it
+would be answered at all&mdash;were such that they were forced to hold their
+breath almost to the point of suffocation. If the Thing <i>could</i> speak
+what would its voice be like? The seconds passed, and they were
+beginning to prepare themselves for disappointment, when suddenly across
+the intervening space separating them from the Unknown, the reply
+came&mdash;came in soft, silky, lisping tones&mdash;human and yet not human, novel
+and yet in some way&mdash;a way that defied analysis&mdash;familiar. Strange to
+say, they all three felt that this familiarity belonged to a far back
+period of their existence, no less than to a more modern one&mdash;to a
+period, in fact, to which they could affix no date. And, although a
+perfect unity of expression suggested that the utterance of the Thing
+was the utterance of one being only, a certain variation in its tones, a
+rising and falling from syllable to syllable, led them to infer that the
+voice was not the voice of one but of many.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are anxious to acquire knowledge of the Secrets associated with the
+Great Atlantean Magic?&quot; the voice lisped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are!&quot; Hamar stammered, &quot;and we are willing to give our souls in
+exchange for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Souls!&quot; the voice lisped, whilst trunk and branches swayed lightly, and
+the air was full of silent merriment. &quot;Souls! you speak in terms you do
+not understand. To acquire the secrets of Black Magic, all you have to
+do is to agree that during a brief period&mdash;a period of a few months, you
+will live together in harmony; that you will make use of the powers you
+acquire to the detriment of all save yourselves; that you will never
+allow your minds to revert to anything spiritual; and&mdash;that you will
+abstain from&mdash;marrying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we succeed in carrying out the conditions?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p class="cs" style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;"><a name="ILLUSTRATION2" id="ILLUSTRATION2" /><img src="images/image2.jpg" width="434" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THE INITIATION]" /><br />
+THE INITIATION</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then,&quot; the voice replied, &quot;you will retain free, untrammelled
+possession of your knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For how long?&quot; Curtis queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the natural term of your lives&mdash;that is to say, for as long as you
+would have lived had you never been initiated into the secrets of
+magic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we fail?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will pass into the permanent possession of the Unknown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does that mean we shall die the moment we fail?&quot; Kelson inquired
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Die!&quot; the voice lisped. &quot;Again you speak in terms you do not
+understand. You may be sent for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say&mdash;in perfect harmony.&quot; Hamar put in. &quot;Does that mean without a
+quarrel, however slight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It means without a quarrel that would lead to separation. The moment
+you disunite the compact is broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What advantages will the secrets bring us?&quot; Hamar inquired. &quot;Can we
+gain unlimited wealth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; the voice replied. &quot;Unlimited wealth and influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And health?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
+perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am ready if you fellows are,&quot; Hamar whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;Anything is better than the life we are living at
+present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, too,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I agree with Ed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well then,&quot; the voice once more lisped. &quot;Each of you take a fruit
+and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot back out
+of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't be
+afraid, step up here and help yourselves&mdash;one apiece&mdash;mind, no more.&quot;
+And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree and
+everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on!&quot; Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. &quot;Don't waste time. You've
+decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps. I'll go
+first,&quot; and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and began to eat
+it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad,&quot; Curtis muttered, with a
+retch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, too,&quot; Kelson whispered. &quot;It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I am,
+will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
+them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it repelled
+but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as the voice&mdash;as
+enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their former positions
+on the ground, and the voice once again addressed them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use of
+the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
+sorcery&mdash;you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
+practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period of
+your compact, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> twenty-one months, and at the end of every three
+months&mdash;when a fresh stage is reached&mdash;you will receive fresh powers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
+receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
+presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the second stage&mdash;exactly three months from to-day&mdash;you will receive
+the gift of second-sight; the power of separating your immaterial from
+your material body and projecting it, anywhere you will, on the physical
+plane; and, to a large extent, you will be enabled to circumvent
+gravity. Thus you will be able to perform all manner of jugglery
+tricks&mdash;tricks that will set the whole world gaping. Profit by them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the third stage you will possess the secrets of invisibility; of
+walking on the water; of breathing under the water; of taming wild
+beasts; and of understanding their language.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the fourth stage you will understand how to inflict all manner of
+diseases, and work all sorts of spells; such, for instance, as
+bewitching milk, causing people to have fits, bad dreams, etc. You will
+also know how to create plagues&mdash;plagues of insects, or of any other
+noxious thing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the fifth stage you will possess absolute knowledge of the art of
+medicine and be able to cure every ailment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the sixth stage you will acquire the power of producing vampires and
+werwolves from the human being, and of transforming people from the
+human to any animal guise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the seventh and final stage you will be given the complete mastery
+of every art and science&mdash;including astrology, astronomy, necromancy,
+etc.; and for this stage is reserved the greatest power of all&mdash;namely,
+the complete dominion over woman's will and affections. The powers of
+creating life, and of extending life beyond the now natural limit, and
+of avoiding accidents, will never be conferred on you. Neither shall you
+learn, not at least during your physical existence&mdash;who or what we are,
+or the secrets of creation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Each successive stage will cancel the preceding one&mdash;that is to say,
+the powers you have acquired in the first stage will be annulled on your
+arriving at the second stage, and so on. But if you carry out your
+compact faithfully&mdash;that is to say, if at the end of the twenty-one
+months you are still united&mdash;all the powers you have held hitherto, in
+the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and remain in your
+possession permanently. Have you anything to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Hamar answered; &quot;I fully understand all you have explained to us
+and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
+serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
+much&mdash;but I must say, it seems very remote&mdash;the prospect of gaining such
+tremendous powers&mdash;powers that will give us practically everything we
+want&mdash;save youth&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Youth you will never regain,&quot; lisped the voice. &quot;And elixirs of life,
+surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
+planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn the
+most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people youthful in
+appearance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?&quot; Kelson nerved himself to
+ask.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will be revealed to you in various ways&mdash;sometimes when asleep.
+You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
+time to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money,&quot; Curtis remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; the voice replied, &quot;you will not be in want of money. Have you
+anything more to ask?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
+rustling of the wind. The darkness then lifted; but nothing was to be
+seen&mdash;nothing save the trees and bushes, moon and stars.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This is a very sinister sign in astrology, denoting the
+presence of evil influences of all kinds.&mdash;(<i>Author's note.</i>)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> According to Atlantean ideas these spirits were:&mdash;Vice
+Elementals; Morbas (or Disease Elementals); Clanogrians (or malicious
+family ghosts, such as Banshees, etc.); Vampires; Barrowvians, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> a
+grotesque kind of phantasm that frequents places where prehistoric man
+or beast has been interred; Planetians, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> spirits inimical to
+dwellers on this earth that inhabit various of the other planets; and
+earthbound spirits of such dead human beings as were mad, imbecile,
+cruel and vicious, together with the phantasms of vicious and mad
+beasts, and beasts of prey.&mdash;(<i>Author's note</i>.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> They are a literal translation of the Atlantean by Thos.
+Maitland, and are very nearly identified with forms of spirit invocation
+used in Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and among the Red Indians of North
+and South America.&mdash;(<i>Author's note</i>.)</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST POWER</h3>
+
+
+<p>After their rencontre with the Unknown, Hamar and his companions did not
+get back to their respective quarters till the sun was high in the
+heavens, and the streets of the city were beginning to vibrate with the
+rattle and clatter of traffic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's all very well&mdash;this wonderful compact of ours,&quot; Curtis grumbled,
+&quot;but I'm deuced hungry, and Matt and I haven't a cent between us. As we
+went all that way last night to oblige you, Leon, I think it is only
+fair you should stand us treat. I'll bet you have some nickels stowed
+away, somewhere, in those pockets of yours&mdash;it wouldn't be you if you
+hadn't! What do you say, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think as you do,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;We've stood by Leon, he should
+stand by us. How much have you, Leon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How much have you?&quot; Curtis echoed, &quot;come, out with it&mdash;no jew-jewing
+pals for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might manage a dollar,&quot; Hamar said ruefully, as the prospect of a
+good meal all to himself, at his favourite restaurant, faded away.
+&quot;Where shall we go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of
+prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.
+He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty
+woman, and something&mdash;a kind of intuition he had never had before&mdash;told
+him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented with her present
+situation; that she was engaged to be married to a pen driver at
+Hastings &amp; Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she had a mother, of
+over seventy, whom she kept. All this came to Kelson like a flash of
+lightning.</p>
+
+<p>Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped
+Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm,
+and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by
+two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas. It
+still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the good of coming to a place like this?&quot; Hamar demanded, as
+soon as he had freed himself from Kelson's clutches. &quot;We can't get
+breakfast here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt's mad, that's what's the matter with him,&quot; Curtis added in
+disgust. &quot;Let's get out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned to go&mdash;then, halted&mdash;and stood still. He appeared to be
+listening. &quot;What's up with you?&quot; Hamar asked. &quot;Both you fellows are
+behaving like lunatics this morning&mdash;there's not a pin to choose between
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're playing cards, that's all,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;Can't you hear them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar shook his head. &quot;Not a sound,&quot; he said. &quot;Just look at Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the
+bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner that
+was peculiar to him&mdash;a manner seldom without effect upon girls of his
+class&mdash;&quot;I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?
+Jerusalem! Haven't I met you somewhere before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled. &quot;As like as
+not,&quot; she said. &quot;I go pretty near everywhere! What do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Kelson soliloquized; &quot;breakfast is what we are particularly
+anxious for&mdash;but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why did you come here?&quot; the girl queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because of you! Simply because of you,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;You hypnotized
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast,&quot; the girl
+laughed, &quot;though we don't provide them as a rule before nine. Indeed,
+the management have only just decided&mdash;this morning&mdash;on providing them
+at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How odd!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why odd?&quot; the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her
+curls before a mirror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment! Had I come
+here yesterday it would have been useless. As I said, you hypnotized me.
+Evidently fate intended us to meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe in fate?&quot; the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders. &quot;I
+believe in nothing&mdash;least of all in men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say so!&quot; Kelson observed, before he knew what he was saying. &quot;And
+yet you have just got engaged to one. But you've got a bad attack of the
+pip this morning, you have had enough of it here&mdash;you want to get
+another post.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl ceased doing her hair and eyed him in amazement. &quot;Well!&quot; she
+said. &quot;Of all the queer men I've ever met you are the queerest. Are you
+a seer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar observed, suddenly joining in. &quot;He's only very hungry, miss.
+Hungry body and soul! hungry all over. And so are we.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, then, go into the room over there,&quot; the girl cried, pointing in
+the direction of a half-open door, &quot;and breakfast will be brought you in
+half a jiffy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's that playing cards?&quot; Curtis asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you know any one is playing cards?&quot; the girl queried with an
+incredulous stare. &quot;You can't see through walls, can you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! and I'm hanged if I can explain,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;I seem to hear
+them. There are two&mdash;one is called Arnold, and the other Lemon, or some
+such name, and they are rehearsing certain card tricks they mean to play
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's right,&quot; the girl said, &quot;two men named Arnold and Lemon are here.
+They were playing all last night with two of the clerks in Willows Bank,
+in Sacramento Street, and they cleared them out of every cent. You knew
+it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I didn't,&quot; Curtis growled, &quot;I don't lie for fun, and I'm just as
+much in a fog, as to how I know, as you are. Let's have breakfast now,
+and we'll look up these two gents afterwards, if they haven't gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your friend's a brute, I don't like him,&quot; the girl whispered to Kelson.
+&quot;Let him lose all he's got&mdash;you stay out here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing I should like better,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;it's a bargain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
+bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
+Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
+directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
+building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
+drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a funny thing,&quot; one of them exclaimed, &quot;we can't be allowed to sit
+here in peace&mdash;when there's so much spare space in the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We beg your pardon for intruding,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;but my friend and I
+came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri way,
+and don't often get the chance to run up to town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Farmers, are you!&quot; the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
+both closely. &quot;You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were also
+wanting to have a game&mdash;would you care to join us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means,&quot; Curtis at once exclaimed. &quot;What do you play?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poker!&quot; the man said, &quot;Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
+which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen before,
+though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute.&quot; He then
+proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick, the
+secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wouldn't give you a cent for it!&quot; Curtis snapped. &quot;Any one can see
+how it is done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't!&quot; the man retorted, turning red. &quot;I'll wager twenty dollars
+you can't.&quot; Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He had
+seen through it at a glance&mdash;there appeared no difficulty in it at all;
+and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the day
+before, he would have utterly failed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;give me the money,&quot;&mdash;and the man complied with an oath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any more tricks?&quot; Curtis asked complacently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know heaps,&quot; the man rejoined. &quot;There's one you won't guess&mdash;the
+seven card trick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He did it. And so did Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well I'm&mdash;&mdash;&quot; the man called Lemon ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
+Prince and Slipper, Arnold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&quot; he said, &quot;that's the simplest of all! See!&quot; And it was done. &quot;You
+two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not shine
+to-night. How about a game of Don?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
+out, &quot;It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve. You've
+some up yours, too, Arnold&mdash;the deuce of clubs and the deuce of hearts.
+Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears on the
+backs. I'll show you how.&quot; He told the cards correctly&mdash;there was no
+gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you, anyway?&quot; Lemon asked; &quot;tecs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind what we are!&quot; Curtis said savagely. &quot;We know what you
+are&mdash;and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay us
+to hold our tongues?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pay you!&quot; Lemon hissed. &quot;Why, damn you&mdash;nothing. We're not bankers. All
+we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That might not be so easy as you imagine,&quot; Hamar interposed. &quot;We would
+make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to terms?
+We'll not be over exorbitant&mdash;and consider the convenience of not having
+to shift your quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,&quot; Lemon
+said. &quot;Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these. Farmers,
+indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
+dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
+means dissatisfied with their bargain.</p>
+
+<p>They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
+engaged in a desperate <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with the young lady at the bar,
+who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the room
+her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
+o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
+such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
+rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
+allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.</p>
+
+<p>On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first of
+all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
+themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took rooms
+at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's boot
+store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob Hill
+dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde&mdash;of the bonanza
+and railroad set&mdash;and making eyes at all the pretty wives and daughters
+they met, cogitated fresh devices for making money. As they sauntered
+across Pacific Avenue, in the direction of Californian Street, Kelson
+suddenly gave vent to a whistle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the deuce is wrong with you?&quot; Hamar exclaimed. &quot;Seen your
+grandmother's ghost?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! but I've seen the inner readings of that lady yonder,&quot; Kelson
+replied, indicating with a jerk of his finger a fashionably dressed
+woman walking towards them on the other side of the road. &quot;The deuce
+knows how it all comes to me, but I know everything about her, just the
+same as I did with the girl in the dive&mdash;though I've never seen her
+before. She is the wife of D.D. Belton, the cotton magnate, who lives
+in a big, white house at the corner of Powell Street&mdash;and a beauty, I
+can assure you. Supposed to be most devoted to her husband, she is now
+on her way to keep an appointment with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe of
+Sancta Maria's Church in Appleyard Street, with whom she has been
+holding clandestine meetings for the past six months.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whew!&quot; Hamar ejaculated. &quot;You speak as if it was all being pumped into
+you by some external agency&mdash;automatically.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's just about what I feel!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I feel as if it were some
+one else saying all this&mdash;some one else speaking through me. Yet I know
+all about that woman, just as much as if I had been acquainted with her
+all my life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the first power,&quot; Hamar said excitedly, &quot;the power of divination.
+It takes that form with you, and the form of card tricks with Ed&mdash;with
+me nothing so far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what shall I do?&quot; Kelson cried. &quot;How can I benefit by it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can't you?&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;Why, blackmail her! If it is true,
+she will pay you anything to keep your mouth shut. If once you can tell
+a woman's secret, your future's made. All San Francisco will be at your
+mercy&mdash;God knows who'll escape! After her at once, you idiot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now?&quot; Kelson gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! Now! Follow her to Calthorpe's and waylay her as she comes out.
+You can refer to us as witnesses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel a bit of a blackguard,&quot; Kelson pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You look it, anyway,&quot; Curtis grinned. &quot;But cheer up&mdash;it's the clothes.
+Clothes are responsible for everything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a little persuasion Kelson gave in, but he had to make haste as
+the lady was nearly out of sight. She took a taxi from the stand
+opposite Kitson's hotel, and Kelson took one, too. Two hours later,
+raising his hat, he accosted her as she stood tapping the pavement of
+Battery Street with a daintily shod foot, waiting to cross. &quot;Mrs.
+Belton, I think,&quot; he said. The lady eyed him coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; she said, &quot;what do you want? Who are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name can scarcely matter to you,&quot; Kelson responded, &quot;though my
+business may. I have been engaged to watch you, and am fully posted as
+to your meetings and correspondence with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; the lady said, her cheeks flaming. &quot;You have
+made a mistake&mdash;a very serious mistake for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Kelson's heart failed. He was still a clerk, with all the
+humility of an office stool and shining trousers' seat thick on him,
+whilst she was a <i>grande dame</i> accustomed to the bows and scrapes of
+employers as well as employed.</p>
+
+<p>Several people passed by and stared at him&mdash;as he thought&mdash;suspiciously,
+and he felt that this was the most critical time in his life, and unless
+he pulled through, smartly in fact, he would be done once and for all.
+If he didn't make haste, too, the woman would undoubtedly call a
+policeman. It was this thought as well as&mdash;though, perhaps, hardly as
+much as&mdash;the look of her that stimulated Kelson to action. He hated
+behaving badly to women; but was this thing, dressed in a skirt that
+fitted like a glove and showed up every detail of her figure&mdash;this thing
+with the paint on her cheeks, and eyebrows, and lips&mdash;artistically done,
+perhaps, but done all the same&mdash;this thing all loaded with jewellery and
+buttons&mdash;this thing&mdash;a woman! No! She was not&mdash;she was only a
+millionaire's plaything&mdash;brainless, heartless&mdash;a hobby that cost
+thousands, whilst countless men such as he&mdash;starved. He
+detested&mdash;abominated such luxuries! And thus nerved he retorted,
+borrowing some of her imperiousness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you deny, madam, that for the past two hours you've been sitting on
+the sofa of the end room of the third floor of No. 216, Market Street,
+flirting with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe, whom you call 'Mickey-moo'; that
+you gave him a photo you had taken at Bell's Studio in Clay Street,
+specially for him; that you gave him five greenbacks to the value of one
+hundred and fifty dollars, and that you've planned a moonlight promenade
+with him to-morrow, when your husband will be in Denver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't talk so loud,&quot; the lady said in a low voice. &quot;Walk along with me
+a little and then we shan't be noticed. I see you do know a good
+deal&mdash;how, I can't imagine, unless you were hidden somewhere in the
+room. Who has employed you to watch me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That, madam, I can't say,&quot; Kelson truthfully responded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I can't think,&quot; the lady said, &quot;unless it is some woman enemy. But,
+after all, you can't do much since you hold no proofs&mdash;your word alone
+will count for nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, but I have strong corroborative evidence,&quot; Kelson retorted. &quot;I have
+the testimony of at least two other people who know quite as much as I
+do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adventurers like yourself,&quot; the lady sneered. &quot;My husband would neither
+believe you nor your friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He would believe your letters, any way,&quot; said Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My letters!&quot; the lady laughed, &quot;You've no letters of mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, but I know where the correspondence that has passed between you and
+the Rev. J. T. Calthorpe is to be found. He has sixty-nine letters from
+you all tied up in pink ribbon, locked up in the bottom drawer of the
+bureau in his study at the Vicarage. Some of the letters begin with
+'Dearest, duckiest, handsomest Herby'&mdash;short for Herbert; and others,
+'Fondest, blondest, darlingest Micky-moo!' Some end with 'A thousand and
+one kisses from your loving and ever devoted Francesca,' and others with
+'Love and kisses ad infinitum, ever your loving, thirsting, adoring one,
+Toosie!' Nice letters from the wife of a respectable Nob Hill magnate to
+a married clergyman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone.
+&quot;I can't understand it,&quot; she panted; &quot;somebody has played me false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is on his way to Sacramento, where he has to
+remain till to-morrow,&quot; Kelson went on pitilessly, &quot;it will be the
+easiest thing in the world to get those letters. I have merely to call
+at the house and tell his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what good will that do you?&quot; the lady asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Revenge! I hate the rich,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I would do anything to injure
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a Socialist?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An Anarchist! But come, you see I know all about you and that I have
+you completely in my power. If once either your husband or Mrs.
+Calthorpe gets hold of those letters&mdash;you and your lover would have a
+very unpleasant time of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe I am&mdash;at all events I'm talking to one. But that's neither here
+nor there. I want money. Give me a thousand dollars and you'll never
+hear from me again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blackmail! I could have you arrested!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and I would tell the court the whole history of your intrigues!
+That wouldn't help you,&quot;&mdash;and Kelson laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could I count on you not molesting me again if I were to pay you?&quot; the
+lady said mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you ever speak the truth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You needn't judge every one by your own standard of morality&mdash;the
+standard set up by the millionaire's wife,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I swear that
+if you pay me a thousand dollars I will never trouble you again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady grew thoughtful, and for some minutes neither of them spoke.
+Then she suddenly jerked out: &quot;I think, after all, I'll accept your
+proposal. Wait outside here and you shall have what you want within an
+hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not good enough,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I prefer to come with you to your house
+and wait there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady protested, and Kelson consented to wait in the street outside
+her house, where, eventually, she delivered the money into his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've kept my word,&quot; she said, &quot;and if you're half a man you'll keep
+yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson reassured her, and more than pleased with himself, made for the
+hotel, where the three of them were now stopping.</p>
+
+<p>This was merely a beginning. Before the day was out he had secured two
+more victims. No woman whose character was not without blemish was safe
+from him&mdash;his wonderful newly acquired gift enabling him to detect any
+vice, no matter how snugly hidden. And this wonderful power of
+discernment brought with it an expression of mystery and penetration
+which, by enhancing the effect of the power, made the application of it
+comparatively easy. Kelson had only to glide after his victim, and with
+his eyes fixed searchingly on her, to say, &quot;Madam, may I have a word
+with you?&quot;&mdash;and the battle was more than half won&mdash;the women were too
+fascinated to think of resistance.</p>
+
+<p>For example, shortly after his initial adventure, he saw a very smartly
+dressed woman in Van Ness Avenue peep about furtively, and then stop and
+speak to a little child, who was walking with its nurse. Divination at
+once told him everything&mdash;the lady was the mother of the child, but its
+father was not her legitimate husband, W.S. Hobson, the millionaire
+mine owner.</p>
+
+<p>When Kelson courteously informed her he was in possession of her
+secret&mdash;a secret she had felt positively certain only one other person
+knew, she went the colour of her pea-green sunshade and attempted to
+remonstrate. But Kelson's appearance, no less than his marvellous
+knowledge of her life, and character dumbfounded her&mdash;she was simply
+paralysed into admission; and before he left her, Kelson had added
+another thousand dollars to his hoard.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, close to the Academy of Science in Market Street, he saw a
+lady get out of a taxi and quickly enter a pawnbroker's. Her whole life
+at once rose up before him. She was Ella Crockford, the wife of the
+Californian Street Sugar King, and, unknown to her husband, she spent
+her afternoons at a gambling saloon in Kearney Street, where she ran
+through thousands.</p>
+
+<p>She was now about to pledge her husband's latest present to her&mdash;a
+diamond tiara, one of the most notable pieces of jewellery in the
+country&mdash;in the hope that she would soon win back sufficient money at
+cards to redeem it.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson stopped her as she came out, and in a marvellously few words,
+proved to her that he knew everything. Her amazement was beyond
+description.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must be a magician,&quot; she said, &quot;because I'm certain no one saw me
+take my jewel-case out of the drawer&mdash;no one was in the room! And as I
+put it in my muff immediately, no one could have seen it as I left the
+house. Besides, I never told a soul I intended pawning it, so how is it
+possible you could know&mdash;and be able to repeat the whole of the
+conversation I had with Walter Le-Grand, to whom I lost so heavily last
+night? Tell me, how do you know all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson would tell her nothing&mdash;nothing beyond her own sins and
+misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have nothing to give you,&quot; she told him. &quot;I dare not ask my husband
+for more money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, nothing!&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;When the pawnbroker has just advanced
+you fifty thousand dollars. You call that nothing? Be pleased to give me
+one thousand, and congratulate yourself that I do not ask for all your
+'nothing.'&quot; And as neither tears nor prayers had any effect, she was
+obliged to pay him the sum he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Flushed and excited with victory, and thinking, perhaps, that he had
+done enough for one day, Kelson took his spoils to a bank near the
+Palace Hotel, and for the first time in his career opened a banking
+account. As he was leaving the building he ran into Hamar, bent on a
+similar errand. The two gleefully compared notes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;my turn would never come, and that I must have
+done something to get out of favour with the Unknown; but as I was
+sitting in the Pig and Whistle Saloon in Corn Street drinking a lager, I
+suddenly felt a peculiar throbbing sensation run up my left leg into my
+left hand, and the floor seemed to open up, and I saw deep below me, in
+a black pit, a skeleton clutching hold of a linen bag, full of coins. I
+could see the gold quite distinctly&mdash;Spanish doubles, none newer than
+the eighteenth century. I knew then that the Unknown had not forgotten
+me. 'Look here, boss,' I said to old man Moss&mdash;the proprietor, you
+know&mdash;'You're a bit of a juggins to go on working with so much money
+under here,'&mdash;and I pointed to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I'm surprised at you, Hamar,' Moss said, cocking an eye at me, 'and
+lager, too!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No, old man!' I said, 'I'm not drunk. I'm sober and serious. You've
+got a cellar below here, haven't you?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well, and what if I have!' Moss retorted, drawing a step closer and
+running his eyes carefully over me. 'What if I have! There's no harm in
+that, is there?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You keep all your stock down there,' I went on, 'and more beside. I
+can see a hat-pin with a gold nob, that's not your wife's, and a pair of
+shoes with dandy silver buckles, that's not intended for your wife,
+nohow.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At that Moss made a queer noise in his throat, and I thought he was
+going to have a fit. 'What&mdash;what the devil are you talking about?' he
+gurgled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I wish I had had you with me&mdash;then, Matt, for you could have doubtless
+summed up the woman to him&mdash;she was a blank to me&mdash;I only divined one
+had been there. 'Yes, Mr. Mossy,' I said, 'you're a gay deceiver and no
+mistake! I know all about it!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Do you,' he said, eyeing me excitedly. 'Do you know all about it? I'm
+not so sure, but in order to avoid running any risks, drop your voice a
+bit and have a cocktail with me!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He poured me out one, and I went on softly, 'Well, boss Moss,' I said,
+'we'll leave the female out of the question for the present. Underneath
+this cellar of yours, is a pit.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I'm damned if there is!' Moss snorted; 'leastways, it's the first I've
+ever heard of it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And in this pit,' I said, 'is the skeleton of a Spanish buccaneer
+called Don Guzman, who landed in this port on August 10, 1699, and after
+robbing and slicing up a family of the name of Hervada, who lived on the
+site of what is now the Copthorne Hotel, was hurrying off with all their
+money and jewels, when he fell into a pit, covered with brambles and
+briars, and broke his neck.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And you expect me to believe this cock and bull story,' Moss growled.
+'Being out of a job so long has made you balmy.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It hasn't made me too balmy not to see through the way you deceive
+your wife, Moss,' I said. 'I'll bet she would think me sane enough if I
+were to tell her all I know. But I'll spare you if you will take me into
+your cellar and help me to do a bit of excavation there. But promise,
+mind you, that we will go shares in what we find.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Oh, I'll promise right enough,' Moss replied. 'I'll promise
+anything&mdash;if only to keep you from talking such moonshine.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, in the end I prevailed upon him to accompany me, and we went into
+the cellar&mdash;just as I had depicted it&mdash;armed with a pick-axe and
+crowbar. Moss growling and jeering every step he took, and I, deadly in
+earnest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It's under here,' I said, halting over a flagstone in the corner of
+the vault. 'But before we do anything you had better hide that hat-pin
+and these shoes, or your missis will find them. She'll hear us scraping
+and come to see what's up.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moss, who was in a vile temper all the time, made a grab at the things,
+pricking his finger and swearing horribly. In the meanwhile I had set to
+work, and, with his aid, raised the stone. We dug for pretty nearly an
+hour, Moss calling upon me all the time to 'chuck it,' when I suddenly
+struck something hard&mdash;it was the skeleton and close beside it, was the
+bag. You should have seen Moss then. He was simply overcome&mdash;called me a
+wizard, a magician, and heaven alone knows what, and fairly stood on his
+head with delight when we opened the bag, and hundreds of gold coins and
+precious stones rolled out on the floor. He wanted to go back on his
+word then, and only give me a handful; but I was too smart for him, and
+swore I would tell his wife about the girl unless he gave me half. When
+we were leaving the cellar, of course, he wanted me to go first, so that
+he could follow with the pickaxe, but here again I was too sharp for
+him&mdash;and I got safely out of the place with my pockets bulging. I went
+right away to Prescott's in Clay Street, and let the lot go for three
+thousand dollars. I wonder how Curtis has got on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They walked together to the hotel, and found Curtis busily engaged
+eating. &quot;I've worked hard,&quot; he said, &quot;and now I'm in for enjoying
+myself. I've made them get out a special menu for me, and I'm going to
+eat till I can't hold another morsel. I've starved all my life and now I
+intend making up for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Been successful?&quot; Hamar asked, winking at Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pretty well! Nothing to grumble at,&quot; Curtis rejoined, pouring himself
+out a glass of champagne. &quot;First of all I went to Simpson's Dive in
+Sacramento Street, and started doing the tricks we discovered yesterday.
+Not a soul in the place could see through them, and I made about two
+hundred dollars before I left. I then had lunch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why you had lunch with us!&quot; Hamar laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, can't I have as many lunches as I like?&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;I had
+lunch, I say, at a place in Market Street, and there I read in a paper
+that Peters &amp; Pervis, the tin food people, were offering a prize of
+three thousand dollars for a solution to a puzzle contained on the
+inside cover of one of their tins. I immediately determined to enter for
+it. I bought a tin and saw through the puzzle at once. Bribing a
+policeman to go with me to see fair play, off I set to Peters &amp; Pervis'.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I want to see your boss,' I said to the first clerk I saw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Which of them?' the clerk grunted, his cheeks turning white at the
+sight of the policeman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Either will do,' I replied, 'Peters or Pervis. Trot 'em up, time is
+precious.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away he went, but in a couple of minutes was back again, looking
+scared, 'They're both engaged,' he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then they'll have to break it off,' I responded, 'and mighty quick.
+I'm here to talk with them, so get a move on you again and give that
+message.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it hadn't been for the policeman I don't think he would have gone,
+but the policeman backed me up, and the clerk hurried off again; and in
+the end the bosses decided they had better see me. They looked precious
+cross, I can assure you, but before I had done speaking they looked
+crosser still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You say you've done that puzzle,'&mdash;they shouted&mdash;'the puzzle that has
+stuck all the mathematical guns at Harvard and Yale&mdash;you&mdash;a nonentity
+like you&mdash;begone, sir, don't waste our time with such humbug as that.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'All right,' I said, 'give me some paper and a pen, and I'll prove it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That's very reasonable,' the policeman chipped in, 'do the thing fair
+and square&mdash;I'm here as a witness.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, with much grunting and grumbling they handed me paper and ink,
+and in a trice the puzzle was done; and it appeared so easy that the
+policeman clapped his hands and broke out into a loud guffaw. My eyes!
+you should have seen how the faces of Pervis and Peters fell, and have
+heard what they said. But it was no use swearing and cursing, the thing
+was done, and there was the policeman to prove it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'We'll give you five hundred dollars,' they said, 'to clear out and say
+no more about it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Five hundred dollars when you've advertised three thousand,' I cried.
+'What do you take me for? I'll have that three thousand or I'll show you
+both up.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A thousand, then?' they said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No!' I retorted; 'three! Three, and look sharp. And look here,' I
+added, as my glance rested on some of the samples of their pastes they
+had round them, 'I understand the secrets of all these so-called patents
+of yours&mdash;there isn't one of them I couldn't imitate. Take that
+&quot;Rabsidab,&quot; for instance. What is it? Why, a compound of horseflesh,
+turnips and popcorn, flavoured with Lazenby's sauce&mdash;for the
+infringement of which patent you are liable to prosecution&mdash;and coloured
+with cochineal. Then there's the stuff you label &quot;Ironcastor,&quot;'&mdash;but
+they shut me up. 'There, take your three thousand dollars, write us out
+a receipt for it, and clear.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nine thousand dollars in one day! We've done well,&quot; Kelson ejaculated.
+&quot;What's the programme for to-morrow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Same as to-day and plenty of it,&quot; Curtis said, pouring himself out
+another glass of champagne and making a vigorous attack on a chicken. &quot;I
+think I'll let you two fellows do all the work to-morrow, and content
+myself here. Waiter! What time's breakfast?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Curtis was as good as his word. The following day he remained indoors
+eating, and planning what he should eat, whilst Hamar and Kelson went
+out with the express purpose of adding to their banking accounts.</p>
+
+<p>In a garden in Bryant Street, Hamar saw a man resting on his spade and
+mopping the perspiration from his forehead. As he stopped mechanically
+to see what was being done, a cold sensation ran up his right leg into
+his right hand, the first and third fingers of which were drawn
+violently down. With a cry of horror he shrank back. Directly beneath
+where he had been standing, he saw, under a fifteen or sixteen feet
+layer of gravel soil&mdash;water; a huge caldron of water, black and silent;
+water, that gave him the impression of tremendous depth and coldness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa! matey, what's the matter?&quot; the man with the spade called out.
+&quot;Are you looking for your skin, for I never saw any one so completely
+jump out of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So would you,&quot; Hamar said with a shudder, &quot;if you saw what I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that, then?&quot; the man said leering on the ground. &quot;Snakes! That's
+what I always see when I've got them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you don't see yourself, there's some chance for you!&quot; Hamar
+retorted. &quot;What makes you so hot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, digging!&quot; the man laughed; &quot;any one would get hot digging at such
+hard ground as this. As for a little whippersnapper like you, you'd melt
+right away and only your nose would remain. Nothing would ever melt
+that&mdash;there's too much of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar scowled. &quot;You needn't be insulting,&quot; he said, &quot;I asked you a civil
+question, and I repeat it. What makes you so hot&mdash;when you should be
+cold&mdash;or at least cool?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, should I!&quot; the man mimicked, &quot;I thought first you was merely drunk;
+I can see quite clearly now that you're mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet you have such defective sight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What makes you say that?&quot; the man said testily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why,&quot; Hamar responded, &quot;because you can't see what lies beneath your
+very nose. Shall I tell you what it is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, tell away,&quot; the man replied, &quot;tell me my old mother's got twins,
+and that Boss Croker is coming to lodge with us. I'd know you for a liar
+anywhere by those teeth of yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; said Hamar drawing himself up angrily, &quot;I have had enough
+of your abuse. If I have any more I'll tell your employers. It is
+evident you take me for a bummer, but see,&quot;&mdash;and plunging his hand in
+his pocket he pulled it out full of gold. &quot;Kindly understand I'm
+somebody,&quot; he went on, &quot;and that I'm staying at one of the biggest
+hotels in the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm damned if I know what to make of you,&quot; the man muttered, &quot;unless
+you're a hoptical delusion!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Underneath where I was standing&mdash;just here,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar indicated the
+spot&mdash;&quot;is water. Any amount of it, you have only to sink a shaft fifteen
+feet and you would come to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Water!&quot; the man laughed, &quot;yes, there is any amount of it&mdash;on your
+brain, that's the only water near here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't believe me?&quot; Hamar demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not likely!&quot; the man responded, &quot;I only believe what I see! And when I
+see a face like yours holding out a potful of dollars, I know as how
+you've stolen them. Git!&quot;&mdash;and Hamar flew.</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar was not so easily nonplussed; not at least when he saw a
+chance of making money. Entering the garden, and keeping well out of
+sight of the gardener, he arrived at the front door by a side path, and
+with much formality requested to see the owner of the establishment. The
+latter happening to be crossing the hall at the time, heard Hamar and
+asked what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar at once informed him he was a dowser, and that, chancing to pass
+by the garden on his way to his hotel, he had divined the presence of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I only wish there were,&quot; the gentleman exclaimed, &quot;but I fear you are
+mistaken. I have attempted several times to sink a well but never with
+the slightest degree of success. I have had all the ground carefully
+prospected by Figgins of Sacramento Street&mdash;he has a very big
+reputation&mdash;and he assures me there isn't a drop of water anywhere near
+here within two hundred feet of the surface.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know better,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Will you get your gardener&mdash;who by the
+way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him&mdash;to dig where I
+tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. assented, and several
+gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were soon
+digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was found, and,
+indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few minutes it had
+risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall send an account of it to the local papers,&quot; Mr. B. remarked.
+&quot;Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of my
+property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am&quot;&mdash;and he,
+then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque&mdash;rather in excess
+of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not
+have refrained from demanding much longer.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the
+incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was
+so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel
+deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but,
+nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed them
+with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to tell him
+to &quot;dry up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I began the morning,&quot; he commenced, &quot;by accosting a very fashionably
+dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.
+Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater, the
+Biscuit King of Nob Hill, and that she was carrying in her big seal-skin
+muff a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald butterfly, a silver-backed
+hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a porcelain jar, all of
+which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was looking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning,
+Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are you?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would be
+otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a favour,
+Mrs. Bater.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a very
+extraordinary individual.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your muff?
+I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid for&mdash;and
+I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first time such a
+thing has happened.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever do
+you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a
+pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them each
+minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a
+silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad&mdash;if
+you prefer to call it so&mdash;from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a
+tortoiseshell manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the
+same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver buttons, a
+glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cushion&mdash;you likewise helped yourself
+to&mdash;from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them to
+you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with them.
+You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco
+storekeepers.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Good God, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the
+innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and almost
+failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I didn't kiss
+her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping mouth and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks,&quot; Curtis
+interrupted, &quot;I've got a touch of indigestion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As I was saying,&quot; Kelson went on complacently, &quot;I could have kissed her
+and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing? Show
+me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will agree
+to say nothing about either this or any of your other&mdash;ahem!&mdash;thefts&mdash;if
+you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for a thousand
+dollars!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I assure you, Mrs.
+Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman
+and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other things
+about you.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What other things?' she stuttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate&mdash;er&mdash;for
+single men like me to mention, but I do know that&mdash;er&mdash;a lady&mdash;very
+like&mdash;remarkably like&mdash;you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle
+which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as,
+madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years&mdash;let me see&mdash;yes, two
+years yesterday&mdash;one can&mdash;!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will give
+you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a
+taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You got the money?&quot; Hamar queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; Kelson said with a smile, &quot;I got the money&mdash;in fact, everything I
+asked for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, &quot;What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What next!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;why I thought I had done a very good day's
+work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm
+dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming
+out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a
+lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest
+fashion costumes&mdash;a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high
+plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so
+admirably suited to pretty girls&mdash;because it attracts attention to
+them&mdash;should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to
+continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the much-pampered
+and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate; that she was in
+love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas, the manager of
+the Columbian Bank&mdash;a young, good-looking fellow, whom she had been
+trying to set against his fianc&eacute;e, Dora Roberts. Dora is only nineteen,
+very pretty and a trifle giddy&mdash;nothing more. But this failing of
+hers&mdash;if you can call it a failing, was just the very weapon Ella Barlow
+wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending Delmas a series of
+anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This resulted in a breach
+between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much elated, at once tried to
+step into her shoes. She has been going out a good deal with Delmas, who
+is in reality still very much in love with Dora, and consequently
+exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella, anxious to show off a
+magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her father, telephoned to
+Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where she has engaged a box
+for this evening&mdash;fondly hoping that the diamonds will bring him up to
+the scratch, and that he will propose to her. When I saw her she was on
+her way to a notorious quack doctor and beauty specialist in Californian
+Street. She suffers from some nasty skin disease, and is in mortal
+terror lest Delmas should get to know of it, and also of the fact that
+all her teeth are false, and that two of her toes are badly deformed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jupiter!&quot; Hamar ejaculated, &quot;this divination of yours beats mine
+into fits&mdash;nothing escapes you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Kelson laughed, &quot;nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical
+was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her
+with his dissecting knife. I saw everything&mdash;and what is more I said to
+myself&mdash;here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I
+didn't stop her&mdash;I let her go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let her go!&quot; Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.
+&quot;You squirrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only for a time,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I went to see Delmas!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delmas!&quot; Hamar interlocuted, &quot;why the deuce Delmas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impulse!&quot; Kelson explained, &quot;purely impulse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;it is
+essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against impulse.
+What did you get out of Delmas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing!&quot; Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, &quot;But the matter hasn't
+ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to eat.
+I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and
+Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the
+<i>Examiner</i>, when he joined them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Hamar said, looking up at him, &quot;what luck?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then
+lolled back in his seat and began:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure rose
+to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not Herbert!
+Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is
+engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated&mdash;and by
+Jove the diamonds did shine&mdash;she was simply a mass of them, hair, neck,
+arms and fingers&mdash;and she had been so well faked up for the occasion
+that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew about
+her&mdash;and shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this
+afternoon, did he not?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in time
+to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself, and he
+would join you as soon as possible.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and
+asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he
+would be here by the end of the first act.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow ejaculated, 'I don't know
+you&mdash;I've never seen you before!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I
+can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest you.
+Have I your permission?'&mdash;and without waiting for her reply I sat next
+to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen people,
+and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not full up, as
+the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her attention fixed on my
+face so that she was unaware what was taking place, immediately behind
+her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of
+any possible interest to me?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your character!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read
+hands?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head, and
+feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in one!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of
+all this?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those
+anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous
+letters to do with me?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their
+contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I recited
+every word in them and told her the hour, day and place&mdash;namely, when
+and where each was written, and I summed up by asking what she would pay
+me not to tell Delmas.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim and
+silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying with
+the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed&mdash;she did not know what
+course to pursue!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I don't
+deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through one of
+the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of
+consequence to you as much as to me&mdash;is the payment for hushing it up!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her
+excitement, 'pay <i>you</i>&mdash;you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You&mdash;' but I
+can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go on
+till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow, why
+all this fuss&mdash;why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We must
+come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely I shall
+tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at all!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two
+deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and that
+you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to be
+faked up. I must be brutal&mdash;it's no use being anything else to women of
+your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you flatter
+yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What have you
+got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted. When she came
+to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts and water&mdash;the
+effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to imagine&mdash;I again
+broached the subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your
+defects will&mdash;as far as I am concerned&mdash;always remain a secret. Refuse,
+and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be known at
+once.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her hands&mdash;shivering.
+Then she looked up at me&mdash;and Jerusalem! it was like looking at an old
+woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall never wear them again,
+anyhow. Take them&mdash;and leave me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one that
+was on her into my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm,
+'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I
+answered&mdash;but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had been
+concealed within and had heard everything that passed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low down,
+perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You
+thoroughly deserve those diamonds&mdash;will you accept an offer for them
+from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them to
+her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he
+'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with
+Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they
+are going to be married next month.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So out of evil good comes,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;the maxim for us, remember,
+is&mdash;out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day,
+you two?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rest!&quot; said Kelson, &quot;I'm tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eat!&quot; said Curtis, &quot;I'm hungry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now look here, this won't do,&quot; Hamar remarked, &quot;you've earned your
+rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't I?&quot; Curtis snapped, &quot;I'm not so sure of that, I've years to make
+up for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!&quot; Hamar
+expostulated, &quot;and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We
+have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank&mdash;that is to say,
+the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents that
+amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount&mdash;and to go on
+increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the
+world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live at
+the pace Ed is setting us&mdash;but there is no reason why we should remain
+here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme in my
+head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, out with it,&quot; Curtis grunted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is this,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;I suggest that we go to London&mdash;London in
+England&mdash;I guess it's the richest town in the world&mdash;and there set up as
+sorcerers&mdash;The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination and
+juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of course
+sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt but that
+we should make an enormous pile, with which we would gradually buy up,
+not merely London, but the whole of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's rather a tall order,&quot; Kelson murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A small one, you mean,&quot; Curtis sneered, &quot;you could put the whole of
+England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go
+much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it,&quot; Hamar laughed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, perhaps not,&quot; Curtis said rather dubiously. &quot;I guess we could buy
+the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always used
+to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high enough.
+They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the end of our week,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;that is to say on Wednesday&mdash;in
+three days' time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First class all the way, of course,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;I'll see to the
+arrangements for the catering and berths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right!&quot; Hamar laughed, as he filled three glasses with champagne.
+&quot;Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity&mdash;to Hamar,
+Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO DREAMS</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe in dreams?&quot; Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a
+stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the
+breakfast room at Pine Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe in fairies,&quot; Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently as
+she looked at the fair face beside her. &quot;What was the dream, dearie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys laughed a little mischievously. &quot;I don't quite know whether I
+ought to tell you,&quot; she said. &quot;It might shock you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine,&quot; Miss Templeton
+replied. &quot;What was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Gladys began, flinging both arms round her aunt's neck and
+playing with the pleats in her blouse, &quot;I dreamed that I was walking in
+the little wood at the end of the garden, and that the trees and flowers
+walked and talked with me. And we danced together&mdash;and, first of all, I
+had for my partner, a red rose&mdash;and then, an ash. They both made love to
+me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands. A poppy piped,
+a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew desperately jealous of
+me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing ceased, and I found
+myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their bells at me with loud
+trills of laughter. And out from among them, came a buttercup, pointing
+its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it cried, 'what Gladys is carrying
+behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees and flowers&mdash;everything around
+me&mdash;shook with laughter. Then I grew hot and cold all over, and did not
+know which way to look for my confusion, till a willow, having
+compassion on me said, 'Take no notice of them! They don't know any
+better.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew very
+embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered&mdash;oh! so funnily, 'Well if
+you really wish to know&mdash;it's a bud, a baby white rose, and it's
+clinging to your dress.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst its
+fellows, 'that your lover is coming&mdash;your lover with a
+troll-le-loll-la&mdash;and&mdash;well, if you want to know more ask the
+gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
+that grows in the bed,'&mdash;and at that all the flowers and trees shrieked
+with laughter&mdash;'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'&mdash;and with my ears full of the rude
+laughter of the wood I awoke. What do you think of it? Isn't it rather a
+quaint mixture of the&mdash;of the sacred&mdash;at least the artistic&mdash;and the
+profane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite so,&quot; said Miss Templeton with an amused chuckle, &quot;but I shouldn't
+ask for an interpretation of it if I were you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for an interpretation of the trees and flowers?&quot; Gladys asked
+innocently. &quot;I'm sure trees and flowers have a special significance in
+dreams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well then, my dear, ask Mrs. Sprat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! ask the Vicar's wife!&quot; Gladys ejaculated, &quot;when I never go to
+church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, laughing again, &quot;Mrs. Sprat will
+quite understand. And I've always been told she is very interested in
+anything to do with the Occult. But hush! Here's your father. You'd
+better not tell him your dream. He's tired to death, he says, of hearing
+about your lovers, and agrees with me&mdash;there's no end to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind what he says&mdash;his bark's worse then his bite,&quot; Gladys
+rejoined, &quot;he doesn't really care how many I have so long as they keep
+within bounds, and I like them! Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin, who entered the room at that moment, went straight to his
+daughter to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish you wouldn't always select that bald spot,&quot; he said testily, &quot;I
+don't want to be everlastingly reminded I'm losing my hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do you want me to kiss you, then?&quot; Gladys argued, &quot;on the tip of
+your nose? That's all very well for you, John Martin, but I prefer the
+top of your head. But the poor dear looks worried, what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't have a very good night,&quot; her father replied, &quot;I dreamed a
+lot!&quot; Gladys looked at Miss Templeton and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you?&quot; she said gently. &quot;What a shame! I never dream. What was it
+all about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Flowers!&quot; John Martin snapped, &quot;idiotic flowers! Roses, lilac, tulips!
+Bah! I do wish you would have some other hobby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys looked at her aunt again, this time with a half serious, half
+questioning expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I be a politician?&quot; she cooed, &quot;and fill the house with
+suffragettes? You bad man, I believe you would revel in it. Don't you
+think so, Auntie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, instead of teasing your father so unmercifully, you had
+better pour him out a cup of tea,&quot; Miss Templeton replied. &quot;Jack,
+there's a letter for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where? Under my plate! what a place to put it. That's you,&quot; and John
+Martin frowned, or rather, attempted to frown, at Gladys. &quot;Why it's
+about Davenport&mdash;Dick Davenport. He's very ill&mdash;had a stroke yesterday,
+and the doctor declares his condition critical. His nephew, Shiel, so
+Anne says, has been sent for, and arrived at Sydenham last night! If
+that's not bad news I don't know what is!&quot; John Martin said, thrusting
+his plate away from him and leaning back in his chair. &quot;It's true I can
+manage the business all right myself&mdash;and there's the possibility, of
+course, that this young Shiel may shape all right. I suppose if anything
+happens he will step into Dick's shoes. I've never heard Dick mention
+any one else. Poor old Dick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am so sorry, father!&quot; Gladys said, laying her hand on his. &quot;But cheer
+up! It may not be as bad as you expect. Shall you go and see how he is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so, my dear! I think so,&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;but don't worry
+me about it now. Talk to your aunt and leave me out of it, I'm a bit
+upset. My brain's in a regular whirl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly the news was something in the nature of a blow: for Dick
+Davenport, apart from being John Martin's partner&mdash;partner in the firm
+of Martin and Davenport, the world-renowned conjurors, whose hall in the
+Kingsway was one of the chief amusement places in London, was John
+Martin's oldest friend. They had been chums at Cheltenham College, had
+entered the Army and gone to India together, had quitted the Service
+together, and, on returning together to England, had started their
+conjuring business, first of all in Sloane Street, and subsequently in
+the Kingsway. From the very start their enterprise had met with success,
+and, had it not been for Davenport's wild extravagance, they would have
+been little short of millionaires. But Davenport, though a most lovable
+character in every respect, could not keep money&mdash;he no sooner had it
+than it was gone. His house in Sydenham was little short of a palace;
+whilst, it was said, he almost rivalled royalty, in magnificent display,
+whenever he entertained. The result of all this reckless expenditure was
+no uncommon one&mdash;he ran through considerably more than he earned and&mdash;as
+there was no one else to help him&mdash;he invariably came down on John
+Martin. It was &quot;Jack, old boy, I'm damned sorry, but I must have another
+thousand;&quot; or, &quot;Jack! these infernal scamps of creditors are worrying
+the life out of me, can you, will you, lend me a trifle&mdash;a couple of
+thousand will do it&quot;&mdash;and so on&mdash;so on, ad infinitum. John Martin never
+refused, and at the time of Davenport's illness, the latter owed him
+something like a hundred thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately John Martin, though far from parsimonious, was careful. He
+had an excellent business head, and, thanks to his sagacious share in
+the management, the business remained solvent. He knew Davenport's
+capacity&mdash;that nowhere could he have found another such a brilliant
+genius in conjuring&mdash;nor, apart from his thriftlessness, any one so
+thoroughly reliable. In Davenport's keeping all the great tricks they
+had invented&mdash;and great tricks they undoubtedly were&mdash;were absolutely
+safe.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the fact that they had repeatedly offered big sums of money to
+any one who could discover the secret of how they were done, every
+attempt to do so had utterly failed. The Mysteries of Martin and
+Davenport's Home of Wonder, in the Kingsway, baffled the world. Of
+course one thing had helped them enormously&mdash;namely, they had no rivals.
+So colossal was their reputation, that no one else had ever even thought
+of setting up in opposition.</p>
+
+<p>And now one of the two great master-minds, that had accomplished all
+these marvels and acquired such universal fame, was stricken down,
+checkmated by the still greater power of nature; and his colleague&mdash;the
+only other man in existence who shared his knowledge&mdash;was obliged to
+rack his brain as to what was now to be done&mdash;done for the continuance
+and prosperity of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>After finishing her breakfast Gladys joined her aunt in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To dream of flowers and trees evidently means bad news,&quot; she said. &quot;But
+as I feel in a mood for a walk, I shall call at the Vicarage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, now! At this hour!&quot; Miss Templeton cried aghast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; Gladys said imperturbably. &quot;I'm not going to pay a call. They
+haven't called on us. I shall say I've merely come to make an inquiry.
+Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
+surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
+conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
+ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
+Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
+presence of his wife, who received her very affably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, how very strange,&quot; she observed when Gladys had stated the object
+of her visit. &quot;I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A Miss
+Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream about
+trees and flowers&mdash;only it took the form of a poem, which she awoke
+repeating. There were several verses&mdash;quite doggerel it is true&mdash;but
+nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them down, and
+asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden meaning in
+them. Here they are,&quot; and she handed Gladys two pages of sermon paper on
+which was written&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;In the greenest of green valleys,<br /></span>
+<span>Aglow with summer sun,<br /></span>
+<span>Lived a maiden fair and radiant,<br /></span>
+<span>More radiant there was none.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The flowers gave her their friendship;<br /></span>
+<span>Her couch was on the ground.<br /></span>
+<span>A happier, gayer maiden,<br /></span>
+<span>Was nowhere to be found.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The air was filled with music<br /></span>
+<span>Sung by the babbling brook.<br /></span>
+<span>Sweet lullabies with chorus clear<br /></span>
+<span>In which the flowers partook.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;This maiden knew not sorrow,<br /></span>
+<span>Until an evil day;<br /></span>
+<span>When riding lone across the moors,<br /></span>
+<span>A hunter lost his way.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And chancing on this valley,<br /></span>
+<span>He met the maiden sweet.<br /></span>
+<span>Her beauty overwhelmed him;<br /></span>
+<span>He fell love-sick at her feet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Despite the fervent warnings<br /></span>
+<span>Of her friends the flowers and trees,<br /></span>
+<span>She listened to his courting;<br /></span>
+<span>And with him roamed the leas.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The leas, far from the valley,<br /></span>
+<span>They rode the livelong night;<br /></span>
+<span>Till a heavy mist descending<br /></span>
+<span>Hid the roadway from their sight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Uprose, then, forms of evil.<br /></span>
+<span>From out the mocking gloom;<br /></span>
+<span>And seizing horse and hunter scared,<br /></span>
+<span>Left the maiden to her doom.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Travellers now within those regions,<br /></span>
+<span>Through the nightly grey fog see<br /></span>
+<span>A woman's shade crawl slow along,<br /></span>
+<span>To a ghastly melody.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And those who linger&mdash;follow<br /></span>
+<span>The phantom pale and wan.<br /></span>
+<span>O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale<br /></span>
+<span>It slowly leads them on.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;On till they reach the valley,<br /></span>
+<span>A valley grim and drear,<br /></span>
+<span>Where lurid things with fibrous arms<br /></span>
+<span>Their course through darkness steer.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And on the travellers palsied<br /></span>
+<span>In frenzied crowd they pour.<br /></span>
+<span>And those who view their faces,<br /></span>
+<span>Are heard but seen no more.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?&quot; Gladys exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; the Vicar's wife said. &quot;She told me so and I have no reason to
+doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the least
+bit in the world poetical&mdash;on the contrary she is most practical and
+matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine, too!&quot; Gladys interrupted. &quot;Were you able to explain the verses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I am
+in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie Besant
+last night! She&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?&quot; Gladys asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things&mdash;to tell
+dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water, and so
+on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice about them
+in this morning's paper. I will get it for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She left the room and in a few moments returned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here it is,&quot; she said. And under the heading of &quot;Sorcery Revived&quot;
+Gladys read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
+to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
+Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
+Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
+S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess to
+interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve all
+manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
+wonders what next!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This paper evidently has its doubts,&quot; Gladys commented. &quot;They are
+frauds, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dare say they are,&quot; the Vicar's wife replied, &quot;though I believe in
+thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
+Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
+train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, thanks awfully,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;for telling me about these
+people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during the day and
+call at Cockspur Street. I must apologize again for calling at such an
+unearthly hour. Good-bye,&quot; and Gladys smilingly took her departure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Shortly after Gladys reached home after her visit to the Vicarage, a
+young man with a serious expression somewhat out of keeping with his
+jaunty walk, entered the gate of Pine Cottage, and came to an abrupt
+halt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he ejaculated, &quot;this is a pretty place, and what's more&mdash;for
+dozens of houses and gardens are pretty&mdash;it's artistic!&quot; In front of him
+stretched a miniature avenue of chestnut trees, which was rendered
+striking, even to the most casual observer, probably, not only on
+account of the irregular mounds of moss-covered stones that occupied its
+intervening spaces, but also, by reason of the masses of wild flowers
+(great clumps of which were springing up in the crevices of this
+impromptu wall) that lent to it an appearance half negligent, but wholly
+and entrancingly picturesque. Here, undoubtedly, was art. That did not
+astonish the young man. All avenues, in the ordinary sense, are works of
+art; and the mere excess of art he saw manifested did not surprise him;
+it was the character of the art that had brought him to a standstill and
+held him spellbound. And the longer he looked the more he became
+convinced, that whoever had superintended the arrangement of this
+scenery was an artist&mdash;an artist with a scrupulous eye for form.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest care had been taken to keep the balance between neatness
+and gracefulness on the one hand and picturesqueness on the other. There
+were few straight lines, and no long uninterrupted ones; whilst at no
+one point of view did the same effect of curvature or colour appear
+twice. Variety in uniformity was the keynote.</p>
+
+<p>At last tearing himself away from this one spot&mdash;where he felt he could
+have spent centuries&mdash;he turned to the right and then again to the
+left&mdash;for the path had now become serpentine, and at no moment could be
+traced for more than two or three paces in advance. Presently the sound
+of water fell gently on his ear, and in the shadiest of diminutive
+forests, amidst the interlacing branches of elm and beech, he caught the
+glimpse of a fountain. For an instant the wild thought of forcing his
+way through it, of plunging his burning forehead in its cooling spray,
+well-nigh mastered him. But his better sense conquered, and he kept to
+the path. Another turn, and he caught his first glimpse of a chimney;
+another&mdash;and the summit of a gable showed above the trees. The sun,
+which had been hitherto obscured, now came out, and suddenly&mdash;as if by
+the hand of magic&mdash;the whole scene was a brilliant blaze of colour. He
+had arrived at the end of the avenue, where the path forked; one branch
+turning sharply round in the direction of a side entrance to the house,
+whilst the other led with a gentle curvature to the front.</p>
+
+<p>Facing the building was a broad expanse of velvety turf, relieved
+occasionally, here and there, by such showy shrubs as the hydrangea,
+rhododendron, or lilac; but more frequently, and at closer intervals, by
+clumps of geraniums, or roses&mdash;roses of every variety. There was nothing
+pretentious in the garden, any more than there was in the adjoining
+edifice. Its unusually pleasing effect lay altogether in its artistic
+arrangement; and one could hardly help imagining that the whole scene
+had, in reality, been called into existence by the brush of some eminent
+landscape painter.</p>
+
+<p>The cottage itself was constructed of old-fashioned Dutch
+shingles&mdash;broad and with rounded corners&mdash;and painted a dull grey; a
+tint which, when contrasted with the vivid green of the tulip trees that
+overshadowed the entrance to the house, and reared themselves high above
+it on either side, afforded an artistic happiness perfectly intoxicating
+to its present visitor. The architecture of the cottage was&mdash;if not
+Early Tudor&mdash;something equally pleasing. Its roofs were divided into
+many gables; its windows were diamond paned and projecting, whilst oaken
+beams ran latitudinally and vertically over its grey shingle front.
+Encompassing the whole base of the exterior were masses of
+flowers&mdash;pinks, carnations, heliotrope, pansies, poppies, lilies,
+wallflowers, roses and jasmines; and besides the latter several other
+creepers had been planted beneath the walls, but had not yet attained to
+any height.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel Davenport, for it was he, could not resist the temptation of
+peeping in at the windows; and he saw that the interior of the cottage
+was artistry and simplicity itself. At the windows, curtains of heavy
+white jaconet muslin, not too full, hung in sharp parallel plaits to the
+floor&mdash;just to the floor. The walls were papered with French papers of
+rare delicacy&mdash;to match the seasons; (spring, summer, autumn and winter
+were all most effectively depicted), and the furniture though light, was
+at the same time costly. And here again was the same effect of
+arrangement&mdash;an arrangement obviously designed by the same brain that
+had planned the building and grounds. Shiel could not conceive anything
+more graceful. Flowers&mdash;flowers of every hue and odour were the chief
+decoration of the cottage. On almost every table were vases&mdash;in
+themselves beautiful enough&mdash;yet filled to overflowing with the finest
+roses. Ox-eye daisies, hollyhocks and forget-me-nots clustered about the
+open windows. And every puff of wind, every breath of air transmitted
+scent&mdash;the most delicious medley of scent imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>The young man drew in deep draughts of it; he threw back his head, and,
+opening his mouth, revelled in the joy of feeling it steal softly down
+his throat and permeate his lungs. He was thus engaged when the sound of
+a voice brought him sharply back to earth.</p>
+
+<p>In the open doorway of the house, an amused expression in her violet
+eyes, stood a girl&mdash;so wondrously pretty, that at the sight of her Shiel
+was again overcome, and could only gaze in helpless admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you want to see my father?&quot; she inquired. &quot;He is getting ready to go
+out, but I daresay he will see you first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;I am sure he will,&quot; the young man replied, &quot;I'm Shiel Davenport.
+I've come to tell him my uncle died at four o'clock this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, dear!&quot; the girl exclaimed, &quot;I am so sorry&mdash;sorry for you, and for
+my father. I'm sure he will be terribly upset. I'm Gladys Martin,
+perhaps you've heard of me&mdash;I knew your uncle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Often,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;And I think my uncle's description of you an
+excellent one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His description of me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! he always spoke of you as the Queen of Flowers, and said you had a
+mania for all things beautiful, which was not surprising, seeing how
+beautiful you were yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was very nice of him,&quot; Gladys said, looking amused again. &quot;Won't
+you come in? If you will wait here&quot;&mdash;she led him to the
+drawing-room&mdash;&quot;I'll tell my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She disappeared, and Shiel heard her run lightly up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jove,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;she's the loveliest girl I've ever seen.
+From being so much among flowers, she has become one herself. Violets,
+roses, and heliotrope have all had a share in her creation! What eyes,
+what a mouth! what teeth! what hands! Surely I have found here, not only
+the perfection of all things beautiful, but the perfection of all things
+natural, the perfection of natural grace in contradistinction from
+artificial grace. Moreover, she is a romanticist. There is an expression
+of romance, of unworldliness, in those deep-set eyes of hers, that sinks
+into my heart of hearts. 'Romance' and 'womanliness,' and the two terms
+appear to me to be convertible, are her distinguishing features. She is
+an artist, an idealist, and, over and above all&mdash;a woman! Hang it! I'm
+in love with her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>More he could not evolve, for his meditations were abruptly cut short by
+the entrance of a servant, who ushered him, straightway, into the
+presence of John Martin.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, though visibly affected by the news of his friend's death,
+was a man of the world, and, consequently, came to business at once.
+Much had to be discussed&mdash;arrangements for the funeral, the examination
+of correspondence relative to the firm, and plans for the immediate
+future.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know how my uncle's affairs stand, I suppose?&quot; Shiel asked
+somewhat nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; John Martin said, &quot;I do. May I ask if you have any private means
+at all&mdash;or are you solely dependent on what you earn? By the way, what
+is your calling?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am an artist,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;No, I've nothing beyond what my uncle was
+good enough to allow me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An artist!&quot; John Martin murmured, &quot;how like Dick! Have you entertained
+the idea of inheriting a fortune? Have you any reason to suppose that
+your uncle was well off and had made you his heir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered so, sir, from the manner in which he lived and his attitude
+towards me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! we won't talk it over now&mdash;leave it till after the funeral. Are
+you bent on continuing painting? There is very little remuneration in
+it, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not much,&quot; Shiel answered gloomily, &quot;but I shouldn't care to give it
+up&mdash;unless of course it is absolutely necessary for me to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Being an artist you wouldn't be much good in business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events, you are candid. Well! I don't see any good in our
+dallying here&mdash;I had best go back with you to Sydenham. I've got a
+letter to write first, but I shan't be long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was long enough, however, for Shiel to have another chat with Gladys.
+&quot;Do you believe in dreams?&quot; she asked him. &quot;I had such a queer one last
+night, about trees and flowers; and, oddly enough, my father also
+dreamed of trees and flowers, and of the very same ones too. I am going
+into Town to-day to consult a firm that has just set up, called the
+Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. They profess to interpret dreams, and I am
+anxious to see whether they can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Cockspur Street, aren't they?&quot; Shiel asked. &quot;I saw their
+advertisement in one of the papers. I presume you are not going there
+alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Gladys laughed, &quot;I shall go with a friend, though I often do go
+into Town alone. I can assure you I am quite capable of looking after
+myself. In that respect, at least, I am quite up to date. Probably you
+are more accustomed to French girls?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I have spent most of my life in Paris,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;But how could
+you tell that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I guessed you were an artist&mdash;and had probably spent some time in
+Paris&quot;&mdash;Gladys rejoined, &quot;by the way you looked at the house and garden.
+I could read appreciation in your eyes and gesture; such appreciation,
+as I knew, could only come from an artist. G.W. Barnett helped me in
+planning this cottage and the garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! Barnett the landscape painter! I am a great admirer of his work.
+Were you a pupil of his?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he was one of the visiting R.A.'s at the Beechcroft Studio in St.
+John's Wood, where I worked for three years. We were then living in
+Blackheath&mdash;St. John's Park&mdash;a hateful place. Mr. Barnett was awfully
+good, when I told him we were moving, and that I wanted to live in
+really artistic surroundings&mdash;he suggested that I should be my own
+architect, and promised to do everything he could to assist me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And your father hadn't a say in the matter,&quot; Shiel commented, with an
+amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not in that,&quot; Gladys said complacently, &quot;though there are one or two
+things in which he has a very decided say. Father can be very
+self-willed and obstinate, when he likes. But as I was remarking when
+you interrupted me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I beg pardon!&quot; Shiel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Barnett promised to assist me. He came over here with me, and we
+chose this site.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he an old man?&quot; Shiel inquired, a trifle anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not much more than middle aged&mdash;fifty perhaps!&quot; Gladys said, &quot;though he
+looks much younger. He is still very good-looking. Well! he came over
+here&mdash;we chose this site, and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he married?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! Really you seem very interested in him. Perhaps you will meet him
+some day: he comes here a good deal. As I was saying, we chose the site
+together, and he supervized the plans I drew up for the garden and
+cottage; I don't think, perhaps, I should have thought of that avenue if
+it hadn't been for him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events it does you both credit,&quot; Shiel remarked, &quot;for a more
+charming house and garden I have never seen. I should like to live here
+all my life. I should like&mdash;&quot; but he was interrupted by John Martin.
+&quot;Come, it's time we were off,&quot; the latter called out brusquely, &quot;time
+and trains wait for no man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A young ass!&quot; John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio passed
+through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform, &quot;not a
+bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Encourage him!&quot; Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who had
+his ticket to get, was out of hearing. &quot;Do I encourage any one? All the
+same,&quot; she added defiantly, &quot;I rather like him. It isn't every one's
+good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick&mdash;hurry up! That's
+your train&mdash;and the guard's about to blow his whistle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
+they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
+the station.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
+with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
+lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you an appointment, madam?&quot; the commissionaire, in a bright blue
+uniform, asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;Is it necessary?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The firm are unusually busy,&quot; the man explained, &quot;and unless you have
+made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
+whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into the
+waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I will
+take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to consult?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't the slightest idea,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;I want to have a dream
+interpreted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, that will be Mr. Kelson,&quot; the man observed &quot;he does all that kind
+of thing&mdash;tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts. Mr.
+Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar divines
+the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the waiting-room
+now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there nearly an hour.
+This way, madam!&quot;&mdash;and he escorted, rather than ushered, Gladys into a
+large, elaborately furnished room, in which a dozen or so well dressed
+people&mdash;of both sexes&mdash;were waiting, looking over the leaves of
+magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide their only too
+obvious excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the commissionaire,
+Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next to a strikingly
+handsome girl, she at once appropriated it.</p>
+
+<p>There was something about this showy girl that had attracted Gladys. She
+was one of those rare people that have a personality, and although this
+was a personality that Gladys was not at all sure she liked,
+nevertheless she felt anxious to become more closely acquainted with it.
+Both girls suddenly realized that they were staring hard at one another.
+The girl with the personality was the first to speak. With a smile that,
+while revealing a perfect set of white teeth, at the some time revealed
+exceedingly thin lips, she remarked, &quot;It's most wearisome work waiting.
+I've been here nearly an hour. I shouldn't stay any longer, only I've
+come from a distance. London is so hot and stuffy, I detest it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you?&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;I don't. I find it so full of human
+interest&mdash;indeed, of every kind of interest. Not that I should care to
+live in it, but I like being near enough to come up several times a
+week. I live at Kew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you're lucky!&quot; the girl said, &quot;I'd live at Kew if I could. But I
+can't&mdash;I'm one of those unfortunate creatures who have to earn their
+living.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I sometimes wish I had to,&quot; Gladys remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you! Then you don't know much about it. It isn't all jam by a long
+way. I loathe work. I've been spending my holiday at Kew. I've just come
+from there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you by any chance Miss Rosenberg?&quot; Gladys asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's my name,&quot; the girl replied with a look of astonishment. &quot;How do
+you know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys explained. &quot;I've just been to the Vicarage,&quot; she said, &quot;and Mrs.
+Sprat has told me about the verses. Did you really dream them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course! I shouldn't have said so if I hadn't,&quot; Miss Rosenberg
+replied angrily. &quot;I don't tell crams. Besides, I've never composed a
+line of poetry in my life. The verses were repeated to me in my sleep by
+some occult agency&mdash;of that I am quite certain. They were so vividly
+impressed on my mind that I had no difficulty at all in remembering
+them&mdash;every one of them, and I got up and wrote them down. Of course
+they must mean something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was about to make some observation, when the commissionaire,
+opening the door of the room, called out, &quot;Miss Rosenberg;&quot; whereupon,
+with a sigh of relief, Miss Rosenberg took her departure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Tell Miss Rosenberg I'll see her now,&quot; Matt Kelson said; and as he
+leaned back in his luxurious chair with that dignity of self-assurance
+only the man who is rich can maintain, it was hard to realise that he
+and the Matt Kelson of a year ago were the same. A year ago he had been
+a poor, underpaid, ill nourished pen-driver, with all the odious marks
+of a pen-driver's servility thick upon him. It was true he had been
+fastidious as to his appearance&mdash;that is to say, as fastidious as any
+one can be, who has to buy clothes ready made and can only afford to pay
+a few dollars for them; that he had sacrificed meals to wear white
+shirts&mdash;boiled shirts as one called them in San Francisco&mdash;and to get
+his things got up decently at a respectable laundry; but his teeth in
+those days did not receive the attention they ought to have received (he
+could not afford a dentist), the tobacco he smoked was often offensive;
+and there were to be found in him sundry other details that one usually
+finds in clerks, and in most other people who literally have to fight
+for a living.</p>
+
+<p>But now, all that was changed. Kelson was rich. He bought his suits at
+Poole's, his hats at Christie's, his boots in Regent Street. He
+patronized a dentist in Cavendish Square, and a manicurist in Bond
+Street. He belonged to a crack club in Pall Mall, and never smoked
+anything but the most expensive cigars. His ambition had been speedily
+realized. He had passionately longed to be a fop&mdash;he was one. The only
+thing that troubled him, was that he could not be an aristocrat at the
+same time. But, after all, what did that matter? The girls looked at him
+all the same, and that was all he wanted. He worshipped, he adored,
+pretty girls; and he was most anxious that they should adore him.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, his first thought, when he saw Lilian Rosenberg's name on
+the form the commissionaire presented him, was &quot;Is she pretty?&quot; And the
+first thing he said to himself directly the door opened to admit her
+was, &quot;By Jove! she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then he assumed an air more suited to a partner in a big London firm,
+and flourishing a richly bejewelled hand, said &quot;Pray take a seat, madam.
+What can I do for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to tell me the meaning of these verses,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+said, handing him two sheets of foolscap and then sitting down. &quot;They
+were suggested to me in my sleep&mdash;in other words, I dreamed them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dreamed them, did you!&quot; Kelson said, noticing with approval that
+the girl had well-kept white hands, and that her clothes, though not
+particularly expensive, were <i>chic</i>, and up-to-date. &quot;Do you want me
+only to interpret this poem, or shall I tell you something about
+yourself first?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means tell me something about myself first&mdash;if you can,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said. &quot;I want to get as much as I can out of you. Your fees
+are exorbitant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then,&quot; Kelson rejoined with a smile. &quot;Don't blame me if I
+tell you too much. You were born at sea. Being a troublesome girl at
+home, you were sent to a boarding-school, where you distinguished
+yourself in various ways, and last but not least, by making the
+headmistress&mdash;a married woman&mdash;desperately jealous. This led to your
+being removed. Removed is a more delicate term than 'expelled.' Am I
+right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I believe you are inspired by the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I go on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;I think so. Yes, go on, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came home. Your mother died. Your father married again. You
+disliked your stepmother&mdash;you considered she ill treated you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She did!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't dispute it. At all events you had your revenge. You pretended
+to commit suicide, and wrote several letters&mdash;to the police amongst
+others&mdash;declaring that you were about to drown yourself owing to the
+cruelty of your stepmother. And so cleverly did you manage it, that
+every one believed you were drowned, and blamed your stepmother
+accordingly. Changing your name to Lilian Rosenberg you came direct to
+London. For some time you worked in a milliner's shop in Beauchamp
+Gardens, and then you set up as a manicurist in Woodstock Street. Among
+your clients was the wife of the Vicar of St. Katherine's, Kew, who took
+a great liking to you&mdash;you have extraordinary personal magnetism.
+Unable, however, to do more than pay your way at legitimate manicuring
+you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg cried, a faint flow of colour
+pervading her cheeks. &quot;That will do! Explain the verses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you will!&quot; Kelson said, &quot;but mind, I don't insist on the necessity
+of your paying the slightest heed to my explanation. According to the
+usual method of interpreting dreams, the valley of flowers is symbolical
+of innocence and self-restraint&mdash;of that path in life with which the
+goody-goodies say every young lady should be satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The hunter is representative of the love of change and excitement; the
+horse&mdash;of self-indulgence. The misty moon means ruin, the metamorphosis
+into the crawling phantasm&mdash;death. Leave the path of virtue, and give
+way to self-indulgence and a craving for everlasting change and
+excitement, and a miserable ending will be your mead&mdash;and has been the
+mead of all others who have done the same thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then the dream is a warning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was about to reply, when the door opened, and Hamar, with an
+apology for intruding, beckoned to him.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with him for several moments relative to a matter of some
+consequence, and then, glancing at Miss Rosenberg, and drawing Kelson
+still further aside, whispered, &quot;Let me caution you again, Matt. On no
+account let your soft feelings with regard to the other sex get the
+better of you. Remember it is imperative for us to do evil not good&mdash;to
+lead our clients into temptation, not out of it. I am doing my best to
+follow the injunctions of the Unknown, but we must all work in
+harmony&mdash;that is the most vital point in our compact, and you know if
+we do not keep the compact something frightful will happen to us. I
+can't impress this fact on you too much. Only yesterday I had to pull
+you up for giving good advice to a lady. Damn your good advice, give
+bad&mdash;bad advice, I say; anything that will do people harm&mdash;no matter
+whether they are ugly or pretty&mdash;and if you are not jolly well careful,
+pretty girls will be your&mdash;and our&mdash;undoing. I see you have a pretty
+girl here now&mdash;and from what I can read in her face, she is not a saint.
+Rub it in to her&mdash;rub it into her well&mdash;persuade her to be a bigger
+sinner still. Now I can't wait to say more, I must go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I asked you,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, as Kelson resumed his seat, &quot;if
+the dream was a warning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;I shouldn't take it as such. Despite the rather
+peculiar form it took, I am inclined to think it isn't a dream with any
+real significance&mdash;but merely a chance dream&mdash;a dream compounded of
+sayings and actions of the past that have come back to you all
+higgledy-piggledy, as they so often do in dreams. You learned a lot of
+poetry I suppose when you were at school?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but none like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I didn't suppose so, but the mere fact that your mind was at one
+time used to verses&mdash;acquainted with metre and rhythm, would account for
+the form adopted by your dream. I assure you it was purely chance&mdash;and
+that there is no significance in it! You are on the look out for work,
+is it not so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;Can you tell me where to go to get it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am just thinking,&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;I believe my partner, Mr. Hamar,
+wants a secretary. I can't, of course, say whether you would suit him.
+Do you type?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can type and do shorthand,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied eagerly, &quot;and I
+can correspond in German and French.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the salary? Would two hundred a year do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; after a slight pause, &quot;I could make it do. I should want one
+half-day holiday&mdash;from one o'clock&mdash;every week; and Sundays&mdash;and three
+weeks' holiday in the summer, and one at Christmas, and of course, the
+usual Bank Holidays.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see!&quot; Kelson said thoughtfully; &quot;you want plenty of time for
+amusement. Well! I will speak about it to Mr. Hamar, and if you leave me
+your address I will give it him. How nicely you keep your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I manicure them every day,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said; then looking up at
+him from under the long lashes which swept her cheeks, she added, &quot;You
+won't forget to tell Mr. Hamar about me, will you? I am very anxious to
+get a post. You don't know what it is to be hard up, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The earnest, pleading expression in her long, dark eyes appealed to
+Kelson as nothing else had ever appealed to him. Since his arrival in
+London, he had seen many pretty faces, many beautiful eyes, but
+assuredly none so lovely as these. And what features! what teeth! what
+lips! what a chin! what a figure! It seemed to him that she was not like
+an ordinary girl, that she was not of the same composition as any of the
+girls he had ever met; that she was something hardly human&mdash;something
+elfish, something generated by the beautiful English woods and glades,
+filled with the soft glamour of the moon and stars. And all the while he
+was thinking thus, his heart rising in rebellion against the words of
+Hamar, the girl continued gazing up at him, and toying with the rings on
+her slender, milk-white fingers.</p>
+
+<p>At last he dare look at her no longer, but stammering out his promise to
+do all he could to get her the vacant post, he pressed her hand gently,
+and bade her good morning.</p>
+
+<p>Then he returned to his chair, and, leaning back in it, was seeing once
+again in his mind's eye the fair face of the girl who had just left him,
+when there was a rap at the door, and the commissionaire announced Miss
+Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another of them,&quot; Kelson said to himself. &quot;And about as pretty in her
+way as the last. Now I wonder what she wants.&quot; He looked closely at her,
+but no past rose up before him&mdash;as far as this client was concerned his
+power of divination in that direction was nil&mdash;she was a blank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to ask you the meaning of a dream I had last night,&quot; she
+began, inwardly shuddering at the sight of so much pomade and jewellery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; he said with an encouraging smile, &quot;what was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of course she did not tell him all, but merely that she had dreamed of
+certain flowers and trees as, curiously enough, so had her father.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson looked at her thoughtfully. Once he opened his mouth to speak and
+then checked himself; and it was some seconds before he actually broke
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Taken separately,&quot; he said at last, &quot;the ash tree portends an
+unexpected visit; a poppy, a visit from a man; red roses, falling in
+love; lilac, a present; a willow, kisses&mdash;heaps of them; bluebells, a
+proposal; brambles, difficulties in the way&mdash;for example, tiresome
+relatives; buttercups, a marriage; an ash tree, a son and heir&mdash;a dear
+little&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you!&quot; Gladys remarked, rising frigidly. Thank you! I will go now.
+What is your fee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust, madam, you are pleased,&quot; Kelson said in great distress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you kindly take your fee and let me out,&quot; Gladys demanded, as he
+nervously placed himself in her way. &quot;Thank you. Good morning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as she swept regally past him and down the stone passage, Hamar came
+out of his room and passed by her on his way to Kelson's office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye gods!&quot; he exclaimed, eyeing the discomfited Kelson wrathfully. &quot;What
+in the world have you done to offend the lady? I never saw any one look
+so angry in my life. D&mdash;n it all! I hope you didn't insult her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was all your fault!&quot; Kelson wailed. &quot;She asked me to tell her the
+meaning of a dream which was brimful of warnings against us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Against us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, against us! I have never listened to such admonitions in a dream
+before. She must have some very friendly spirits watching over her.
+Well! what was I to do? I did my best. Mindful of what you said to me a
+short time ago, I put her entirely off the track; gave her an entirely
+misleading&mdash;and as I thought very pleasant&mdash;interpretation of the
+dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What did you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jackass!&quot; Hamar exclaimed. &quot;Jackass! You were far too broad. What
+pleases a San Francisco girl shocks a London lady. For goodness sake
+have more tact another time, we don't want to get into hot water. I feel
+quite convinced that if any harm befalls us&mdash;if that compact is in any
+way broken&mdash;it will be through you. I wish to heaven the Unknown had
+given you some other power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I,&quot; Kelson groaned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At all events,&quot; Hamar went on, &quot;the first three months is nearly at an
+end. Who was she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Miss Gladys Martin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where does she live?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. I could divine nothing about her. She can't have any
+vices.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't suppose she has,&quot; Hamar remarked dryly, &quot;Not from the look of
+her anyway. But there is time yet. Matt! I've taken a fancy to that girl
+and I mean to get hold of her somehow. I wonder if she is related to
+Martin&mdash;Davenport's partner! Jerusalem! What sport if she is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why? Why sport?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dolt! Don't you see! Martin is at our mercy. We are more than his
+rivals. We can drive him out of London any moment we like. His tricks
+indeed! Pshaw! Curtis can do them all right off the reel! And Curtis
+shall&mdash;we will show Martin up&mdash;make a laughing stock of him&mdash;ruin him!
+Unless&mdash;unless&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unless what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Scott! Don't look so alarmed! Unless&mdash;supposing that girl is his
+daughter&mdash;unless he gives me permission to pay my addresses to
+her!&quot;&mdash;and Hamar laughed coarsely.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Where's Gladys?&quot; John Martin asked as he rose with an effort, stiff and
+tired, from the remains of a meat tea.</p>
+
+<p>In reply Miss Templeton merely pointed a finger&mdash;and went on crocheting.</p>
+
+<p>Following the direction indicated, John Martin stepped out on to the
+lawn, and glancing round the garden, called &quot;Gladys!&quot; Then he listened,
+and there came to him snatches of a song, the words of which, full of
+arch sentiment, allied with (and to a large extent dependent on), a
+unique knowledge of and love of nature&mdash;would not have disgraced a
+Herrick or a Raleigh&mdash;the music&mdash;a Schubert, or a Sullivan. John Martin
+had spared no money in educating Gladys, and she did him credit. He
+thought so now, as exhausted from a hard day's poring over letters, he
+paused and leaned his back against a tree. A gentle breeze blew her
+notes to him, full of melody and mirth; fresh and young and tender&mdash;as
+tender as the rosebuds and violets that nestled at her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By Jove!&quot; John Martin murmured. &quot;Fancy my having a daughter like
+Gladys! I ought to be jolly well pleased. And so I am. The only thing I
+fear, is, that she'll marry some one who isn't half good enough for her!
+But who would be good enough for her! God alone knows! And God alone
+knows whether she or I ought to decide! Gladys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot;, and the next moment a vision in pink emerged from the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gladys, I want to confide in you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's wrong, Daddy, dear?&quot; Gladys said, thrusting an arm through his
+and walking him gently along with her through the glade. &quot;You weren't at
+all nice to me when we parted this morning, but you look so wearied that
+I'll be magnanimous and forgive you. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why it's like this!'&quot; John Martin said, putting his arm round her and
+holding her close to him, as he used to do when, a little girl, she came
+sidling up to him for sugar-plums. &quot;Poor Dick's affairs are in a
+terrible muddle. Unknown to me he speculated right and left, and he has
+not only muddled through everything he had, but he has left a number of
+debts, and unfortunately I have to meet them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You, Father! But why you?&quot; Gladys cried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because they were incurred in the name of the Firm. I can meet them all
+right, but it will be a big drain on my resources. That's worry number
+one. Worry number two is about young Davenport&mdash;Shiel. I don't know what
+to do about him. He was entirely dependent on Dick. His work as an
+artist doesn't bring him in enough to keep him in tobacco, and the worst
+of it is he doesn't seem capable of turning his hand to anything else; I
+can't see him starve, so I shall have to allow him something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He seemed to me very intelligent,&quot; Gladys observed, &quot;couldn't you take
+him into the Firm? Who are you going to have in his uncle's place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the trouble!&quot; John Martin replied. &quot;I do feel I want some one.
+I am getting on in years, my brain is not so vigorous as it used to be,
+and I can't go on inventing fresh tricks <i>ad infinitum</i>. Moreover, I
+need assistance in the purely business side of the concern. I want some
+one who is both business-like and inventive&mdash;some one young, brilliant
+and reliable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You couldn't sell out I suppose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not just at present. Thanks to poor old Dick the Firm is in rather
+a precarious condition! Another six months over, and we may be perfectly
+all right. No! I must stick on, and get another partner. And look here,
+Gladys, you know I let you do pretty nearly everything you like. But let
+me beg of you not to be too friendly with that young Davenport. I caught
+him looking very impressibly at you this morning, and I am quite sure,
+if he sees anything more of you, he will be falling head over ears in
+love. Which is the very last thing in the world I want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's making me out to be very attractive, Daddy,&quot; Gladys said,
+looking round at him mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so you are, dear!&quot; John Martin said. &quot;Wonderfully attractive! and
+none knows it better than yourself. But in this case you must think of
+consequences&mdash;consequences that might be disastrous to us all! Confound
+it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
+advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
+height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right ear
+standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest; his
+nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting and
+yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
+saturnine.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys shivered. &quot;What a horrible person!&quot; she whispered, &quot;there is
+something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how he
+stares!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;what is it?&quot; John Martin demanded. &quot;Do you want to see me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!&quot; the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
+characteristic of California. &quot;I've come to have a little talk with you
+on business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With me&mdash;on business!&quot; John Martin cried. &quot;I don't know you! I've never
+seen you before!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see me now anyway!&quot; the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes at
+Gladys. &quot;My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show of
+yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D&mdash;n your impudence!&quot; John Martin said, raising his stick
+threateningly. &quot;How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Calmly, calmly, sir!&quot; Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. &quot;I've come here
+with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
+programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
+rivals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry,&quot; Gladys broke in,
+meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar bowed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If,&quot; he said, &quot;you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what we
+profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no permission from me, sir,&quot; John Martin cried fiercely. &quot;Go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. &quot;You ought not to get so heated,&quot;
+he said, &quot;considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
+standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink a
+well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water. As
+you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer and
+purer. Also,&quot; he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin again
+raised his stick, &quot;in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a hollow
+about eight feet from the ground, and if you look inside it, you will
+discover an iron box full of curios and jewellery. Shall I&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; retorted John Martin. &quot;If you don't go instantly I'll send for the
+police,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar, coming to the conclusion that upon this occasion
+discretion was better than valour, hurriedly beat a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be sorry, John Martin!&quot; he shouted from a safe distance, &quot;and so
+will Miss Gladys, charming Miss Gladys. But remember you have only
+yourselves to blame. Ta-ta!&quot;, and the next moment he was lost to sight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Gladys ejaculated, &quot;of all the beastly cads I have ever seen he
+fairly takes the biscuit. What colossal cheek! The idea of his coming
+here and speaking to us like that! Can't we prosecute him, Father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hardly!&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;best leave him alone. I wish he hadn't
+come! He's upset me! My nerves are anyhow! Which was the tree he spoke
+about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This one,&quot; Gladys exclaimed, walking up to an elm, and patting it with
+her hand, &quot;but you surely don't believe what he said, do you? It was all
+rubbish from start to finish. Daddy, my dear old Daddy, I do believe you
+are worrying about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold my hat and stick a moment,&quot; John Martin said, and making a spring,
+which for one of his age and weight showed surprising agility, he
+succeeded in catching hold of one of the nearest lateral branches. The
+elm being old, the bark had become very gnarled and uneven, and thus the
+difficulty of ascension lay more in semblance, perhaps, than in reality.
+Embracing the huge trunk, as closely as possible, with his arms and
+knees, much to the detriment of his clothes, seizing with his hands some
+projections, and resting his feet upon others, John Martin, after one or
+two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled himself into the
+first great fork, and paused to wipe his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, do take care, Father!&quot; Gladys pleaded, &quot;you'll fall and break your
+neck. Do be sensible and come down now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But John Martin paid no attention, he went on groping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've found it,&quot; he suddenly shouted. &quot;That bounder was right, the trunk
+is hollow.&quot; He was silent then, for some minutes, and Gladys could only
+see his boots. Then there was a muffled oath, a sound of choking and
+gasping, which made Gladys's blood run cold, and then&mdash;a great cry.
+&quot;There's something here, something hard and heavy. It's a box, an iron
+box! Take it from me.&quot; And leaning as far down as he dared, he placed in
+Gladys's outstretched hands, a rusty iron box. Then there was the sound
+of scraping and tearing, and John Martin gradually lowered himself to
+the ground&mdash;his coat covered with green, and the knees of his trousers
+ripped to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys ran indoors for a hammer and chisel, and, the hinges of the box
+being worn with age and exposure, it was but the work of a few seconds
+to break it open. It was full of gold and silver coins and jewellery;
+there were only a few gold pieces, the greater number of the coins were
+silver&mdash;the bulk Georgian&mdash;and their dates ranged from 1697 to 1750. The
+jewellery consisted of several massive gold bracelets, (two or three of
+very fine workmanship); some dozen or so plain gold rings; two silver
+watches, and a varied assortment of silver trinkets. All were more or
+less antique, but none&mdash;apart from the gold bracelets&mdash;of any great
+value.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; John Martin exclaimed, as they concluded their examination of
+the articles, &quot;what do you make of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why that man put them there, of course,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;can't you see
+the whole thing is nothing but a dodge to intimidate you into forming a
+friendship with him. I daresay he has heard that Mr. Davenport is dead,
+and thinks he sees an opportunity to be taken into partnership. He had a
+horrid face&mdash;sly and cunning, and his way of looking at me was
+positively disgusting. It makes me feel sick and horrid even to think of
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall we do with these things?&quot; John Martin asked, picking up one
+of the watches and eyeing it with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are they ours?&quot; Gladys replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I certainly consider we've a right to keep them,&quot; her father said,
+&quot;since we've found them ourselves on our own property, but I suppose,
+legally, they are treasure trove and ought to be given up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then surely the Government would pay us something for them, wouldn't
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should think so, at least a decent Government would. Anyhow, I think
+to give them up will be our best course. I doubt if the whole lot is
+worth fifty pounds. Where was it he said there was water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good gracious!&quot; Gladys exclaimed, &quot;you don't mean to say you are going
+to bother about that now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was here, I think,&quot; John Martin went on, thrusting his stick in the
+ground, &quot;to the best of my knowledge&mdash;and I had experts' advice&mdash;there
+is no water any where near here. Had there been, I should not have gone
+to the expense of having pipes laid down to feed the pond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Father, how can you be so silly,&quot; Gladys cried, &quot;of course there
+isn't any water here. It's only a trick, a trick to frighten you&mdash;and
+I'm beginning to think it has succeeded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall try here anyway to-morrow,&quot; John Martin said grimly. &quot;Let us go
+in now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Gladys went into the garden on the following morning she beheld an
+extraordinary sight. Her father, the gardener, and a man whom she did
+not recognize at first, as his back was turned towards her, but who, to
+her utter astonishment, proved to be Shiel Davenport, were hard at work,
+digging a pit.</p>
+
+<p>Her father paused every now and then, and rested; but he did not allow
+the others a moment's respite. Every time they were about to slack, he
+urged them on. It was all very well for the gardener who was accustomed
+to it, but it was obviously killing work for Shiel Davenport, and
+Gladys&mdash;as soon as she had overcome a preliminary outburst of
+laughter&mdash;gave vent to her sympathies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a shame,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;Father how can you? Poor Mr. Davenport
+looks ready to drop. Take a rest, Mr. Davenport! Do&mdash;you have my
+permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Looking very hot and exhausted, Shiel Davenport threw down his spade and
+attempted to make himself presentable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His clothes will be ruined, Father,&quot; Gladys said, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're not his clothes&mdash;he's wearing an old suit of mine,&quot; John Martin
+explained, trying to appear unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel forced a laugh. &quot;I'm rather out of form, Miss Martin, I haven't
+had much exercise lately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're getting it now anyway,&quot; John Martin chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it's blistered your hands horribly!&quot; Gladys cried, pointing to
+several raw places. &quot;I will fetch you a pair of father's gloves&mdash;he's a
+brute!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please don't trouble,&quot; Shiel exclaimed, &quot;I'll use my handkerchief
+instead. Digging is even harder work than painting&mdash;in one way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not fit work for you,&quot; Gladys replied with another reproachful
+glance at her father. &quot;When did you arrive, I never heard you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I 'phoned to him last night,&quot; John Martin said, looking rather
+sheepish. &quot;I thought a day out here would do him good. He thought so
+too, and came on by the seven o'clock train. We've been digging ever
+since breakfast&mdash;but a bit of exercise won't hurt him, and I'll give him
+plenty of vaseline presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They resumed work again; and Gladys retired indoors. At eleven o'clock
+John Martin let Shiel go. &quot;You can amuse yourself till luncheon with
+books and papers,&quot; he said, &quot;you'll find plenty of them in my study.
+I'll join you later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Shiel had other ideas of amusing himself, and as soon as he had
+washed and changed back into his own clothes, he followed the sounds of
+music until he reached the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure you must feel dreadfully tired,&quot; Gladys said, leaving off
+playing. &quot;It was too bad of Father to make you work like that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid your father thinks me a very useless article,&quot; Shiel
+replied, seating himself in an easy chair, and trying his hardest not to
+look too ardently. &quot;And an artist is not much good outside his
+profession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is?&quot; Gladys smiled. &quot;Shall you still go on painting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now that my uncle has died? It all depends&mdash;depends on whether he has
+been able to leave me anything in his will. From one or two things your
+father has said I fear he has not&mdash;in which case I don't quite know what
+I shall do. I could hardly expect Mr. Martin to take me into his firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you any good at invention?&quot; Gladys asked, &quot;I know he wants some
+one who is&mdash;some one who can help him devise fresh tricks. This
+everlasting racking of the brains to think of something new is beginning
+to be too much for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I could be of some use,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;both for his sake and
+mine, and may I add yours. Anyhow I'll try. I have a certain amount of
+imagination&mdash;I suppose most artists have, and henceforth I'll devote it
+to trickery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not to trickery!&quot; Gladys said, &quot;to conjuring!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, to conjuring then&mdash;to planning something novel and startling in
+the way of a trick. And as they say, two heads are better than one,
+perhaps, you will help me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I,&quot; Gladys laughed, &quot;why I've never invented anything in my life,
+barring a song.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless I'm sure you would be of great help to me,&quot; Shiel said;
+&quot;you would at least criticize my efforts, wouldn't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I should certainly do that,&quot; Gladys laughingly rejoined, &quot;and
+probably do more harm than good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could never do any harm!&quot; Shiel said, with so much eagerness that
+Gladys got up and began searching for a piece of music. &quot;I would give
+anything to paint you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been painted&mdash;twice,&quot; Gladys observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the R.A.?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I didn't much care about it, and I grew desperately tired of
+sitting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who painted you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heniblow painted me once, and Darker painted me once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's useless for me even to think of it. How did they treat you in
+their pictures?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heniblow painted me in evening dress, and Darker painted me in the
+character of Enid&mdash;you know, the Enid in the 'Idylls of the King.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. But I should like to paint you as 'Melody in Flower Land.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid I can't grasp it,&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you!&quot; Shiel exclaimed, &quot;I can. The idea came to me when I heard
+you singing just now, and saw you sitting here, in the midst of flowers,
+and dressed like a rose. I should paint you clad as you are now&mdash;all in
+pink&mdash;seated in the garden singing; and all the flowers leaning towards
+you listening. I would give anything to paint it,&quot; and he spoke with
+such enthusiasm that Gladys, remembering her dream, flushed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; she said, &quot;we might go into the garden and see how the work
+is progressing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear I can't do any more digging,&quot; Shiel put in hastily, &quot;I willingly
+would if I could, but I really can't use my hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you've not had any vaseline,&quot; Gladys cried. &quot;I'll get you some,&quot;
+and before he could prevent her she had gone.</p>
+
+<p>She was back again, however, in a few moments with a tiny white jar and
+some linen bandages. &quot;I couldn't find my aunt,&quot; she began, &quot;or she would
+bandage your hands for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you?&quot; Shiel asked. &quot;Do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He thrust his hands towards her as he spoke, and Gladys uttered an
+exclamation of horror&mdash;the palms and fingers were raw and swollen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel heartily ashamed of myself for being so thin-skinned,&quot; Shiel
+said. But Gladys had disappeared. She returned almost immediately with a
+bowl of water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure they must hurt you dreadfully,&quot; she exclaimed, as she gently
+bathed the hands. &quot;It makes me feel quite ill to see them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the next few moments Shiel was in Paradise. The touch of her cool,
+white fingers on his hot and burning skin was far nicer than anything he
+had ever imagined. Her sweet-scented breath stealing gently up his
+nostrils soothed away all his care&mdash;even the remembrance of his recent
+loss.</p>
+
+<p>With his whole heart and soul concentrated in his gaze, he watched her
+every movement&mdash;watched the waving and tossing of the stray wisps of
+hair over her temples and ears, as the breeze rustled through the open
+windows; and the gentle tightening and relaxation of her delicately
+moulded lips each time she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel had always led a very solitary existence. Apart from his uncle he
+had no near relatives, and with the exception of the five or six weeks
+in the year he had spent at Dick Davenport's house at Sydenham, he had
+always been in rooms. He had often felt lonely, but never quite so
+lonely as now&mdash;now that the only person he had known intimately and for
+whom he had entertained any real affection, was suddenly taken away. He
+was now absolutely alone in the world, and the poignancy of his position
+came home to him acutely.</p>
+
+<p>It is a terrible thing to be lonely. Lonely men do all sorts of dreadful
+things&mdash;things they would certainly never dream of doing if they had
+companionship. And Shiel was doing a dreadful thing now. Every moment he
+was falling more and more desperately in love, despite the fact that he
+had no money, and worse still&mdash;no prospects of ever making any. And
+loneliness was in the main responsible for it.</p>
+
+<p>Had he not been so lonely&mdash;had he not spent days and days, alone in
+lodgings, with no one to talk to&mdash;no one to care whether he were ill or
+dying; had this not been his experience&mdash;the experience he was even then
+undergoing, reason would have outweighed folly, and even though he might
+have realized that in Gladys Martin he had found his ideal of beauty&mdash;of
+womanliness, he would have been content only to admire.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, he was in that very dangerous mood when the heart yearns for
+sympathy; when a plain woman's sympathy means much&mdash;and a pretty
+woman's more than much. It is no exaggeration to say that Shiel would
+have lain down and died for Gladys ten times over. For her sake&mdash;if only
+to see her smile, no mere physical pain would have been too excruciating
+for him to bear. And when she put the finishing touches to the bandages,
+and quite by chance, of course, their eyes met, he looked at her as if
+he never meant to leave off looking at her, as if he never meant to do
+anything else but look at her for all eternity.</p>
+
+<p>Whether she understood as much or not, is impossible to say. Shiel asked
+himself the question over and over again before the day was out, and in
+his sleep, and during the next day, and for many days afterwards. Could
+she tell how much he admired her? How much he worshipped her? All that
+he was prepared to do for her sweet sake? All this he asked himself
+repeatedly, and went on thinking of her when he knew he ought never to
+have thought of her at all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure your hands are more comfortable now. Won't you go into the
+garden and see how the work is progressing?&quot; she said. &quot;Or if you are
+afraid Father will want you to dig again, perhaps you would like to go
+into his study and read the papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to stay here and listen to you singing,&quot; he said. &quot;Mayn't
+I do that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You might,&quot; she said, &quot;but I have to go out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll stay here till you return,&quot; he said, &quot;I've never been in such
+a delightful room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you think of Shiel Davenport?&quot; Gladys remarked to her aunt a
+few minutes later. &quot;I don't think I've ever met such an extraordinary
+young man. He does nothing but stare at me, and when I ask him to do one
+thing he suggests doing another. He's the most difficult person to
+manage. In fact, I can't manage him at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind about managing him, my dear,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, &quot;so
+long as you don't let him manage you. Young men who do nothing but stare
+are not merely difficult&mdash;they are dangerous.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT CHALLENGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>When John Martin came into tea that afternoon, he gave Gladys a shock.
+Despite the fact that he had been in the sun all day and was much tanned
+in consequence he had never looked&mdash;so Gladys thought&mdash;so old and
+haggard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dear old Daddie!&quot; she said, hastening to pour him out some tea,
+&quot;you shouldn't work so hard&mdash;this silly digging has quite knocked you
+up! Haven't you finished?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I've finished!&quot; John Martin said, catching his breath. &quot;I've found
+water!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's true all the same. We struck it at exactly the distance he
+said&mdash;twenty feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then of course he knew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? How the deuce could he have known?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't say,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;All I know is, that he's not straight,
+and that there's some underhand trickery going on. But do have your tea
+now, and dismiss it from your mind. Anyhow, he can do you no harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's a letter for you, John,&quot; Mrs. Templeton exclaimed, entering the
+room at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>John Martin took it from her, and tore open the envelope curiously. It
+was a handwriting he did not know, and did not like&mdash;its
+characteristics were sinister.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew it!&quot; he cried; &quot;I knew the fellow was a scoundrel. What the
+deuce do you think he has the impertinence to do now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He!&quot; Gladys said, looking anxiously at her father. &quot;Whoever do you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, that confounded young bounder who came here last night&mdash;Leon Hamar
+he signs himself. In this letter he declares that he can perform any of
+our tricks, and will accept the wager I offered for their solution some
+little time ago. He also says that unless I consent to see him, and to
+listen courteously to what he has to say, he will publicly announce his
+intention of taking up the wager, at our Hall, in Kingsway, to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think there is any possibility of his having discovered the
+secrets of your tricks?&quot; Gladys asked. &quot;Could he have bribed any one to
+tell him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think so,&quot; John Martin said. &quot;The only people who have any clue
+as to how they are done are my two attendants&mdash;both as you know natives
+of Cashmere, and men who, I feel pretty certain, could not be 'got at.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case,&quot; Gladys remarked, &quot;I fail to see what there is to worry
+about. Your course is perfectly clear&mdash;take no notice of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin was silent&mdash;dazed. He did not know what to think or do!
+There was something painfully ominous to him in the discovery of the
+money and the water&mdash;something that accentuated the impression Hamar's
+sinister appearance had made on him. The man did not look ordinary&mdash;his
+manner, gestures, walk and expression were decidedly abnormal&mdash;in fact
+they put him in mind of the superphysical. The superphysical! Might not
+that account for his knowledge? Bah! There was no such thing as the
+superphysical. The man was extraordinary&mdash;but, after all, only a
+man&mdash;his knowledge only that of a man. And it must be as the shrewd
+Gladys conjectured&mdash;he had put the money in the tree himself and had
+learned of the presence of water through some subtle artifice&mdash;perhaps
+only guessed at it. He would defy him&mdash;let him do what he would!</p>
+
+<p>This was John Martin's decision as he finished tea. An hour later he had
+changed his mind, and was speaking to Hamar on the telephone, expressing
+his willingness to grant him a brief interview if he came at once.</p>
+
+<p>In rather less than an hour a motor drew up at the Martins' door and
+Hamar stepped out of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin,&quot; he exclaimed on
+being ushered into the latter's presence. &quot;I reckoned you would sing to
+a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me to give
+you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to business?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name your business at once,&quot; John Martin replied gruffly; &quot;I haven't
+many minutes to spare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;that's a pity; because part of what I have at the
+back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The
+situation in a nutshell is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.
+Martin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How dare you, sir?&quot; John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!&quot; Hamar observed, backing towards the door.
+&quot;Gently&mdash;you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no
+offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely&mdash;she takes the shine out
+of our American girls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The deuce she does!&quot; John Martin foamed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She does, you bet!&quot; Hamar went on. &quot;And I see no reason if she likes
+me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as far
+as money goes. What do you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and kick
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership,&quot; Hamar went
+on complacently, &quot;and I would introduce a number of new tricks that
+would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry&mdash;the length
+of the engagement would be for you to decide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it would be <i>ad infinitum</i>,&quot; John Martin said grimly, &quot;for you'll
+never get my consent to a marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never is a long day&mdash;and even a John Martin may change. You want new
+blood and new capital in your Firm&mdash;you would have both in me. I assure
+you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my daughter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have said it&mdash;that is the one and only condition. Your daughter&mdash;my
+brains, my dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided!&quot; John Martin said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good!&quot; Hamar exclaimed; &quot;I guessed you would! There's nothing like the
+almighty dollar, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; John Martin rejoined; &quot;the almighty fist&mdash;and that's what you'll
+get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you ever come
+skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll set my.
+solicitor on to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's war&mdash;war to the knife!&quot; Hamar sneered. &quot;How melodramatic! But
+it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner&mdash;and I shall yet have
+Miss Gladys! Au revoir&mdash;I won't say good-bye!&quot; and with a mock bow he
+hurriedly took his departure.</p>
+
+<p>That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed
+as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop. A
+man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the
+audience in a loud voice: &quot;Ladies and gentlemen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts of
+&quot;Silence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Curtis&mdash;for it was he&mdash;was not easily daunted. &quot;Do you call this
+fair play!&quot; he demanded; &quot;I am here to-night to make a sporting offer,
+and one which will afford you vast entertainment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Cries of &quot;Shut up!&quot; &quot;Silence!&quot; &quot;He's drunk!&quot; &quot;Turn him out!&quot; merging
+into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials now
+invaded the box, but Hamar&mdash;who, as well as Kelson, was with
+Curtis&mdash;fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the
+half-lowered lights of the house&mdash;for the stage only at that moment was
+fully illuminated&mdash;held them in check, and they hung back not knowing
+what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of the
+audience&mdash;some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts, whilst
+others were merely curious&mdash;and the somewhat premature cries of &quot;Turn
+him out!&quot; etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: &quot;Let them
+alone!&quot; &quot;Let them speak!&quot; &quot;Let us hear what they have to say.&quot; It was in
+the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of nervous
+agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the cause of the
+commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who had come to the
+performance anticipating something of the sort, called to her father,
+from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father,&quot; she added; &quot;and
+besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on
+their part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in;
+and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of clapping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I were spokesman,&quot; Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the
+sight of so many pretty upturned faces. &quot;Go on, old man!&quot; he added,
+giving Curtis a nudge. &quot;Fire away, and show them you know a bit about
+elocution, for the credit of the Firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once
+possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned
+over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am Edward Curtis,&quot; he said, &quot;one of the directors of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often boasted
+that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I have come
+here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only accept their
+offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their tricks, but I
+agree to pay them double that amount&mdash;cash down&mdash;if I do not do
+everything they do&mdash;from 'The Brass Coffin' to their world-famed
+'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's permission I will
+explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night, and the only thing
+I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that I get fair play.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon as
+it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to
+speak, said: &quot;I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this
+challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here, in
+this hall to-night, of displaying their skill&mdash;or their ignorance, as
+the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be
+performed by any outsider&mdash;the Firm in accepting this challenge will
+merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer&mdash;and if&mdash;as is hardly
+likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure they
+themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their successful
+rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I too!&quot; shouted a dozen other voices. &quot;Be a sport and accept his bet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; John Martin replied with dignity, &quot;you have
+given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who have
+so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is
+maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of
+which Mr. Curtis&mdash;I think that is the name of my rival&mdash;will be quite at
+liberty to try his exposition of my tricks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar and
+Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had volunteered
+to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were provided for the
+referees&mdash;three on the one side of the stage and three on the other; and
+having seen that everything was fair and square John Martin retired to
+the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was concealed.</p>
+
+<p>A brief description of &quot;The Brass Coffin&quot; trick, which was the first
+Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
+suffice.</p>
+
+<p>A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
+audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
+anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.</p>
+
+<p>The operator then summons an assistant, jokingly refers to him as &quot;the
+corpse&quot;&mdash;puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet,
+securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the
+audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the
+coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet over
+the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on removing it
+and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A shout from the
+front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to their amazement,
+&quot;the corpse&quot; is seen standing up at the back of &quot;the Pit,&quot; holding the
+sack with the rope and seal&mdash;intact&mdash;in his hand. Such was the
+marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and Davenport's
+Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of which no one as
+yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in these circumstances,
+the tremendous excitement of the audience at the prospect of seeing this
+notorious puzzle tackled&mdash;and tackled by a member of a Firm which was
+already reputed to be doing all kinds of weird and extraordinary things.
+But, whereas it was quite obvious that John Martin was greatly perturbed
+(his eyebrows were working nervously, and his lips and fingers
+twitching), Curtis, on the other hand, was as cool as possible&mdash;he
+literally did not turn a hair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, gentlemen,&quot; he said, turning to the referees, &quot;keep your eyes well
+skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he went on,
+raising his voice, &quot;I am now about to show you how the coffin trick is
+done. Observe me&mdash;I'm 'the corpse'&mdash;Mr. Kelson, here, is the operator&mdash;&quot;
+and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced, down the stage to
+take part in the proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Watch me get into the sack!&quot; He stepped into it as he spoke. &quot;Look at
+what I have in my hand,&quot; he went on, holding up his right hand in full
+view of the audience. &quot;I have a plug of wood covered with the same
+material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
+over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
+will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
+think you know this coffin but you don't. See!&quot;&mdash;and stepping out of the
+sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and deep.
+&quot;Come closer!&quot; and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers were now
+augmented by three newspaper reporters&mdash;representatives of the <i>Daily
+Snapper</i>, the <i>Planet</i> and the <i>Hooter</i> respectively. &quot;Here is a secret
+panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And amidst a breathless silence&mdash;the nine members of the audience on the
+stage following every movement&mdash;Curtis put his hand inside the head of
+the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In an
+instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid back,
+leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to squeeze
+through.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone now looked at John Martin&mdash;he was leaning back in his chair,
+breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.
+Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died out
+of his face when he glanced at Gladys&mdash;the scorn in the girl's eyes
+made his blood boil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, Miss Martin,&quot; he muttered between his teeth; &quot;you adopt that
+attitude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on! I'll win
+you body and soul, or my name is not what it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. &quot;I'm too stout
+to play the r&ocirc;le of the corpse, and so is Matt,&quot; Curtis said to him;
+&quot;you must undertake that part. Now!&quot; he went on, &quot;take this plug and get
+into the sack,&quot; and he whispered a few instructions in his ear. Then he
+tied the top of the sack&mdash;in reality tying it round the plug Hamar was
+holding&mdash;and one of the audience sealed the knot. Curtis and Kelson then
+lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and corded it. Then Curtis,
+turning to the audience, said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is now happening inside the coffin is this&mdash;'the corpse' pulls the
+plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus becomes
+loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once touches the
+spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and the panel
+slides back&mdash;So!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first of
+all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture thus
+made.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is this,&quot;
+Curtis explained; &quot;the head of the coffin is always turned away from you
+and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to you
+appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly
+opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this
+'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it
+you. Here it is&quot;&mdash;and beckoning to the referees to come quite close, he
+pointed to a glass screen, in the centre of the base of which was a
+glass trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the
+coffin. &quot;Here, corpse!&quot; Curtis said, &quot;crawl through&quot;&mdash;and Hamar, looking
+as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of wriggling on
+his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight together as he
+could, and squirmed through.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?&quot; Curtis inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perfectly!&quot; the referees answered. &quot;Nothing could be plainer. We see
+exactly, now, how the trick is done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the
+elegant manner in which he had been patiently and assiduously coached by
+Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>He then proceeded to the second trick&mdash;&quot;Eve at the Window,&quot; a trick
+almost, if not quite, as famous as &quot;The Brass Coffin,&quot; and for the
+solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge sums
+of money.</p>
+
+<p>A large pane of glass some nine by six feet in area, and set in a frame,
+made to represent that of a window, is placed on the stage, about
+eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches from the ground a
+wooden shelf is placed against the window. An assistant&mdash;usually a
+woman&mdash;then mounts on the shelf and, looking out of the glass, proceeds
+to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a shocked voice asks her to
+desist. She refuses and, to the amusement of the audience, carries on
+her pantomimic flirtation more desperately than before. The operator
+pretends to lose his temper, and snatching up a screen places it at the
+back of her. He then fires a pistol, pulls aside the screen, and she has
+vanished. As the top, bottom and sides of the window, all in fact except
+the very middle, have been in full view of the audience, and as the
+window has been tightly closed all the time, the disappearance of the
+girl completely mystifies the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis explained it all. He pointed out that the keynote to the illusion
+lay behind the wooden shelf, which was so placed as to conceal the fact
+that the lower part of the window was made double, the bottom of the
+upper part being concealed from view by a second sheet of silvered glass
+placed in front of it. The shelf covers the line of junction and enables
+the window frame to be scrutinized by the audience.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the screen is put in front of the lady on the shelf&mdash;the
+glass pane slides up about a foot and a half into the top of the frame,
+purposely made very deep. The bottom of the window is cut away in the
+middle, leaving an aperture about two feet square, which was previously
+hidden from view by the double glass at the base. Eve makes her exit
+through this hole, and slides on to a board placed behind the window in
+readiness for her. The pane of glass then slides down again, the screen
+is removed, and the window appears just as solid as before.</p>
+
+<p>When Curtis concluded his verbal explanation he gave the audience a
+practical illustration of how the thing was done; he manipulated the
+screen and pistol, whilst Hamar posed as Eve, and directly he had
+finished there was another outburst of applause. Kelson dared not look
+at John Martin or Gladys. The brief glance he had taken of them at the
+conclusion of the giving away of the first trick had shocked him&mdash;and
+he purposely stood with his back to them. With Hamar it was
+otherwise&mdash;the joy of triumph was strong within him, and the picture of
+John Martin, leaning forward in his chair, with his mouth half open and
+a dazed, glassy expression in his eyes, only thrilled him with pleasure;
+he laughed at the old man, and still more at Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the way to treat a girl of that sort,&quot; he whispered to Kelson;
+&quot;scoff at her&mdash;scoff at her well. Let her see you don't care a snap for
+her&mdash;and in the end she'll run after you and haunt you to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not so sure,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;It might act in some cases, perhaps,
+but I don't think you can quite depend on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pooh! You are no judge of women, in spite of all your experience,&quot;
+Hamar retorted. &quot;I'll bet you anything you like she'll come round and
+make a tremendous fuss of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supposing you fall in love with her, how about the compact?&quot; Kelson
+asked. &quot;You've warned me often enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, but I'm not like you,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;There's nothing soft in my
+nature. I fall in love! Not much! Why, you might as well have
+apprehensions of my joining the Salvation Army, or wanting to become a
+Militant Suffragette&mdash;either would be just about as possible. No&mdash;! I
+shall make the girl love me&mdash;and we shall be engaged for just as long as
+I please. If I find some one that attracts me more, I shall throw her
+aside&mdash;if not, maybe, I shall marry her&mdash;but in either case there will
+be no question of love&mdash;at least not on my part. She shall do as I
+want&mdash;that is all! Hulloa! Curtis is beginning again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were five other tricks on the programme&mdash;all of which were world
+renowned. They were &quot;The Floating Head&quot;; &quot;The Mango Seed&quot;; &quot;The Haunted
+Bathing-machine,&quot; &quot;The Girl with the Five Eyes,&quot; and &quot;The Vanishing
+Bicycle&quot; illusion. As with the first two tricks, so Curtis did with the
+following five&mdash;he explained them, and then, aided by Hamar and Kelson,
+gave practical demonstrations of their solutions; and so thoroughly and
+clearly were these solutions demonstrated that the referees asked no
+questions&mdash;they were absolutely satisfied. Turning to the audience&mdash;at a
+sign from Curtis&mdash;they announced that the whole of Messrs. Martin and
+Davenport's tricks had been solved to their entire satisfaction, and
+that Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.
+had, without doubt, won the wager.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you anything to say?&quot; Curtis asked, addressing John Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I acknowledge my defeat, though I do not understand it!&quot; John Martin
+said with very white lips. &quot;I shall pay you the ten thousand pounds
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't worry about that,&quot; Hamar interposed; &quot;we don't want to take your
+money, all we wanted to do was to prove to you we could perform the
+tricks you believed to be insoluble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ladies and gentlemen!&quot; he went on, raising his voice, &quot;the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. has given you some proof to-night of their
+capabilities in the conjuring line, and if you will give us the pleasure
+of your company to-morrow night&mdash;we invite you all free of charge for
+the occasion&mdash;we will give you a still further demonstration of our
+powers. May we count upon your patronage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A terrific storm of clapping was the reply, and as the audience slowly
+filed from the hall, John Martin staggered into the wing, reeled past
+Gladys ere she could catch him, and sank helplessly on to the floor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The days that followed were dark days for Gladys. Her father, whom she
+loved&mdash;and, until now, had never realized how much she loved&mdash;lay
+seriously ill. He had had a stroke which, although fortunately slight,
+must, as the doctor said, be regarded as a prelude to what would happen,
+unless he was kept very quiet. And to keep him quiet was not an easy
+thing to do. His mind continually reverted to what had just taken place,
+and he was for ever asking Gladys to tell him whether anything further
+had occurred in connection with it, whether there was anything about it
+in the papers.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys, of course, was obliged to dissemble. She hated anything
+approaching dissimulation, but on this occasion there was no help for
+it, and what she told John Martin was the reverse of what she knew to be
+actually happening. The papers were full to overflowing with accounts of
+that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous gratis exhibition
+given on the succeeding evening by the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Hooter</i>, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
+in large type&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">Extraordinary Scene <br />at <br />Martin and Davenport's<br /><br />
+The Greatest Conjuring Tricks
+in the World Solved! </p>
+
+<p>Whilst the <i>Daily Snapper</i>, determined to be none the less sensational,
+began thus:</p>
+
+<p class="hl">Mysteries No Longer!<br />
+&quot;The Brass Coffin Trick&quot; And &quot;Eve at the Window&quot; Done at Last!<br />
+Martin and Davenport Lose Their Prestige </p>
+
+<p>This was bad enough, but the <i>Planet</i> published a paragraph that was
+even more galling, viz.&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
+     explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home of
+     Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
+     surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should turn
+     elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is above
+     all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort to the
+     Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids fair to
+     become the future home of everything uncanny. Their programme&mdash;to
+     the uninitiated&mdash;presents possibilities&mdash;and impossibilities.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>So said the <i>Planet</i>, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
+Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
+succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled to
+overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being verified.
+The solution of Martin and Davenports' tricks had taken place (Hamar had
+so planned it) on the last night the trio possessed the property of
+divination, and, consequently, on the night that terminated the first
+stage of their compact. The following night they would be in possession
+of new powers, such powers as would warrant them giving a gratis
+exhibition&mdash;an exhibition of jugglery absolutely new and unprecedented.
+That the exhibition was successful may be gathered from the following
+article in the <i>Daily Cyclone</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN COCKSPUR STREET.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., in their new premises in Cockspur
+     Street, gave the most remarkable display of Phenomena it has ever
+     yet fallen to our lot to report. Indeed, the performances were of
+     such an extraordinary nature that the huge audience, <i>en masse</i>,
+     was scared; not a few people fainted, whilst every now and again
+     were heard screams of terror intermingled with long protracted
+     'Ohs!'&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>A brief <i>r&eacute;sum&eacute;</i> of the entertainment ran as follows:&mdash;The first part of
+the Modern Sorcery Company's programme was carried out by Mr. Leon
+Hamar, solus, who, stepping to the front of the stage, announced that he
+was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further prelude he
+pointed to various members of the audience, and described spiritual
+presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he could see a
+spirit, answering to the name of James or George&mdash;or some such equally
+familiar name&mdash;and then proceed to give a description of it, so elastic,
+that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly have fitted nine
+out of every ten people one meets with every day, but unlike any other
+clairvoyants we have known, he described the individual physical and
+moral traits of the people he professed to see. For example: To a lady
+sitting in the third row of the stalls, he said: &quot;There is the phantasm
+of an elderly gentleman standing behind you. He has a vivid scar on his
+right cheek that looks as if it might have been caused by a sabre cut.
+He has a grey military moustache, a very marked chin; wears his hair
+parted in the middle, and has light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously
+on the gentleman seated on your left. Do you recognize the person I am
+describing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so,&quot; the lady answered in a faint voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will spare you a description of his person,&quot; Hamar went on, &quot;but I
+should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
+He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
+pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
+revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
+right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply&mdash;but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. &quot;I can see behind
+you,&quot; he said, &quot;an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large emerald
+drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of which she
+appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She died of
+pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of&mdash;Ahem!&mdash;of her
+relatives&mdash;for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
+however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square&mdash;a Society
+for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to whom
+I refer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only too well!&quot; came the indignant and spontaneous reply.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. &quot;Hulloa!&quot; he exclaimed.
+&quot;What have we here&mdash;an Irish terrier answering to the name of 'Peg.' It
+is standing upright with its two front paws resting on your knees. It is
+looking up into your face, and its mouth is open as if anticipating a
+lump of sugar. From the marks on its body I should say it has been
+killed by being run over?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again Mr. Hamar was correct. &quot;What you say is absolutely true,&quot; the
+gentleman replied; &quot;I had a dog named Peg. I was greatly attached to it,
+and it was run over in Piccadilly by a motor cyclist. I hate the very
+sight of a motor bicycle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a brief interval of awestruck silence a voice from the gallery
+called out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are in league with him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then the man in the stalls stood up, and essayed to speak; but his voice
+was drowned in a perfect tornado of applause. He had no need&mdash;he was
+instantly recognized&mdash;he was J&mdash;&mdash; B&mdash;&mdash;. With a few more examples of
+clairvoyance Mr. Hamar continued to entertain his audience for half an
+hour or so, by the end of which time, we have no hesitation in saying
+that every one was convinced that he actually saw what, he said, he saw.</p>
+
+<p>The second part of the programme was entirely in the hands of Mr.
+Curtis, who now came forward with a bow. &quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he
+said; &quot;you all know that man is complex&mdash;that he is composed of mind and
+matter, the material and immaterial. I now propose to give you a
+physical demonstration of this fact. Will twelve of the audience kindly
+come up on the stage and sit around me, so that you may feel quite
+certain that I have here no mechanical devices to assist me?&quot;&mdash;And
+amongst other well-known people who responded to Mr. Curtis's request,
+were Lord Bayle, Sir Charles Tenningham and the Right Hon. John Blaine,
+M.P. Having arranged these twelve volunteers in a semi-circle at the
+back of the stage, Mr. Curtis, standing in the centre of the stage,
+again addressed his audience. &quot;Ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he said; &quot;the
+secret of separating the mind&mdash;or what Spiritualists, who love to
+bolster up their pretended knowledge of the other world by the invention
+of pretentious nomenclature, call the 'ethical ego'&mdash;from the body, lies
+in intense concentration. If you wish to acquire the power, practise
+concentration&mdash;concentrate on being in a certain place. If nothing
+happens at first, don't be discouraged, but keep on trying, and a time
+will come when you will suddenly leave your body, in a form, which is
+the exact counterpart of the body you have left. You will visit the
+place whereon you are concentrating. Perhaps the best method of
+practising projection is to put your forehead against a door or wall,
+and concentrate very hard on being on the other side. It may take weeks
+before you get a result, but if you persevere, you will eventually
+succeed in leaving your physical form and passing through the door, or
+wall, into the space beyond. Now watch me! I shall concentrate on
+projecting my immaterial body, and of walking in it, three times round
+my material body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Curtis closed his eyes, and for some seconds appeared to be thinking
+very hard. Then the audience witnessed a remarkable phenomenon&mdash;a
+figure, the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, stepped out, as it were,
+from his body, and slowly walking round it three times, deliberately
+glided into it, and apparently amalgamated with it. The twelve members
+from the audience who were within a few feet of the alleged ethereal
+body, as it walked past them, declared they saw it most vividly, and
+that feature for feature, detail for detail, it was the exact
+counterpart of Mr. Curtis, whose material body remained standing,
+upright and motionless, with its eyes tightly closed. Our representative
+questioned several of these eye-witnesses very closely, and they were
+all most emphatic in their belief that what they had seen was a
+<i>bona-fide</i> case of spiritual projection. At the request of a large part
+of the audience, Mr. Curtis repeated his demonstration, a further
+complement of men from the stalls joining those already on the stage to
+witness the operation.</p>
+
+<p>Several tests were now applied to the ethereal body of Mr. Curtis, as it
+walked round his material body. One man, clutching at its sleeve, tried
+to detain it, but his hand passed through the sleeve, and held&mdash;nothing.
+Another man put out an arm to act as a barrier, and the projection,
+without swerving from its course, passed right through it; and, on the
+completion of the third round, disappeared as before.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to inquiries, Mr. Curtis stated that the phenomenon might be
+taken as a good illustration of projections; and that he was prepared to
+project himself once again, in order to prove that it was erroneous to
+suppose that phantasms could not do all manner of physical actions. A
+deal table (upon which stood a tumbler and jug of water), a grandfather
+clock, and a piano were brought on to the stage, and Mr. Curtis once
+again projected his spirit form. The latter at once walked to the table,
+and, taking up the tumbler, filled it with water from the jug; after
+which it wound up the clock, and, sitting down on a seat in front of the
+piano, played &quot;Killarney&quot; and &quot;The Star-spangled Banner.&quot; And then,
+amidst the wildest applause&mdash;the first time assuredly &quot;a ghost&quot; has ever
+received public plaudits in recognition of its services&mdash;it modestly
+re-entered its physical home.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Curtis then announced that not only could he project his ethereal
+body from his material body in the manner he had already demonstrated,
+but that with his ethereal body he could amalgamate with inorganic
+matter. He bade those on the stage approach the table in convenient
+numbers, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> two or three at a time, and listen attentively. He then
+took his stand on one side of the stage, about fourteen feet from the
+table; and the audience approaching the table and listening attentively,
+first of all heard it pulsate as with the throbbings of a heart, and
+then breathe with the deep and heavy respirations of some one in a sound
+sleep. The table then raised itself some three or four inches from the
+ground and moved round the stage; at the conclusion of which feat Mr.
+Curtis informed the audience that &quot;table-turning&quot;&mdash;when not
+accomplished through the trickery of one of the sitters&mdash;was frequently
+performed by the work of some earth-bound spirit&mdash;usually an
+Elemental&mdash;that could amalgamate with any piece of furniture, in
+precisely the same way as his own projection had amalgamated with the
+table in front of them. &quot;Elementals,&quot; Mr. Curtis continued, &quot;are
+responsible for many of the foolish and purposeless tricks performed at
+s&eacute;ances; and for the unintelligible and useless kind of answers the
+table so often raps out. The best you can hope for, from an Elemental,
+is amusement&mdash;it will never give you any reliable information; nor will
+it ever do you any good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With these words Mr. Curtis's share in the entertainment concluded. He
+retired to the wings, whilst Mr. Kelson stepping forward&mdash;begged those
+several gentlemen who, on Mr. Curtis's exit, had reseated themselves
+among the audience, once again to step up on to the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be good enough,&quot; he said addressing them in his most polite manner, &quot;to
+observe me very closely. I am about to give you a few further examples
+of what intense mental concentration can do, thus proving to you to what
+an unlimited extent mind can gain dominion over matter. You all know
+that will-power can overcome any of the internal physical forces; for
+instance, when you have tooth or ear ache&mdash;you have only to say to
+yourselves: 'I shan't suffer'&mdash;and the suffering ceases. But what you
+may not know&mdash;what you may not have realized, is that will-power can
+over-rule external forces and principles&mdash;as for example&mdash;gravity. As a
+matter of fact, airships and aeroplanes are absolutely superfluous&mdash;and
+the time, money and labour they involve is a prodigious waste. Any man
+with strong mental capacity can fly without the aid of mechanism. He has
+only to will himself to be in the air&mdash;and he is there. Look!&quot; And to
+the amazement&mdash;the indescribable, unparalleled amazement&mdash;of all
+present, Mr. Kelson knit his brows, as if engaged in intense thought,
+and, jumping off his feet, remained in the air, at a height of some four
+feet from the floor.</p>
+
+<p>At his request members of the audience came up to him, and passed their
+hands under, over and all around him, to make sure there were no wires.
+He then struck out with his hands and legs after the manner of a
+swimmer, and moving first of all round the stage, and then over the
+stalls and pit, gradually ascended higher and higher, till he reached
+the level of the boxes, to the occupants of which he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Such an extraordinary spectacle&mdash;which apparently gives the lie to all
+our preconceived notions of gravity&mdash;has certainly never before been
+witnessed, and the effect it had on those who saw it, baffles
+description. When Mr. Kelson returned to the stage, and the terrific
+applause that greeted his arrival there had subsided, he gave the
+audience a few valuable hints as to how they, too, might accomplish this
+feat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Practise concentration,&quot; he said, &quot;and develop your will power, if only
+by a very little, every day. Jump off a stool to begin with, saying to
+yourself as you do so: 'I will remain in the air. I won't touch the
+ground,'&mdash;and though you may fail for the hundredth time, if only you
+keep on trying you will eventually succeed. To keep your equilibrium on
+a bicycle is a feat which would have been pronounced utterly impossible
+by your ancestors of two hundred years ago; but just as that power came
+to you&mdash;after many futile efforts, all at once&mdash;so, in the end, will
+flying come to you. See, I am now going to rise to the highest point in
+the building. Gravity pulls me back, but I say to myself: 'I will
+rise&mdash;I will fly there'&mdash;and fly there I do!&quot;&mdash;and, springing off the
+ground, he struck out with his arms and legs, flew swiftly and easily to
+the dome of the hall, which he touched&mdash;and then flew back again to the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>This completed the evening's entertainment. If only on the strength of
+its first performance, the Modern Sorcery Company, in our opinion, has
+more than justified its name; and although we understand they will give
+no more performances gratis, we feel confident in prophesying that, for
+many a long night, there will be no falling off in the attendance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>SHIEL TO THE RESCUE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Gladys did not feel too happy when she read notices such as these; she
+could not do other than see in them destruction to her father, and the
+worst of it all was she could do nothing to help him. Who could? Who
+could possibly invent anything as wonderful as the marvels of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd.? And yet unless John Martin gave up altogether,
+that is what he must do. Nay, he must do more&mdash;he must not only equal
+the Modern Sorcery Company's marvels, he must eclipse them. But after
+the affair of the challenge, it seemed to Gladys that there was no help
+for it&mdash;the Hall would have to be closed for a time. Now that Dick
+Davenport was dead, there was no one to take her father's place. On the
+night succeeding the catastrophe, she had persuaded one of the Indian
+attendants to undertake the r&ocirc;le of operator, but his skill was not
+equal to the tax upon it, and the audience&mdash;a poor one&mdash;was very
+lukewarm in its applause. The following day she talked the matter over
+with her father. The latter was in favour of keeping the show on at any
+cost; Gladys, for closing it temporarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A bad performance is worse than no performance,&quot; she said, &quot;much better
+to close till you have invented some new tricks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Martin groaned. &quot;I fear my days of invention are over,&quot; he
+muttered. &quot;If I can read the papers and write letters, that will be
+about as much as I shall be able to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Couldn't you retire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would if I were not a Britisher,&quot; John Martin replied, &quot;but being a
+Britisher I'd sooner shoot myself than give in to a d&mdash;&mdash;d Yank!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Gladys, in terror lest her father should over-excite himself,
+promised she would see that the entertainment was carried on as usual,
+and that the Indian continued in the r&ocirc;le of operator.</p>
+
+<p>But when out of her father's presence, Gladys gave way to despair. How
+could she&mdash;a woman&mdash;hope to cope with such a difficult situation? And
+she was racking her brains to know how to act for the best, when Shiel
+was announced.</p>
+
+<p>A wave of relief swept over her. She could explain her difficulties to
+Shiel, in a way that she could not to any one who had no knowledge at
+all of her father's affairs&mdash;and she told him just how matters stood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here!&quot; he exclaimed, when she had finished, &quot;why not let me take
+your father's place at the Kingsway? I have done a little amateur
+acting, and am not nervous at the thought of appearing in public. Your
+father confided in you so much&mdash;you must know all his tricks by
+heart&mdash;couldn't you coach me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys looked at him critically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't be half a bad idea,&quot; she said. &quot;Supposing you come with me
+to the Hall, I can explain the tricks better if I show you the apparatus
+at the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel thoroughly enjoyed that journey up to town. He knew it was wrong
+of him to think of his own pleasure, when the affairs of his companion
+were in such a critical condition. He knew he ought not to look at her
+in the way he did&mdash;as if she was the most precious thing in the world,
+and he would give her his soul if she wanted it&mdash;he knew that he&mdash;a
+penniless artist without any prospects&mdash;had no right to behave thus. But
+her beauty appealed to him with a force he was entirely incapable of
+resisting, and he went on looking at her in the way he knew he ought not
+to look at her, simply because he couldn't help it.</p>
+
+<p>He lunched with her at her club in Dover Street, and then they taxied to
+the Kingsway.</p>
+
+<p>The door-keeper, the only living creature in the building, saving
+themselves, seemed to share in the general depression hanging over
+everything&mdash;the great, empty front of the house with its gloomy,
+cavernous boxes and grim, grey gallery&mdash;the dark, dismal flies&mdash;the
+chilly wings&mdash;all hushed and still, and impregnated with the sense of
+desertion. But with this man beside her, who, she knew, would do
+anything he could to help, the place did not look quite so bad to Gladys
+as it had done the day before. There was a ray of light now where,
+before, ebon blackness had prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Without delay Gladys rang up the Indian attendants on the telephone, and
+occupied the time prior to their arrival by describing to Shiel how each
+of the tricks was done.</p>
+
+<p>Her pupil proved far more able than she had anticipated. After several
+rehearsals he was able to go through the whole performance without a
+hitch.</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished, Gladys stretched out her hand impulsively. &quot;I
+don't know how to thank you enough,&quot; she said. &quot;You are a brick, and if
+only you do half as well this evening as you have done now, we shall
+get on swimmingly&mdash;that is to say, as well as we can expect, until we
+can arrange a fresh programme. If only you were an inventor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If only I were. If only I had money!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, what would you do?&quot; Gladys asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give it to you! Give you every halfpenny of it!&mdash;But as I haven't any,
+I mean to give you all the energy I possess instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why me? My father you mean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you!&quot; Shiel said impulsively, &quot;both of you if you prefer it, but
+you first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me first! That doesn't seem very lucid&mdash;but I can't stay to hear an
+explanation now, for if I miss the four-thirty train I shall miss my
+dinner, which would indeed be a calamity!&quot; And slipping on her gloves,
+she hurried off, forbidding Shiel to escort her further.</p>
+
+<p>Left to himself, Shiel strolled along the Strand into the Victoria
+Gardens, where he bought an evening paper, and sat down to read it. The
+first thing that caught his eye was&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p style="text-indent: 3em;">&quot;MAGIC IN LONDON&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;This morning the West End received a shock. About twelve o'clock,
+     a gentleman, fashionably dressed, turned into Bond Street from
+     Piccadilly, and when opposite Messrs. Truefitt's prepared to cross
+     over. The street happened just then to be blocked by a long line of
+     taxis. The gentleman, however, had no intention of waiting till
+     they had passed. Measuring the distance from one pavement to the
+     other with his eyes, he jumped about fifteen feet into the air and
+     cleared the intervening space without the slightest apparent
+     effort&mdash;a feat that literally paralysed with astonishment all who
+     beheld it. On being remonstrated with by a policeman, who was
+     highly perplexed as to whether such extraordinary conduct
+     constituted a breach of the peace or not, the gentleman calmly
+     leaped over the policeman's head, and striking out with arms and
+     legs swam through the air.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Continuing in this fashion, the cynosure of all eyes&mdash;even the
+     traffic being suspended to watch him&mdash;he passed along Bond Street
+     into Oxford Street, where he once more alighted on his feet. On
+     being questioned by a representative of the Press, it transpired he
+     was Mr. Kelson, one of the partners in the Modern Sorcery Company
+     Ltd., whose wonderful performances at their Hall, in Cockspur
+     Street, have already been reported in these columns.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I should well like to know how that flying trick is done,&quot; Shiel said
+to himself. &quot;According to Kelson it is entirely a question of will
+power. I'll see if I can't develop my concentrative faculty and
+introduce a few of the same performances in our show. I'll go to the
+Hall and try them now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But his preliminary efforts were certainly far from successful. He
+jumped off chairs saying to himself, &quot;I'll fly! I will fly,&quot; and he
+struck out heroically each time, but the result was always the
+same&mdash;gravity conquered&mdash;he fell.</p>
+
+<p>Had he not been so much in love with Gladys, he would have desisted; as
+it was, the more he bumped and bruised himself, the more determined he
+was to go on trying. In fact, flying with him became a mania; and
+according to the daily journals, his was by no means the only case. All
+over England people were trying to fly. An old lady, in Gipsy Hill,
+appeared in the Police Court to answer a charge of causing annoyance to
+her neighbours by practising flying, from off her bed, at night. Her
+bulk being large and her will power apparently small, she yielded to
+gravity and landed on the ground with prodigious bumps, which set
+everything in the room vibrating, and which could be plainly heard in
+the adjoining houses, through the thin brick walls on either side of her
+room.</p>
+
+<p>An old gentleman in Guilsborough had an extremely narrow escape. Being
+warned on no account to practise flying in the house or garden, lest his
+grandchildren should see him and want to do the same, he retired to the
+seclusion of an old, disused and dilapidated coach house. Here, in the
+upper storey, he practised by the hour together. He climbed on to a
+stool which he had taken there for the purpose, and when he fancied he
+had acquired the right amount of concentration, he sprang into the air,
+arriving, presumably through want of will power, on the floor. For two
+whole days he practised&mdash;bump&mdash;bump&mdash;bump&mdash;and the more he bumped, the
+more he persevered. At last, however, the floor gave way, and with loud
+cries of &quot;I will! I will!&quot; he fell on the ground floor, ten feet below!
+He was unable to go on experimenting, owing to a broken leg and a
+fractured collar-bone.</p>
+
+<p>In Aylsham, Norfolk, there had been a perfect epidemic among the
+children for trying aeronic gravity. Rudolph Crabbe, aged five, after
+listening to an account of the performances at the Modern Sorcery
+Company's Hall, which his father had read aloud, sprang off the
+dining-room table crying out &quot;I will fly! I will stay in the air.&quot;
+Fortunately, he fell on the tabby cat, which somewhat broke the shock of
+concussion, and he escaped unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>In College Road, Clifton, Bristol, an octogenarian thinking he would add
+novelty to the Jubilee celebrations at the College, leaped off the roof
+of his house, crying, &quot;I'll fly over the Close! I will fly over the
+Close!&quot;&mdash;and broke his neck.</p>
+
+<p>In St. Ives, Cornwall, where the treatment of animals is none too
+humane, a fisher-boy threw a visitor's Pomeranian over the Malakoff
+saying, &quot;You shall fly! You shall remain in the air;&quot; whilst at Bath a
+girl of ten, snatching her baby brother from the perambulator, leaped
+over Beechen Cliff, calling out, &quot;We will fly together! We will fly
+together!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These are only a few of the many similar cases Shiel read in the paper,
+and which he narrated afterwards to Gladys Martin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am quite convinced,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;that Kelson does his flying
+through supernatural agency. His assertion that it can be done through
+mere will power, is sheer humbug. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consult a
+clairvoyant. What do you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel thought it was an excellent suggestion. He saw in it an
+opportunity of spending yet another afternoon in Gladys's company, and
+asked her to go with him to an occultist the very next day. When she
+assented, the pleasure of it tingled through every pore of his skin. Of
+course, Gladys assured herself there was no harm in her acceptance of
+Shiel's escort&mdash;that neither he nor she meant anything by it&mdash;that it
+was on her part merely a sort of an acknowledgment that he had been
+awfully good to her in her present predicament. Besides, if she needed
+further excuse, she had no reason for supposing Shiel to be in love with
+her&mdash;and had her father not spoken to her about it, she would not have
+remarked anything different in his glances, from the glances&mdash;for the
+time being, perhaps, earnest enough&mdash;bestowed upon her by other young
+men; which excuse, was, certainly, in Gladys's case, a more or less
+honest one.</p>
+
+<p>They had some difficulty in selecting a psychometrist&mdash;so numerous were
+those who advertised, in an equally alluring manner&mdash;but they at length
+decided in favour of Madame Elvita, whose consulting rooms were in New
+Bond Street. When they arrived there, Madame Elvita was, of course,
+engaged. Shiel was delighted&mdash;it gave him an extra half-hour with
+Gladys. When Madame was free, she had much to tell them. First of all
+she spoke to them of Karmas, Kamadevas, Rupadevas, vitalized shells,
+etheric doubles, the Nermanakaya, and afterwards solemnly announced that
+she must relapse into a state of clairvoyance, in order to get in touch
+with Tillie Toot, a certain spirit from whom she could learn all that
+Gladys and Shiel wanted to know. Accordingly, in the manner of most
+other two-guinea clairvoyants, she composed herself in a graceful and
+recumbent attitude, made a lot of queer grimaces and still queerer
+noises, and spoke in a falsetto voice, which purposed to be that of
+Tillie Toot, once a barmaid in Edinburgh, now one of Madame's familiar
+spirits. And the gist of what &quot;Tillie&quot; told them was that Hamar &amp; Co.
+derived their powers from Black Magic; and that the secrets thereof
+could only be learned from Madame, after a series of sittings with
+her&mdash;sittings for which Madame would only require a fee of fifty
+guineas: a most moderate, in fact quite trifling, sum, considering the
+wonderful instruction they would receive.</p>
+
+<p>But Madame's magnanimous offer tempted neither Gladys nor Shiel; and
+they abruptly took their departure.</p>
+
+<p>Kateroski (<i>n&eacute;e</i> Jones) in Regent Street, whom Gladys and Shiel had
+agreed to consult in the event of a non-successful visit to Madame
+Elvita in Bond Street, also told them that Black Magic was the key to
+Hamar, Curtis &amp; Kelson's performances. She advised them to get on the
+Astral Plane, where they would meet spirits who would give them all the
+information they desired.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Kateroski's instructions were simple. &quot;It is really a matter of
+faith,&quot; she said. &quot;All you have to do is to go to some secluded
+spot&mdash;the privacy of your bedroom will do admirably&mdash;sit down, close
+your eyes, look into your lids and concentrate hard. After a while you
+will no longer see your eyelids&mdash;your lids will fade away and you will
+be on the Astral Plane, and see strange creatures, which, although
+terrifying, won't harm you. When you get used to them, you will
+communicate with them, and learn from them all you want to know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall we try?&quot; Gladys remarked laughingly to Shiel, as they stepped
+into the street. &quot;But if faith is essential to success, I fear failure,
+as far as I am concerned, is a foregone conclusion. I know I shouldn't
+have sufficient faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I either,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;But, perhaps, we could acquire a necessary
+amount of it, if we were to experiment together. Supposing we try in
+that delightfully secluded copse in your garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys shook her head. &quot;I'm afraid it would be useless. Besides, if my
+father were to hear of it, he would fear worry had turned my brain, and
+most likely have another fit. No, we must think of something more
+practical. In the meanwhile, if you will keep on with the part, you have
+so generously undertaken, you will be doing me an inestimable service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll keep on with it for ever,&quot; Shiel replied, and before she
+could stop him, he had kissed her hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In order to explain the manner in which Hamar, Kelson and Curtis were
+initiated into their new properties, I must now go back to the day
+preceding the gratis performance of the Modern Sorcery Company, that is
+to say the last day of stage one of the compact.</p>
+
+<p>To Kelson the day had been one of surprises throughout. When he arrived
+at the building in Cockspur Street (he preferred living alone, and,
+consequently, rented a handsome suite of rooms in John Street, Mayfair),
+he was not a little astonished to meet Lilian Rosenberg on the
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank you so much!&quot; she exclaimed, shaking hands with him most
+effusively. &quot;It is all owing to you I got the post.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Hamar has engaged you,&quot; Kelson ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, yes! didn't you know!&quot; Lilian said with a smile. &quot;I had a letter
+from him the very evening of the day I called here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you! He never told me anything about it! How do you think you will
+get on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, splendidly! The work is interesting and full of variety. Moreover,
+I like the atmosphere of the place, it is so weird. I believe the three
+of you really are magicians!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that be so,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;then we have only acted in accordance
+with our character in engaging the services of a witch&mdash;a witch who has
+already bewitched one member of the trio. Now please don't go to the
+expense of lunching out: lunch with me instead. Lunch with me every
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very kind of you,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, &quot;and I will gladly
+do so when I am not lunching with Mr. Hamar. But he has invited me to
+have all my meals with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That doesn't mean you are obliged to have them with him every day!&quot;
+Kelson cried. &quot;Lunch with me this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am very sorry,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, looking at Kelson with mock
+pleading eyes, &quot;please don't scold me, but I've really promised Mr.
+Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have tea with me, then,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've promised him that, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supper then!&quot; Kelson said, savagely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm awfully sorry, but I'm engaged all this evening, and practically
+every evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Mr. Hamar?&quot; Kelson asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh no! my own private business,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;Do forgive
+me. I should so like to have been able to accept your invitation. Now I
+must hurry back to my work,&quot; and she gave him her hand, which Kelson
+held, and would have gone on holding all the morning, had he not heard
+Hamar's well-known tread ascending the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here!&quot; he said, as they entered his room together, &quot;I want Miss
+Rosenberg to have luncheon with me one day this week, and she tells me
+you have already invited her. Let her come with me to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Now I'll tell you what it is, Matt, I
+anticipated this the moment I saw you two together, and its got to stop.
+You would genuinely fall in love with that girl&mdash;or as a matter of fact
+any other pretty girl&mdash;if you saw much of her&mdash;and love, I tell you,
+would be absolutely disastrous to our interests. You must let her
+alone&mdash;absolutely alone, I tell you. I have given her strict orders she
+is to confine herself to her work, and to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you take a great deal too much on yourself. I shall see just as
+much of Miss Rosenberg, when she is disengaged, as I please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then she never shall be disengaged. But come, do be sane and put some
+restraint on this mad infatuation of yours for pretty faces. Can't you
+keep it in check anyhow for two years&mdash;till after the term of the
+compact has expired! Then you will be free to indulge in it, to your
+heart's content. For Heaven's sake, be guided by me. Harmony between us
+must be kept at all costs. Don't you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes! I understand all right,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;and I'll try. But it's
+very hard&mdash;and I really don't see there would be any danger in my taking
+her out occasionally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I do,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;and there's an end. To turn to something
+that may spell business. Just before I got up this morning I saw a
+striped figure bending over me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A striped figure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
+limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs&mdash;of a sort&mdash;if it
+cared to show them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were frightened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
+indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit. To-night,
+at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu, called Karaver,
+in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into the second stage of
+our compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
+figures&mdash;I've had enough of them,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking of
+the compact,&quot; Hamar retorted, &quot;otherwise you'll see something far
+worse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
+injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
+had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house.</p>
+
+<p>To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did you know we were coming,&quot; Curtis asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gentleman called here early this morning and told me,&quot; Karaver
+explained. &quot;He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
+the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
+each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there. I
+demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations of
+my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few&mdash;those born under the
+sign of Dejellum Brava.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The stranger showing me the sign&mdash;written plainer than I have ever seen
+it&mdash;in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no sooner
+done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking to an
+Elemental&mdash;a spirit of my native mountains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything very
+alarming in this astral business?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It depends on what you call alarming,&quot; the Indian said coldly. &quot;I
+shouldn't be alarmed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be a fool, Matt,&quot; Hamar interposed. &quot;I never saw such a
+frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Think
+of what there is at stake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Think of Lilian Rosenberg,&quot; Curtis whispered, &quot;and be comforted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre of
+the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told to
+sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
+composed of: &frac12; oz. of hemlock, &frac34; oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
+oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, &frac12; oz. of assaf&oelig;tida, and
+&frac14; oz. of saffron.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are these preparations absolutely necessary?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely,&quot; Karaver said. &quot;English clairvoyants will, doubtless, tell
+you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few slipshod
+instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the Astral Plane is
+mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely difficult and can only be
+done, in the first place, through the guidance of a skilled Oriental
+occultist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
+air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
+chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
+mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
+from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, &quot;Great Spirits of the
+mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
+seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge to
+the realms of thy eternal phantoms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
+fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying &quot;Give me
+authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;&quot; and then kneeling down in front of
+the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Green phantom figures of the air,<br /></span>
+<span>A ready welcome see that you prepare.<br /></span>
+<span>Black phantom figures from the earth,<br /></span>
+<span>Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth.<br /></span>
+<span>Red phantom figures of the furious fire,<br /></span>
+<span>For kindly greeting change your usual ire.<br /></span>
+<span>Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,<br /></span>
+<span>To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells.<br /></span>
+<span>Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" /><a href="#Footnote_19_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,<br /></span>
+<span>And to these three poor fools, explain, explain<br /></span>
+<span>The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The dark,
+lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth receded
+farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice appeared to
+grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that he sprayed them
+all over with some sweet-smelling scent,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" /><a href="#Footnote_20_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> and that he whispered (in
+reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
+&quot;Darkona&mdash;droomer&mdash;doober&mdash;parlar&mdash;poohmer&mdash;perler.
+A&mdash;ta-rama&mdash;skatarinek&mdash;ook&mdash;drooksi&mdash;noomig&mdash;viartikorsa.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" /><a href="#Footnote_21_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Then
+there came a temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of
+light. The light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily
+closed their eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been
+accustomed to&mdash;it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of
+vibration. When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect
+to keep their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing,
+apparently on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such
+as they knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
+breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground, no
+scenery, but only&mdash;space!</p>
+
+<p>They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
+glided across their vision, forms&mdash;of every conceivable shape, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>,
+those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
+faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs&mdash;some apparently just dead and
+others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
+propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
+people&mdash;misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio and
+tried to peer into their faces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For heaven's sake keep off!&quot; Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form of
+an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks, came
+up to him, and thrust its face into his.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a bit thick,&quot; Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
+phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
+putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Curse you! d&mdash;n you!&quot; Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a vain
+endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were trying to
+bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. &quot;A little more of this, and
+I shall go mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
+up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence of
+mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm. &quot;If you leave us,
+Matt,&quot; he said, &quot;we are lost. I feel our safety depends on our keeping
+together. If I'm not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on the part of the
+Unknown to separate us. If that happens, I feel we may never get back to
+our bodies&mdash;and the compact will then be broken. We must hang on to each
+other at all costs.&quot; So saying, he slipped his free arm through that of
+Curtis, and the three stood linked together.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar clung on to the other two, until his hands grew numb, and the
+sweat stood on his chest and forehead in great beads. As figure after
+figure stealthily and noiselessly approached them, Kelson and Curtis
+writhed and shrieked; and, at times, it seemed as if the chain must be
+broken. But alarming as were these harrowing types of
+Vice-Elementals&mdash;<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, nude things with heads of beasts and bodies of
+men and women; grotesque heads; malevolent eyes; mal-shaped hands;
+headless beasts, etc.; none had so dangerous an effect on the unity of
+the trio as the alluring types of Vice-Elementals, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, shapes of
+beautiful women that smiled seductively at Kelson, and resorted to every
+device to entice him away with them. It was then that Hamar was taxed to
+the utmost, that he exhausted voice, strength, and patience, in holding
+Kelson back.</p>
+
+<p>He was about to give in, when to his astonishment these Vice-Elementals
+vanished, and a phantasm, the exact counterpart of Karaver, only much
+taller, appeared before them, and commenced giving them instructions as
+to Stage Two.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he said, addressing Hamar, &quot;will possess the property of second
+sight, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, the power to see, at will, earthbound spirits,
+conditionally, that you fumigate your room, for ten minutes every night,
+before retiring to rest, with a mixture composed of 2 drachms of
+henbane, 3 drachms of saffron, &frac12; oz. of aloes, &frac14; oz. of mandrake, 3
+drachms of salanum, 2 oz. of assaf&oelig;tida; that you abstain from animal
+food and wine, and give up smoking; that, three times every day, you
+bathe your face in distilled water, to which has been added three drops
+of the juice of the whortleberry, one drop of the juice of the mountain
+ash berry, 1 oz. of lavender water, 1 oz. of nitre, and &frac12; oz. of
+tincture of arnica; and that, just before going to sleep, you look for
+three minutes, without blinking, at an equilateral triangle, transcribed
+in blood, on white paper, and composed of these letters and figures.&quot;
+And he handed Hamar a piece of paper, on which were written these
+symbols: K.T.O.P.I.6.X.7.4.H.I.P.3.S.4.W.V.2.8.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So long as you observe these conditions the power will remain with you.
+To-morrow, only, it will be awarded you without any preparations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he went on, turning to Kelson, &quot;will possess the property of
+projection, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, the power of leaving your body, and of visiting,
+where you will, on the material plane. You will continue to possess the
+same, conditionally, that you carry out the same rules as Leon Hamar,
+with the exception that, instead of looking at a triangle before going
+to sleep, you will repeat these words. See, I have written them down for
+you.&quot; And he handed Kelson a slip of paper, on which were transcribed
+&quot;Darkona, droomer, doober, parlar, poohmer, perler.
+A&mdash;ta&mdash;rama&mdash;skatarinek&mdash;ook&mdash;drooksi&mdash;noomeg&mdash;viartikorsa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You,&quot; he said, turning to Curtis, &quot;will be endowed with the property of
+overcoming gravity, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, you will be able to fly, to jump great
+heights, and to lift and move prodigious weights; and this property will
+remain in your possession during the prescribed period, provided you
+abstain from all animal food, from smoking and from drinking alcohol;
+and observe the same rules with regard to fumigating your sleeping
+apartment, and bathing your face, as Hamar and Kelson. But, always,
+before you attempt to fly or to jump, it will be necessary for you to
+set in motion certain vibrations, in the ether, that counteract the
+attraction of gravity. You must repeat the words 'Karjako Mandarbsa
+Guahseela,' which I have written on this blue paper; and when you want
+to move or lift objects, you must first repeat the words 'Perabibo
+Henlilee Oko-kokotse,' which I have written on this green paper.
+Gravity, as you will see, is entirely dependent on sound&mdash;sound can move
+mountains. It did so in Atlantis, it did so in Egypt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Making the sign of a triangle, an eye, and a tree in the air, with the
+forefinger of his left hand, he slowly repeated the words
+&quot;Barjakva&mdash;ookpoota&mdash;trylisa.&quot; and the concluding syllable was no sooner
+uttered, than the trio found themselves standing in Berners Street. But
+of Karaver's house&mdash;the house they had just quitted&mdash;there was no trace.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> According to Brahminical teaching there are seven main
+classes of spirits; some having innumerable sub-divisions. They are&mdash;
+</p><p><br />
+1. Arrippa Devas, with forms.<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+2. Arrippa Devas, without forms.
+(Both Classes 1 and 2 are intelligent, sixth principles
+of certain planets. I style them Planetians, and
+classify them with all other spirits hailing from Jupiter
+Neptune, etc.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+3. Mara rupas (identical with Vice-Elementals).<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+4. Pisachas, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> male and female elementaries. (I have
+termed them Impersonating Elementals, since they
+consist of the astral forms of the dead, that may be
+utilized by Elementals.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+5. Asuras, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> gnomes, pixies, etc. (Corresponding to those
+I have designated Vagrarian Elementals.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+6. Monstrosities. (These I include among Vice-Elementals
+and Vagrarians.)<br /><br />
+</p><p class="hang">
+7. Kaksasas, viz. souls of wizards, witches, and of clever
+people with evil tendencies, scientists with cruel or
+harsh tendencies&mdash;such as vivisectionists and sophists.
+All these come under my division of &quot;earthbound
+phantasms of the dead&quot;&mdash;spirits tied to this earth
+by passions or vices; and I should add to the list&mdash;militant
+suffragettes, strike agitators, hooligans,
+apaches, pseudo-humanitarians, religious bigots,
+misers, all people obsessed with manias, idiots, epileptic
+imbeciles and criminal lunatics. All such may at
+times be encountered on the lowest spiritual plane.<br /><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Composed of 2 drachms of myrrh, &frac12; oz. of sweet oil, 2
+oz. of attar of roses, &frac12; oz. heliotrope and &frac14; oz. of musk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> These words are so arranged as to set in vibration and
+loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the
+physical body, and so set the latter free.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" />CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The doctors had stated that the tenth day would see the crisis of John
+Martin's illness; if he could tide over that period, he might go on for
+years without another attack. When the momentous day arrived, Gladys was
+simply eating her heart out with suspense. Not a sound was permitted in
+the house. The servants, tiptoeing about, hardly ventured even to
+exchange glances; the errand boys were waylaid and sent to the
+right-about, with a vague notion that if they opened their mouths their
+heads would be off; and some one was posted at the garden gate to deal,
+in a scarcely less summary manner, with visitors. Indeed, so fearful was
+Gladys lest her father should hear Shiel, who had managed to elude her
+outpost, that without meaning it, she greeted him curtly, and, more
+plainly than politely, gave him to understand that she wished him
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have you been saying to Shiel Davenport?&quot; Miss Templeton asked
+Gladys, when they met at lunch. &quot;I passed him in the road just now, and
+he looked so wretched that, despite his ineligibility, I felt quite
+sorry for him. I am sure he is very much in love with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;he is only a boy.&quot; But boy though it pleased
+her to call him, she knew that he had played a man's part during her
+father's illness. Every night he had faithfully performed the r&ocirc;le, she
+had allotted to him, at the Kingsway Hall, and upon him she was forced
+to admit the success of the entertainment, in a large measure, depended.
+Without pushing himself, or being the least bit officious, he had been
+equally helpful behind the scenes. He had held in check all those who,
+taking advantage of her father's absence, were disposed to dispute her
+authority and shirk their work&mdash;and he had also, on her behalf,
+successfully resisted their demand for higher wages. And, over and above
+all this, he had always considered her personal comfort. Her
+meals&mdash;which she could never bother about for herself, when engaged all
+day at the hall&mdash;were, thanks to him, brought to her as punctually, and
+served as daintily, as they would have been for her father; he had taken
+every care that she should not be disturbed when resting; and there was,
+in short, nothing he had not thought of doing to lighten the load, so
+unexpectedly laid upon her shoulders. The only fault she could find with
+him, was that he had not gained the good graces of her father.</p>
+
+<p>The day slowly waned. Gladys had stolen into her father's room
+repeatedly to see how he fared, and to her his condition had seemed much
+about the same&mdash;he was as usual tired and peevish. But when, at six
+o'clock, she again stole in to peep at him, and found him lying back on
+his pillow absolutely still and motionless, and without apparently
+breathing, she was immeasurably shocked. Had he had another fit, or was
+he dead? Wild with grief and terror, she rushed from the room to
+telephone to the doctor, and met him on the landing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You need have no fear,&quot; he said to her the moment he had looked at
+John Martin, &quot;he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will
+be past. To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will be
+himself again. Only you must take care that he does not use his brain
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gladys could hardly restrain her delight. She felt pleased with
+everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours
+later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain. In fact it was owing to
+this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in his
+performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic laughter
+of the audience. When the entertainment was over, and he was preparing
+to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of her sparkling
+eyes and animated features again overcame him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall you advise your father to do?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner,&quot; Gladys replied,
+&quot;some one who can attend to the business side of the concern for him. It
+is essential he should not be worried with figures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose my services won't be required much longer?&quot; Shiel said,
+speaking with rather an effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I can't answer for my father,&quot; Gladys replied, &quot;but I should
+imagine he would be only too glad to employ you. The only thing is the
+salary. You can't live on air, you know, and with the poor attendances
+he gets now, I don't see how he can afford to pay much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would work for very little,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;I should be awfully sorry
+to give up now. I wonder if you would miss me at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I should!&quot; Gladys retorted. &quot;You have behaved admirably, and
+I am most grateful to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You needn't be grateful to me. I have never enjoyed anything half so
+much as I have trying to help you. I am poor, penniless in fact, since
+my uncle left me nothing, but supposing&mdash;supposing I were to get some
+lucrative post, do you think&mdash;do you think there would ever be any
+possibility of&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of your caring for me! I am terribly in love with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear I must have given you encouragement,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;I'm awfully
+sorry. You see I never thought of this, and I don't know what to say to
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you give me a chance, just a chance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But my father would never hear of it. Unfortunately he seems to be
+prejudiced against you. Won't you wait a while, and then, if you are
+still in the same mind, speak to me again in&mdash;say&mdash;a year. By that time
+you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else,&quot; Shiel
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think I shall,&quot; Gladys said. &quot;Of course, I meet crowds of men,
+but you see I am not the marrying sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think you would care for me just a bit?&quot; Shiel asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps,&quot; Gladys said, &quot;but I'm not at all sure. I
+can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
+opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for the
+time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows&mdash;it may lie in your power
+to do him some service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see how,&quot; Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. &quot;But no
+matter&mdash;after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
+first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes,&quot; Gladys laughed. &quot;Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
+to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual.&quot; And,
+with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor, and
+drove off.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
+utterly unenviable as penury and love&mdash;to be next door to starving, and
+at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus afflicted,
+had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated himself with her
+beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure there would, later
+on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only in romance, he told
+himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds himself in a position
+to marry&mdash;in reality, his love suit is rejected with scorn; his adored
+one marries some one who has, or pretends he has, limitless wealth; and
+the despised swain ends his days a miserable and dejected bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>All the same, Shiel determined that he would for once fare like the hero
+in romance&mdash;that he would either win the object of his affections or
+perish in the attempt; and no sooner did the fit of the blues,
+consequent on the conversation just related, wear off, than he set to
+work in grim earnest to discover some means of breaking up the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and of restoring to the firm of Martin and
+Davenport their former prestige.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, affairs were by no means stationary, as far as Hamar
+and his colleagues were concerned. The appearance of their paper
+<i>To-morrow</i>, a morning journal, that chronicled faithfully every event
+of the following day, caused a tremendous sensation; and the sale of
+every other paper sank to nil&mdash;no one, naturally, wanting to buy the
+news that had happened yesterday, when, for the same money, they could
+obtain news of what would happen that very day. The stupid method of
+chronicling past events, Hamar announced in the first issue of his
+organ, was now obsolete. It was, perhaps, good enough for the Victorian
+era, but it was utterly out of keeping with the present age of hourly
+progress. Who, for instance, wanted to know that at 6 p.m., on the
+preceding evening, there had been a big fire in New York? Was it not far
+more to the point for them to learn, for example, that at 2 p.m., on
+that very day, Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by an
+earthquake; that the Post Office in King's Road, Chelsea, would be
+broken into by thieves; that Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square would
+be blown up by Suffragettes; or something equally fresh and exciting?
+One cannot get thrills&mdash;at least not the right kind of thrills in
+reading of what has already taken place. To say to ourselves, or to a
+friend, &quot;Just fancy, we might have been in that railway accident,&quot; or,
+in reading of a shipwreck &quot;What a mercy we did not embark after all, is
+it not?&quot; is not half as enthralling as to be wondering if, at eleven
+o'clock that night, when the terrific storm in which twenty-six people
+will be killed by lightning in various parts of England, we shall be
+among the fatal number. One is not much moved to find oneself alive when
+a danger is passed, but one does get terribly excited in contemplating
+the risk we are bound to run of being killed. Within a week, the
+circulation of <i>To-morrow</i> had gone up from fifty thousand to ten
+million, and Hamar, inflated with success, said to himself, &quot;Now I will
+go and have another look at John Martin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When he arrived, Gladys was in the garden. His stealthy approach had
+given her no chance to escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is your business?&quot; she asked, glancing nervously in the direction
+of the house, and dreading lest her father should see Hamar from his
+window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to see your father,&quot; Hamar said, his eyes resting admiringly
+on her face and then running leisurely over her figure. &quot;How is the old
+gentleman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not well enough to see visitors,&quot; Gladys said, with absolute
+hauteur. &quot;Perhaps you will state your business to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! I don't mind if I do!&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;Let us sit down. It's more
+comfortable than standing.&quot; And he dropped into a seat as he spoke. &quot;Now
+I've been noticing,&quot; he went on, &quot;that your Show in the Kingsway is not
+getting on very well&mdash;that there are fewer and fewer people there every
+night, and I've no doubt it will soon have to dry up altogether. We, on
+the other hand, are doing better and better every night, and we shall go
+on doing better&mdash;there is no limit to our possibilities. We are worth
+half a million now&mdash;next year, we shall be worth ten times that amount!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are optimistical, at all events,&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can afford to be,&quot; Hamar grinned. &quot;Now, do you know what we intend
+doing before very long?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't the least idea, and I am not in the slightest degree
+curious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you? Well, you should be, since it concerns you. We mean to buy
+up the whole of Kingsway!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And later on, of course, the whole of Regent Street!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are satirical. You are not alarmed at the prospect of having me for
+a landlord!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you! The Hall in Kingsway is my father's own
+property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that is so then you have nothing to fear,&quot; Hamar laughed, &quot;but I
+think it just possible you are mistaken. At any rate, I've been in
+communication with some one styling himself the landlord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father would have an agreement, anyhow!&quot; Gladys said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course,&quot; Hamar replied, &quot;and I've a pretty shrewd idea of the terms
+of it. But enough of this&mdash;let me come to the point. I intend buying the
+property, and I shall refuse to renew your father's lease, unless he
+agrees to give me what I want!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course a preposterous price?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you&mdash;only you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes! I've never seen a girl I like more. I've limitless wealth and I'll
+give you everything you want&mdash;a steam yacht, motors, diamonds, anything,
+everything, and all I ask in return is that you should consent to be
+engaged to me on trial&mdash;say for fifteen months&mdash;just to see how we get
+on! What pretty hands you have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And before Gladys could draw them away, he had caught hold of them in an
+iron grasp, and, turning them over, cast admiring glances at the slim,
+white fingers with the long, almond-shaped and carefully manicured
+nails.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon,&quot; he said, &quot;I shall never find any one prettier all through.
+What do you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your proposition is impossible&mdash;monstrous! I detest you,&quot; Gladys
+retorted, her cheeks white with anger. &quot;Leave go my hands at once, and
+never let me see you again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't promise not to see you again,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;but I'll let go
+your hands now, for I'm no more a lover of scenes than you. I
+anticipated a little fuss at first&mdash;it's the way all you women have&mdash;you
+are so modest, you don't like to appear too eager to snap up a good
+offer. You'll close with it right enough in the end. I'll call again in
+a few days. By that time you may have changed your mind.&quot; And, before
+she could prevent him, he had again seized her hand and was kissing it
+over and over again.</p>
+
+<p>With an ejaculation of the utmost indignation, she sprang away from him,
+and with all the dignity she could assume, walked to the house. What
+became of him she did not know. Some few seconds later she told the
+gardener to see him safely off the premises, but he was nowhere to be
+found.</p>
+
+<p>A week later, Hamar turned up again at the Cottage, and, despite the
+vigilance of Gladys and the servants, caught John Martin alone.</p>
+
+<p>When the latter, at last, came to the end of what had, at first, seemed
+an inexhaustible stock of invectives, Hamar stated his proposals with
+mathematical exactitude.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe for one moment my landlord would be such a blackguard
+as to play into your hands,&quot; John Martin spluttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, he would!&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;An Englishman will do anything for
+money, and I am prepared to offer him just twice as much as any one else
+for your Hall. Do you think he will refuse&mdash;not he!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what on earth's your object! You've ruined me already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your daughter!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Miss Gladys! I am prepared to go any
+lengths to get her. Refuse to give her to me and I'll turn you out of
+your Hall, I'll torment you with every kind of insect, I'll plague you
+with disease, I'll make your life hell. But give her to me&mdash;and I'll&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I won't! And I defy you to do your worst, you&mdash;you&mdash;&quot; and there is
+no knowing what would have happened, had not Gladys suddenly come in and
+dragged her father out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How dare you?&quot; she exclaimed, returning to the study to find Hamar
+still there. &quot;I've telephoned to the police, and unless you go instantly
+and promise not to come again, I shall give you in charge, for
+annoyance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Foolish of you&mdash;very foolish!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;when I want to be friendly.
+Sooner or later you must give in, so why not end all this needless
+unpleasantness now, and receive me&mdash;if not with open arms&mdash;at least
+amicably. You are so awfully pretty! I must have just one&mdash;&mdash;&quot; but
+before he could kiss Gladys the police arrived, and Hamar once more
+retired&mdash;with somewhat undignified haste, and more than a little
+discomfited.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving in Cockspur Street, Hamar's temper underwent a still further
+trial. Kelson, taking advantage of his absence, had gone off to tea with
+Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>In ill-suppressed fury, he waited till they returned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A word with you, Matt,&quot; he said, as Kelson tried to shuffle past him.
+&quot;So this is the way you behave when my back is turned. I suppose you've
+had a good time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delightful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you know the consequences!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only that I'm looking forward to the same thing another day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She'll go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She won't,&quot; Kelson chuckled. &quot;She is far too valuable. So there, old
+man! A month ago your threat might have held good. It won't now. You
+daren't&mdash;you positively daren't part with her&mdash;because, if you did so,
+you'd not only part with a good few of your secrets, but you'd part with
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" />CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>&quot;What's to be done with Matt?&quot; Hamar asked Curtis, soon after the
+interview just recorded. &quot;He's as sweet on Rosensberg as he can be, and
+says if I dismiss her he'll go too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then don't dismiss her,&quot; Curtis replied. &quot;Leave them both alone, that's
+my tip. I don't believe Matt's such a fool as to fall in love, and I'm
+quite sure the girl isn't. Why, she went to the Tivoli with me two
+nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before that.
+It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who would
+treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How about
+Leon and Gladys Martin.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
+pretty&mdash;splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
+and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for love!
+Well! it's not in my programme.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still, stranger things have happened,&quot; Curtis said. &quot;Anyhow, I guess
+you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
+dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London&mdash;I don't
+go a cent on them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
+he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
+her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had never
+missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on the
+elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling her how
+much he admired her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You really mustn't,&quot; she said. &quot;Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders to
+attend to nothing but my work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, damn Hamar!&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;if I choose to talk to you it's no
+business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and it
+is I you should go out with, not Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with one
+eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told her his
+history&mdash;all about himself from the day of his birth&mdash;told her about his
+parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and cranks, his
+indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts, flirtations, with
+just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even went so far as to
+speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of hereditary gout, and of a
+slightly hectic cough with which, he suddenly remembered, he had at one
+time, been troubled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you think,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, &quot;you
+are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
+secret&mdash;and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
+fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
+should never forgive myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it distress you so much?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it would. I should be miserable,&quot; she laughed. And Kelson,
+unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them with
+kisses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your fingers would look well covered with rings,&quot; he said. &quot;I will give
+you some, and you shall come with me and choose. Only on no account tell
+Hamar.&quot; And he kissed her&mdash;not on the hands this time&mdash;but the lips.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar saw him. He watched him from behind the angle of the passage wall,
+but he said nothing&mdash;at least, nothing to Kelson. It was to Lilian
+Rosenberg he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is really not my fault,&quot; she said. &quot;I don't encourage him, and if
+you take my advice, you will not interfere, for I am sure at present he
+means nothing serious. He is the sort of man who imagines himself in
+love with every one he meets. If you prevent him seeing me, you may
+actually bring about the result you are most anxious to avoid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll risk that,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and I absolutely forbid you doing more
+than merely saying good morning to him. It is either that, or you must
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, of course I will do as you wish,&quot; Lilian said. &quot;I don't care a
+snap for him; and, after all, you ought to know your own business best!
+It is only natural that you should want him to marry some one who can
+bring money into the Firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want him to marry at all, or anyhow, not yet. However, there is
+no necessity to discuss that point. We have definitely settled the line
+you are to adopt, and that is all I wanted to speak to you about. When
+next you feel inclined to flirt, come to me, and you shall have kisses
+as well as&mdash;rings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was shortly after this <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> that Lilian Rosenberg was
+interrupted in her work, by a rap at the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in,&quot; she called, and a young man entered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe a clerk is wanted here,&quot; he explained. &quot;I've come to apply
+for the situation. Can I see Mr. Hamar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid he's out. There's no one in at present,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+replied, eyeing the stranger critically &quot;If you like to wait awhile, you
+may do so. Sit down.&quot; She signalled to him to take a chair and went on
+typing.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes the silence was unbroken, save for the tapping of
+fingers and the clicking of the machine. Then she looked up, and their
+eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not pleasant to be out of work,&quot; he said. &quot;Have you ever
+experienced it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Once or twice,&quot; she said. &quot;And I never wish to again. You don't look as
+if you were much used to office work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I'm an artist; but times are hard with us. The present Government
+has driven all the money out of the country and no one buys pictures
+now; so I'm forced to turn my hand to something else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I love pictures. My father was an artist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then we have something in common,&quot; the young man said. &quot;Would you like
+to see my work? I love showing it to people who understand something
+about painting, and are not afraid to criticize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to see it, immensely&mdash;though I won't presume to
+criticize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I inquire your name?&quot; the young man asked eagerly. &quot;Mine is Shiel
+Davenport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And mine&mdash;Lilian Rosenberg,&quot; the girl said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I don't get the post, may I write to you sometimes, Miss Rosenberg,
+and ask you to my studio. I call it a studio, though it's really only an
+attic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg nodded. &quot;I shall be delighted to come,&quot; she said. &quot;I am
+afraid I am very unconventional.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for further conversation, as Hamar entered the room at
+that moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you want?&quot; he asked curtly.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're too late,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I've engaged some one. If you'd called
+earlier, there might have been some chance for you, as you look
+tolerably intelligent. But it's no use now, so be off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Shiel left the room he caught Lilian Rosenberg looking at him; and he
+saw that her eyes were full of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>The acquaintance, thus begun, ripened. She went to see his pictures,
+they had tea together, and they spent many subsequent hours in each
+other's company. And although Shiel saw in Lilian Rosenberg only a
+rather prepossessing girl from whom, after cultivating her acquaintance,
+he was hoping to learn the inner working of the Modern Sorcery Company
+Ltd., with her it was different.</p>
+
+<p>In Shiel, Lilian Rosenberg saw the qualities she had always been
+seeking&mdash;the qualities she had almost despaired of ever finding&mdash;and
+which she had so often declared existed only in fiction. He only
+interested her, she argued; but she forgot that interest as well as pity
+is akin to love&mdash;and that where the former leads, the latter almost
+invariably follows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe you have enough to eat,&quot; she said to him one day. &quot;You
+are a perfect shadow. How do you exist if you have no private means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I just manage to exist, and that is all,&quot; Shiel laughed, and he spoke
+the truth, his present state of semi-starvation having resulted from the
+untoward events, which had happened prior to his application for the
+post of clerk to the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., and his subsequent
+acquaintance with Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst John Martin had been ill, and he had helped at the Hall in Kings
+way, he had lived well. Gladys had taken care he was paid&mdash;not a big sum
+to be sure&mdash;but enough to keep him. But directly John Martin, in spite
+of Gladys's remonstrances, had resumed work, Shiel had been dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I could help you,&quot; John Martin said to him, &quot;for I really feel
+grateful to you for all you have done, but to tell you the candid truth,
+I can't afford to pay any salaries. As you know, the receipts of the
+Hall are next to nothing; but the expenses continue just the same&mdash;rent,
+gas, and staff&mdash;all heavy items. Moreover, at your uncle's death, many
+of his creditors put in claims on the Firm for debts&mdash;debts he had
+incurred without either my sanction or knowledge&mdash;and it has been a
+serious drain on me to pay them off. In fact, my finances are now at
+such a low ebb that I cannot possibly do anything for you. If only the
+Modern Sorcery Company could be cleared off the scenes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would, I suppose, feel extremely grateful to whoever cleared them
+off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would,&quot; John Martin replied, with a significant chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though it were some one who had not stood very high in your
+estimation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though it were the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, look here, Mr. Martin,&quot; Shiel said, trying to appear calm. &quot;I will
+devote all my energies and all my time to your cause&mdash;the overthrow of
+the Modern Sorcery Company, if only&mdash;if only, in the event of my being
+successful, you will give me some hope of being permitted to win your
+daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I promise you that hope, and any other you may see fit to aspire to,&quot;
+John Martin said, with a grim smile, &quot;since there isn't the remotest
+chance of your succeeding in the task you have set yourself. Believe me,
+it will take both money and wits to get the better of Hamar, Curtis and
+Kelson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anyhow, I have your permission to try. I shall do my best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may do what you like,&quot; John Martin rejoined, &quot;so long as you don't
+talk to me again about Gladys till you've redeemed your pledge, that is
+to say, till you've overthrown the Modern Sorcery Company. In the
+meanwhile, I must ask you to abstain from seeing her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid I can't promise that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't promise that,&quot; John Martin cried, his eyes suffusing with sudden
+passion. &quot;Can't you! Then damn it, you must. I'm not going to have my
+daughter throw herself away on a penniless puppy. There, curse it all,
+you know what I think of you now&mdash;you're a bumptious puppy, and I swear
+you shall not come within a mile of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall,&quot; Shiel retorted, drawing himself up to his full height. &quot;I
+shall see her whenever she will permit me&mdash;and since she is not at home
+at the present moment, I shall now await her return outside the house,
+and defy the savage old bull-dog inside it.&quot; Leaving John Martin too
+taken aback with astonishment to articulate a syllable, Shiel withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>True to his word, he waited to see Gladys. He paced up and down the road
+in front of the house from eleven o'clock in the morning, when his
+interview with John Martin had terminated, till eight o'clock in the
+evening, and was just beginning to think he would have to give up all
+hope of seeing her that day, when she came in sight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really!&quot; she exclaimed, after Shiel had explained the situation. &quot;Do
+you mean to say you have stayed here all day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I have,&quot; Shiel answered. &quot;I told your father I would see you,
+and I meant to stay here till I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what good has it done you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All the good in the world. I shall sleep twice as well for it. I'm more
+in love with you than you think, and I mean to marry you one day. My
+prospects at present are absolutely Thames Embankmentish, but no matter,
+I've hit upon a capital way of ferreting out the secrets of the Modern
+Sorcery Company. I shall get employed by them&quot;&mdash;and he told Gladys of
+the advertisement he had seen in the paper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! I wish you all success,&quot; she said, &quot;but I'm afraid you've upset
+my father dreadfully, and the doctor says excitement is the very worst
+thing for him and may lead to another stroke. You must on no account
+come here again, until I give you leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I may see you elsewhere?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you're a wise man, you'll do one thing at a time. You'll discover
+the secret of the Sorcery Company first, and then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I have discovered it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father may forgive you. Have I told you I'm going on the stage? I
+know Bromley Burnham, and he's offered me a part at the Imperial. It is
+imperative now, that I should do something to help my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you become an actress,&quot; Shiel said bitterly, &quot;my chances of marrying
+you will indeed be small.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not smaller than they are now,&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;<i>Au revoir.</i>&quot; And
+with one of those tantalising and perplexing smiles, with which some
+women, consciously or unconsciously, counteract&mdash;and sometimes, perhaps,
+for reasons best known to themselves&mdash;completely nullify the needless
+severity of their speech, shook hands with Shiel, and left him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" />CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>STAGE THREE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The weeks sped by. Gladys Martin went on the Stage, and thanks to beauty
+and influence, rather than to talent&mdash;though in the latter respect she
+was certainly not wanting&mdash;she became an immediate success. Her photos,
+some taken alone, and some with Bromley Burnham, occupied a conspicuous
+place in all the weekly illustrateds, and in innumerable shop windows.
+People talked of her as they do of all actresses. Some said her father
+was a broken-down peer; some, a needy parson, and some, a policeman!
+Some said the Duke of Warminster was madly in love with her; others that
+Seaton Smyth, the notorious Cabinet Minister, was pining for a divorce
+on her behalf, and others, that she was seldom seen off the stage&mdash;she
+was entertaining the King of the Belgians.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've met her,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said to Shiel, as they stopped one
+evening to gaze at Gladys's portraits outside the Imperial Theatre. &quot;She
+came to our place to have a dream interpreted, and I thought nothing of
+her. I don't admire her the least bit in the world, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do,&quot; Shiel replied, rather sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, you sound quite angry,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg laughed. &quot;One would think
+you knew her. I wonder if Bromley Burnham is very much in love with
+her! He looks as if he were in these photographs! Do you think it
+possible for a man and woman to make love to each other every night on
+the stage, like they do, without one or other of them being affected?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I really couldn't say,&quot; Shiel replied. &quot;I'm no authority on such
+matters&mdash;they don't interest me in the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But this was an untruth&mdash;they did interest him&mdash;and very much, too. He
+seldom, indeed, thought of anything else. Had Gladys fallen in love with
+Bromley Burnham? Could she resist the fascinations of so handsome a man?
+He did not, of course, pay any heed to the gossip that coupled her name
+with dukes and other notorieties. He knew Gladys too well for that, but
+when he saw her thus photographed, clasped in the arms of Bromley
+Burnham, he had grave apprehensions. He longed to see her&mdash;to ask her if
+she were still free; but his every attempt failed. She always avoided
+him, and there was no other alternative save to further his scheme&mdash;his
+scheme for crushing the Sorcery Company&mdash;and to hope for the best.</p>
+
+<p>And in these dark days of his life, when he was tormented by the yellow
+demon of jealousy, and at the same time endured hunger, Lilian Rosenberg
+was his solacing angel. Utterly regardless of appearances&mdash;she did not
+exaggerate when she said, &quot;I am not conventional; I don't care twopence
+for Mrs. Grundy.&quot; She visited him in his garret, and she seldom went
+empty-handed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want your things,&quot; he rudely expostulated, when she loaded his
+table with cold chicken, jellies and potted meats. &quot;I'm not starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, you are,&quot; she said, &quot;and you've got to eat all I bring you.&quot; And
+she made him eat. She made him, too, go for walks with her, and she
+insisted that he should go with her on Saturday afternoons for long
+rambles in the country, knowing all the time that Kelson was eating his
+heart out for love of her, and prophesying all kinds of terrible
+happenings to himself, unless she returned his affections.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this point, at all events, Shiel did not allow his friendship with
+Lilian to blind him to the fact that he was cultivating her acquaintance
+with a set object. He frequently sounded her to see how much she knew of
+the inner workings of the Firm, and he satisfied himself that she knew
+very little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They never discuss their powers in my presence,&quot; she told him, &quot;but I
+see them do very queer things, Mr. Kelson seldom walks to his room, he
+flies. He takes a little jump into the air, moves his arms and legs as
+if he were swimming, and flies upstairs and along the corridor. And what
+do you think happened the other day? Some men were carrying into the
+building a huge, oak chest and several large pictures that Mr. Hamar had
+bought at a sale, when Mr. Kelson arrived on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'There is no need to lift these things,' he said to the men, 'put them
+down.' He then made some rapid signs in the air and muttered something;
+whereupon the chest and pictures rose in the air, and followed him into
+the building, and up the stairs to their respective quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The men must have been surprised,&quot; Shiel said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surprised!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. &quot;They were simply bowled over,
+and looked at one another with such idiotic expressions in their bulging
+eyes and gaping mouths, that I nearly died with laughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you've no idea how Kelson did that trick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, excepting, of course, that the signs he made, and what he said,
+must have had something to do with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was on the tip of Shiel's tongue to ask her, if she would try and
+find out for him, but he checked himself. Even at this juncture of their
+friendship he dare not appear too curious. He must wait.</p>
+
+<p>To go back to Hamar. He had seen Gladys act; he had become more
+infatuated with her than ever; and his passion was stimulated by the
+knowledge that she was universally admired, and that half the men in
+London were dying to be introduced to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Money will do anything,&quot; one of Hamar's friends&mdash;they were all
+Jews&mdash;remarked to him. &quot;Offer the manager of the Imperial a hundred
+pounds and he'll do anything you like with regard to the girl. Every
+manager can be bought and every actress, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion was a welcome one, and Hamar acted on it. But whether or
+not the exception proves the rule, he was immeasurably disconcerted to
+find that with regard to money and managers, his friend had deceived
+him. Far from being pleased at the offer of a bribe, the manager of the
+Imperial, an old Harrovian, raised his foot, and Hamar, who invariably
+paled at the prospect of violence, hurriedly withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of the initiation into Stage Three, the trio were very much
+perturbed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to goodness nothing will appear to me,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;My heart
+isn't strong enough to stand the shock of seeing striped figures. They
+should come to you, Curtis&mdash;a few jumps wouldn't do you any harm&mdash;you're
+fat enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Agreeing each to sleep with a light in his room, they separated, and at
+about two o'clock Curtis, who had been suffering of late from his
+liver&mdash;the effect, so the doctor told him, of living a little too
+well&mdash;and could not sleep, heard a knock at his door. To his
+astonishment it was Kelson&mdash;Kelson, in his pyjamas.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; Curtis exclaimed. &quot;What on earth brings you here, and however
+did you come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The usual way!&quot; Kelson said, in what struck Curtis as rather unusual
+tones. &quot;I flew here to tell you that we are now in stage three. Give me
+paper and ink. I want to write down the instructions I have received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis conducted him into his sitting-room, switched on the lights and,
+giving him what he wanted, poured out a couple of tumblers of
+soda-and-milk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will lower my temperature,&quot; he said to himself. &quot;I shall know if
+I'm dreaming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then sat by Kelson's side and observed what he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The properties of walking on the water, and of breathing under the
+water are conferred on you during the forthcoming stage. You must
+refrain from red flesh and alcohol, but may eat poultry, fish, fruit,
+and vegetables in abundance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil I may!&quot; Curtis said, in a fury. &quot;How very kind! I would
+rather have roast beef than all the poulets and kippers in Christendom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Without noticing this interruption, Kelson went on writing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must also concentrate for one hour every morning. Grade two in the
+scale of concentration, though sufficient for projection through ether,
+will not enable you to offer sufficient resistance to the pressure of
+water. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, before
+you can either walk on, or breathe under, the water. From six to seven
+a.m. you must fix your eyes on a glass of fresh spring water, and
+concentrate your very hardest on amalgamating with it, on passing your
+immaterial ego into it. At night, before going to bed, you must drink a
+mixture composed of two drachms of Vindroo Sookum, one drachm of Harnoon
+Oobey, and one ounce of distilled water. Vindroo Sookum and Harnoon
+Oobey are a species of seaweed; the former of a pale salmon colour, the
+latter of a deep blue. They were formerly shrubs growing in the wood of
+Endlemoker in Atlantis, and are now to be found at a depth of two
+hundred fathoms, twenty miles to the north-east of Achill Island. These
+weeds must be well rinsed first; and when the prescribed amount of each
+has been carefully cut off and weighed, it must be boiled in the
+distilled water, and the compound, thus formed, allowed to cool before
+being drunk. This mixture renders the lungs immune to the action of
+fluid, and will enable you to breathe as easily in water as in air.
+There is still, however, the action of gravity to be considered, and
+this must be counteracted by sound. Before experimenting, these
+Atlantean words must be repeated aloud in the following order:
+Karma&mdash;nardka&mdash;rapto&mdash;nooman&mdash;K&mdash;arma&mdash;oola&mdash;piskooskte.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's all very well to write all these directions,&quot; Curtis said, &quot;but
+how am I to obtain the weeds? I can't go and fish for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must engage the services of Mr. John Waley, formerly employed by
+the Brazilian Government in repairing marine cables. He will do all you
+want for the sum of &pound;200.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson left off writing, and, wishing Curtis good-night, walked out of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be deuced cold without an overcoat,&quot; Curtis called out after
+him. &quot;Won't you have mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But there was no reply, and though Curtis strained his ears to listen,
+he could catch no sound of a vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson left Curtis at twenty minutes past two. At half-past two, Hamar,
+who had been sound asleep, was awakened by a loud rap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kelson!&quot; he gasped. &quot;How on earth did you get here? Are you a
+projection?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't worry me with questions,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I have come to give
+you instructions. A paper and ink, quick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar obeyed with alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On you,&quot; Kelson wrote, &quot;is conferred the property of invisibility&mdash;a
+property common in Atlantis, and still possessed by the Fakirs of
+Hindoostan, the natives of Easter Island and certain tribes in New
+Guinea. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, by
+concentrating, from five to six o'clock, every morning, on amalgamating
+yourself with the ether. You must sit, with your head thrown back,
+gazing up into space&mdash;allowing nothing to distract your mind. Wholly and
+solely, your thoughts must be fixed on the ether. This property of
+invisibility can only be successfully practised, when the third grade in
+the scale of concentration has been reached. Carry out these
+instructions, and, in a week's time, you will then be able to
+experiment&mdash;to become invisible at will. But before experimenting it
+will always be necessary to repeat the words 'Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana,'
+and to swallow a pill, composed of two drachms of Derhens Voskry, one
+drachm of Karka Voli and one drachm of saffron. Derhens Voskry and
+Karka Voli are a crimson and white species of seaweed, that grows on the
+hundred-fathom level, thirty miles west-southwest of the Aran Islands,
+Galway Bay. Mr. John Waley, employed by the Brazilian Government for
+repairing cables, will procure these ingredients for you. To become
+visible, you've only to repeat the words, 'Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana,'
+backwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how about my clothes?&quot; Hamar asked. &quot;Will they disappear too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything!&quot; Kelson answered. &quot;Hat, boots, tie and breeches. All you
+have on! Good-night!&quot; And walking out of the room, he leaped into the
+air, and flew downstairs. But though Hamar listened attentively, he
+could not hear him leave the building&mdash;there was no sound of any door.</p>
+
+<p>When they met the following mid-day in Cockspur Street, Kelson
+remembered nothing of his visits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I know is,&quot; he said, &quot;that the moment I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and suddenly found myself standing in a kind of brown desert,
+talking to a tall man with most peculiar features and eyes, and a
+dazzling, white skin. He informed me he had been an animal-trainer in
+the State of Ballyynkan, Atlantis, and was ordered to give me
+instructions as to the taming of the present day wild beast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You must obtain a stone called the Red Laryx,' he said. 'It is to be
+found in great quantities on the three-hundred fathom level, forty miles
+to the west-south-west of North Aran Island, and can be procured for you
+by the same man that gets the weeds for Hamar and Curtis. It is a
+blood-red pebble, covered with peculiarly vivid green spots, and cannot
+be mistaken. Sit with it pressed against your forehead for an hour
+every morning, and concentrate hard on amalgamating yourself with
+it&mdash;<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> passing into it, and its properties will gradually be
+imparted to you. Do this regularly, for a week, and by the end of that
+time, you will be able to experiment with animals. All you will have to
+do, will be to hold the stone slightly clenched in your left hand,
+whilst, with your right, you make these signs in the air,' and he showed
+me certain passes. 'Stare fixedly into the animal's eyes all the while,
+and, by the time you have finished making the passes, you will find the
+animals are subdued. Pronounce these words &quot;Meta&mdash;ra&mdash;ka&mdash;va&mdash;Avakana,&quot;
+holding up, as you do so, your right hand with the thumb turned down and
+held right across the palm, and the little finger stretched out as wide
+as it will go, and you will understand what any animal wishes to say.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
+whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
+myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
+two o'clock in the morning?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't talk rot,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
+chill on my liver.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What was it, Leon?&quot; Curtis inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of unconscious projection,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Clearly the work of the
+Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in practice
+their newly acquired properties.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
+Brighton &amp; South Coast Railway.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton,&quot; he said, &quot;and cheat the Company.
+They deserve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
+himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
+sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
+dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical <i>nouveau riche</i> nose!</p>
+
+<p>When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
+waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
+tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
+one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
+which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
+words, &quot;Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;taksomana!&quot; The next moment he had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Strike me red!&quot; the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
+and grasping the door with the other. &quot;What's become of him? Was
+he&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;gho&mdash;st?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't&mdash;er&mdash;know&mdash;er what to&mdash;to make of it,&quot; the parson said,
+heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
+teeth. &quot;I don't&mdash;er, of course&mdash;er, believe in gho&mdash;sts! He must&mdash;er
+have been&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;an evil spirit. Dear me&mdash;aw!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Help me out of the carriage at once,&quot; the lady with the stare panted.
+&quot;I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
+Company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter, Joe?&quot; an inspector called out, threading his way
+through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
+of the compartment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm blessed if I know!&quot; the collector said. &quot;The honly explanation I
+can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved&mdash;the hot
+weather has melted him like butter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
+the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
+words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking than
+that of his previous disappearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it away&mdash;take it away!&quot; the lady opposite him shouted, throwing up
+her hands to ward him off. &quot;It's there again! Take it away! I shall
+die&mdash;I shall go mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How hideous! How diabolical!&quot; a stout, elderly man said in slow,
+measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. &quot;It must
+be the devil! The devil! Ha!&quot; and burying his face in his hands, he
+indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it,&quot; a
+remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
+highly indignant tones to the clergyman. &quot;As usual, whenever there is
+something to be done, it is woman who must do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the clergyman&mdash;whose
+condition of terror prevented him uttering even the one telling, biting
+word&mdash;Suffragette&mdash;that had risen and stuck in his throat&mdash;raised her
+umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck it vigorously at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ghost, demon, devil!&quot; she cried. &quot;I know no fear! Begone!&quot; And the
+point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's waistcoat,
+all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and with a
+ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he writhed
+and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant continued
+to stab and jab at him.</p>
+
+<p>In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
+some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
+pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" />CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES</h3>
+
+
+<p>With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him, and
+he was locked up in a separate compartment, &quot;to be given in charge,&quot; so
+the indignant official announced, directly they got to Brighton. But
+Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered
+from the effects of the severe castigation the female furioso had
+inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the train drew up at the
+Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen arrived to march him on, he
+was nowhere to be found! This was his first experiment with the newly
+acquired property. &quot;In future,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;before I try any
+tricks, I'll take very good care there are no Suffragettes about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
+he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
+calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was able
+to enjoy many&mdash;gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on the
+very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat the
+trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at last
+caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated among
+the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch for him
+in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently, directly he
+entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was arrested and
+handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill.</p>
+
+<p>He was now in a most unpleasant predicament&mdash;the tightest corner he had
+ever been in. Supposing he could not escape&mdash;his sentence would be at
+the least two years' penal servitude&mdash;what would happen? Curtis and
+Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give himself
+entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian Rosenberg;
+the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after that&mdash;he dare
+not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The police took him
+away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them, he struggled
+desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel circle that
+held them. &quot;It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!&quot; he said to himself,
+&quot;all right at least&mdash;now! They know nothing! They have never tried to
+think what the breaking of the compact means! Their weak, silly minds
+are entirely centred on the present! The present! Damn the present! They
+are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of the present&mdash;it's the
+future&mdash;the future that matters!&quot; He scraped the skin off his wrists, he
+sweated, he swore! And it was not until one of the detectives threatened
+to rap him over the head, that he sullenly gave in and sat still.</p>
+
+<p>The taxi drew up in front of the Gerald Road Police Station, and Hamar
+was conducted to an ante-room, prior to being taken before the
+inspector. Just as a policeman was about to search him, he made one last
+desperate effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;if I pledge you my word I'll not attempt to do
+anything, will you let me have my hands&mdash;or at least one of my
+hands&mdash;free a moment. Some grit has got in my eye and I cannot stand the
+irritation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That game won't work here,&quot; one of the detectives said, &quot;you should
+keep your eyes shut when there's dust about, or else not have such
+protruding ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar threatened to report him to the Home Secretary for brutal conduct,
+but the detective only laughed, and Hamar had to submit to the
+mortification of being searched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are these?&quot; a detective said, fingering the seaweed pills
+gingerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stomachic pills!&quot; Hamar said bitterly, &quot;they are taken as a digestive
+after meals. You look dyspeptic&mdash;have one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, none of your sauce!&quot; the detective said, &quot;you come along with
+me,&quot;&mdash;and Hamar was hauled before the inspector.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can I go out on bail?&quot; Hamar asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not,&quot; the inspector replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shan't give you my name and address,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I shan't tell
+you anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The inspector merely shrugged his shoulders, and after the charge sheet
+was read over, Hamar was conducted to a cell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is awful,&quot; he said, &quot;what the deuce am I to do! To send for Curtis
+and Kelson will be fatal, and it will be equally fatal to leave them in
+ignorance of what has happened to me. I am, indeed, in the horns of a
+dilemma. I must get at those pills.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Up and down the floor of the tiny cell he paced, his mind tortured with
+a thousand conflicting emotions. And then, an idea struck him. He would
+ask to be allowed to see his lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cotton's the man,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;he will get the pills for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The inspector, after satisfying himself that Cotton was on the register,
+rang him up, and after an hour of terrible suspense to Hamar, the lawyer
+briskly entered his cell.</p>
+
+<p>They conferred together for some minutes, and having arranged the method
+of defence, Cotton was preparing to depart, when Hamar whispered to
+him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to do me a particular favour. In the top right hand drawer
+of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, in Cockspur Street, I have left a
+red pill-box. These pills are for indigestion. I simply can't do without
+them. Will you get them for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, to-night?&quot; the lawyer asked dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, to-night,&quot; Hamar pleaded. &quot;I'll make it a matter of business
+between us&mdash;get me the pills before eight o'clock, and you have &pound;1000
+down. My cheque book is in the same drawer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer said nothing, but gave Hamar a look that meant much!</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a dreadful wait, and Hamar had abandoned himself to the
+deepest despair when Cotton reappeared. He shook hands with his client,
+slipping the pills into the latter's palm. Whilst the lawyer was
+pocketing his cheque, Hamar gleefully swallowed a pill, and crying out
+&quot;Bakra&mdash;naka&mdash;takso&mdash;mana,&quot;&mdash;vanished!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heaven preserve us! What's become of you?&quot; Cotton exclaimed, putting
+his hand to his forehead and leaning against the wall for support. &quot;Am I
+ill or dreaming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything wrong, sir?&quot; a policeman inquired, opening the cell door and
+looking in. &quot;Why, what have you done with the prisoner&mdash;where is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no more idea than you,&quot; the lawyer gasped. &quot;He was talking to me
+quite naturally, when he suddenly left off&mdash;said something idiotic&mdash;and
+disappeared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar did not dally. He quietly slipped through the open door, and
+darting swiftly along a stone passage, found his way to the entrance,
+which was blocked by two constables with their backs to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give the brutes something to remember me by,&quot; Hamar chuckled, and,
+taking a run, he kicked first one, and then the other with all his
+might, precipitating them both into the street. He then sped past
+them&mdash;home.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, by astute inquiries, learned that the police had decided to hush
+up the affair, not being quite sure how they had figured, or, indeed,
+what had actually occurred. As to Cotton, the shock he had undergone, at
+seeing Hamar suddenly melt away before his eyes, was so great that he
+went off his head, and had to be confined in an asylum.</p>
+
+<p>After this adventure Hamar shunned restaurants, and manipulating his new
+property sparingly, and with the utmost caution, warned Kelson and
+Curtis to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll bet anything,&quot; he said to them, &quot;it was a put-up job on the part
+of the Unknown&mdash;a cunning device to make us break the compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, we'll be careful enough as far as that goes,&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;It's
+this vegetarian diet that I can't stick. Fancy living on beans and
+potatoes, and only milk and aerated water to wash them down. It was bad
+enough in San Francisco, when we hadn't the means even to smell meat
+cooking&mdash;but with the money literally burning a hole in one's pocket,
+it's ten times worse! Whatever the Unknown has in store for us it can't
+be a worse Hell than what I've got now. What say you, Matt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same! Precisely the same!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;Only it's love&mdash;not
+potatoes and beans that worries me. In the old days when I was
+penniless, I did get some consolation from knowing it was all
+hopeless&mdash;but now&mdash;now, when, as Ed says, 'the money's literally burning
+a hole in one's pocket,' and everything might go swimmingly&mdash;not to be
+allowed even to buy a bracelet&mdash;is more than human nature can endure. I
+certainly can't conceive a Hell to beat it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be too sure,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and for goodness' sake don't let the
+Unknown give you an opportunity of comparing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The night succeeding this conversation, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+introduced their new properties into the programme of their
+entertainment in Cockspur Street, and London got another big thrill.
+Hamar exhibited such startling proofs of his power of invisibility, that
+not only was the whole audience convinced, but from amongst certain
+prominent members of the Council of the Psychical Research Society, who
+were attending with the express purpose of unmasking Hamar, two had
+epileptic fits on the spot, and several, before they could get home,
+became raving lunatics.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the second part of the programme&mdash;the audience
+was still too flabbergasted to fully grasp what was happening. They saw
+on the stage a huge tank of water&mdash;with which they were told Mr. Curtis
+would experiment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I am about to do,&quot; Mr. Curtis&mdash;who now walked on to the
+stage&mdash;informed his audience, &quot;is quite simple. All you want is faith.
+Those of you who are Christian Scientists should be able to do it as
+easily as I. Say 'I will! I will walk on the water!' and your
+faith&mdash;your colossal faith&mdash;faith in your ability to do it will actually
+enable you to do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis then repeated&mdash;in tones that could not be heard by the
+audience&mdash;the Atlantean cabalistic
+words&mdash;&quot;Karma&mdash;nardka&mdash;rapto&mdash;nooman&mdash;K&mdash;arma&mdash;oola&mdash;piskooskte,&quot; and
+glided gracefully on to the surface of the water. Every now and then he
+sank slowly down to the bottom, where he strolled about, or sat, or lay
+down.</p>
+
+<p>The audience was simply fascinated. Nothing they had hitherto seen
+tickled their fancy half as much. As an American, who was present, put
+it&mdash;&quot;To live under the water like a fish is immense&mdash;so hygienic and
+economical.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though the time apportioned to this part of the entertainment was half
+an hour, it was extended to over an hour, and even then the audience was
+not satisfied. They would have gone on watching
+Curtis&mdash;eating&mdash;drinking&mdash;jumping&mdash;skipping&mdash;singing and chasing gold
+fish&mdash;under the water all night, and when he was at length permitted to
+come out of the tank&mdash;exhausted and sulky&mdash;they gave him even heartier
+applause than they had given Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>But the cup of their enjoyment was not yet full. The greatest treat of
+all was in store for them.</p>
+
+<p>For the third and last part of the entertainment, a cage, containing a
+large Bengal tiger, was wheeled on to the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You look precious white,&quot; Curtis remarked, just as Kelson was about to
+go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess you'd look the same,&quot; Kelson retorted, &quot;if you had to hobnob
+with a tiger. The Unknown always gives me the nasty jobs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in this case,&quot; Curtis said with a low, mocking laugh, &quot;it also
+loads you with consolations. The house is full of ladies who adore you,
+and if you are eaten, just think of the sympathy welling up in their
+beautiful eyes! If that isn't sufficient compensation for you, I&mdash;&quot; But
+the remainder of this encouraging speech was lost in a loud roar. The
+Bengal tiger shook its bars&mdash;the audience screamed, and Curtis flew.</p>
+
+<p>With a desperate attempt to look calm, Kelson, clutching the red laryx
+stone in his left hand, walked on to the stage, whilst the tiger,
+rearing on its hind legs tried to reach him with its paws.</p>
+
+<p>There were loud cries of &quot;Oh! Oh!&quot; from the audience, and Kelson's heart
+beat quicker, when a girl with wavy, fair hair and big, starry eyes,
+screamed out &quot;Don't go near it! Don't go near it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as there was comparative quiet Kelson spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you can see, ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he said, &quot;this animal is
+genuinely savage! It is not like the tigers one sees in menageries,
+drugged and deprived of their natural weapons&mdash;teeth and claws. It comes
+direct from India, where its reputation as a man-eater is widespread. I
+am not, however, intimidated&mdash;its growls merely amuse me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Quaking all over, he approached the cage, and staring fixedly into the
+tiger's face, made the prescribed passes. In an instant, the whole
+attitude of the great cat changed. Dropping on to its fore-legs, it
+rubbed its head against the bars and purred. A low buzz of astonishment
+burst from the audience, and Kelson, now assured that the spell had
+worked, waved his disengaged hand, in the most gallant fashion, at the
+audience, and strutted into the cage. He shook paws with the tiger,
+patted it on the back, sat down by its side, and, whilst pretending to
+be on the most familiar terms with it, took every precaution to avoid
+coming in too close contact with its teeth and claws.</p>
+
+<p>The audience was charmed&mdash;the men cheered, the ladies waved
+handkerchiefs, and the only disappointed persons present were a few
+belligerent and bloodthirsty boys, and a Suffragette, who severally, and
+for diverse reasons, would have relished the performances of a savage
+tiger, but had little sympathy with the performance of a tame one.</p>
+
+<p>The next surprise that Mr. Kelson had for his audience, was the
+announcement that he could interpret the language of animals. At his
+invitation, a dozen members of the audience came on to the platform and
+stood near the cage. Looking steadily at the tiger he then pronounced
+the mystic words &quot;Meta&mdash;ra&mdash;ka&mdash;va&mdash;avakana,&quot; holding up his right hand,
+with the thumb turned down and stretched right across the palm, and the
+little finger extended to the utmost. In an instant the great
+secret&mdash;the secret that Darwin had studied so strenuously for years&mdash;was
+revealed to him. The language of animals was olfactory. The tiger spoke
+to him through the sense of smell&mdash;through his nose instead of his ears.
+It regulated and modified the odour it gave off from its body, and which
+worked its way out through the pores of its skin, just as human beings
+regulate and modify the intonations of their voices. Indeed, so delicate
+are the olfactory organs of animals that the faintest of these language
+smells makes an impression on them, which impression is at once
+interpreted by the brain. If an animal wishes to leave a message behind
+it, it merely impregnates some article&mdash;a leaf or a root, or a clump of
+grass&mdash;or merely the ether with a brain smell, and any other animal,
+happening to pass by the spot, within a certain time (in favourable
+weather), will at once be attracted by the smell, and be able to
+interpret it. That is the reason one so often sees an animal suddenly
+stop at a spot and sniff it&mdash;it is reading some message left there by
+some other animal. All this, and more, Kelson explained to his audience,
+who were exceedingly interested, many of them getting up to ask him
+questions. He also reported to them the tiger's conversation, which
+consisted chiefly of complaints against the management with regard to
+its food.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh,&quot; it said, &quot;when there
+were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under its very
+nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly speak to
+whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
+remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the papers were full of it.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Planet</i>, under the startling announcements&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;Recovery of the Lost Senses.<br />
+More Extraordinary Feats in Cockspur Street.<br />
+Leon Hamar becomes invisible at will,&quot; </p>
+
+<p>&mdash;narrated all that had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Monitor</i>&mdash;if anything more sensational&mdash;declared&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;The Language of Animals Discovered at Last!<br />
+The Problem of Breathing under Water&mdash;SOLVED!<br />
+Dematerialization at Will established!&quot; </p>
+
+<p>And even the <i>Courier</i>&mdash;the steady, ever cautious old <i>Courier</i>,
+England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
+conspicuously large type; vide the following&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">&quot;THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!<br />
+Actual Case of Subduing and Conversing with Wild Animals.<br />
+Recovery of the Properties of Invisibility; of Walking on Water,
+and of Breathing under Water.&quot; </p>
+
+<p>As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
+unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
+instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
+requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
+walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
+to see him, but despite the fact that he said &quot;I will! I will!&quot; with the
+greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed, since
+they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S&mdash;&mdash;
+supported the waves.</p>
+
+<p>For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to Hyde
+Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
+resounded with the words, &quot;I will walk! I will walk!&quot; succeeded by
+splashes and cries for help.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
+flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were literally
+packed with people trying to get into conversation with the animals;
+these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of fatal results.
+One old gentleman&mdash;a Fellow of the Royal Society&mdash;carried away in his
+enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after making what he thought to be the
+correct signs, slipped his nose through the bars of the tiger's cage,
+and had it promptly bitten off&mdash;whilst a girl, in her endeavours to
+sniff the crocodiles, and so get in conversation with them, fell in
+their midst, and was torn to pieces before help arrived.</p>
+
+<p>However, these fatalities only served as an advertisement to the firm,
+and hundreds of people, for whom there was not even standing room, were
+turned away from the house nightly.</p>
+
+<p>But later on there were hitches. Curtis, whose dislike to vegetarian
+diet steadily increased, when dining one evening at his club, could no
+longer withstand the sight of roast beef. The smell of it tickled his
+palate unmercifully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take this infernal mess away!&quot; he said, pushing a plate of nut steak
+from him in disgust, &quot;and let me have a full course&mdash;entr&eacute;e, soup, fish,
+meat, everything you've got&mdash;chartreuse and a liqueur, and bring it
+quick&mdash;I'm famished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ate and ate, and drank and drank, until it was as much as he could do
+to rise from the table. And then, in excellent spirits, he repaired to
+Cockspur Street.</p>
+
+<p>How he got on to the stage he could never tell. Everything was in a haze
+around him, until there was a dull crash in his ears, and he suddenly
+found himself drowning. No one, at first, noticed his helpless
+condition, but attributed his antics to part of the programme; and he
+most certainly would have been drowned, had it not been for Lilian
+Rosenberg, who, being quite by chance, in front of the house, perceived
+he was drunk, the moment he came on the stage. She flew to the wings,
+and, just in the nick of time, got two of the supers to haul him out of
+the tank. Of course, it was announced&mdash;with a pretty apology&mdash;by Mr.
+Hamar, that Mr. Curtis had been taken ill. Kelson immediately came on
+with his animals, and the audience departed without the slightest
+suspicion as to the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was furious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You idiot!&quot; he said to Curtis, &quot;that all comes of your making a beast
+of yourself&mdash;you would sacrifice Matt and me, for your insatiable
+craving for meat and alcohol. Can't you see it was a trick of the
+Unknown to make us break the compact? Had you been drowned, the
+partnership, would, of course, have been dissolved&mdash;and it would have
+been your fault! You must obey your injunctions! Damn it, you must!&quot; And
+Hamar spoke so fiercely that Curtis was for once in a way cowed, and
+solemnly promised that he would not repeat the offence.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was the next culprit; and his misdoings were indirectly
+associated with the foregoing incident. Lilian Rosenberg's action in
+saving Curtis's life, thrilled him to the core, and called into play all
+his ardent passion. He had seen her sitting in the front of the house,
+and had come upon the scene just as she was urging the supers to go to
+Curtis's assistance; and he then thought she had never looked so lovely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come out with me to-morrow afternoon,&quot; he whispered. &quot;Hamar's going
+out of town!&quot; And before she could stop him he had kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson hardly expected Lilian Rosenberg would accept his invitation, but
+on arriving at the place he had named, he was delighted beyond measure
+to find her there.</p>
+
+<p>Nor could anyone have been nicer to him. No girl, he told himself, who
+did not in some degree at least, reciprocate his sentiments, could have
+allowed him to stare into her eyes as she did, or squeeze her hands, as
+he did. He took her to the ladies' drawing-room of his club, where there
+were plenty of quiet, secluded nooks, and there, whilst she poured out
+tea for him, he once more related to her all his early deeds and
+ailments&mdash;real and imaginary&mdash;and all his ideals and aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg was most sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You should have been a poet,&quot; she said. &quot;There is something about you
+that is quite Byronic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Kelson, who had never even heard of Byron, was immensely flattered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come to the jeweller's with me,&quot; he said, &quot;and choose whatever
+you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for rings&mdash;rings of all
+sorts!&quot; and he gave them a gentle pressure.</p>
+
+<p>She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
+Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she laughingly
+refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond bracelets and
+pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore&mdash;the rest&mdash;unknown to him
+of course&mdash;she sold; sending the proceeds, anonymously, to Shiel
+Davenport&mdash;who was starving.</p>
+
+<p>When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
+away&mdash;planning for his honeymoon&mdash;that he entered the cage of a newly
+imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
+certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
+supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
+the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It had
+been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing his
+performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
+anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar would not hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the second bungle we have had,&quot; he said, &quot;and the reputation of
+the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.</p>
+
+<p>After it was all over, and he had bowed himself out into the wings,
+Hamar led him aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't look so damned pleased with yourself,&quot; he said, &quot;I don't half
+like the look of things. This is the third time the Unknown has tried to
+trap us&mdash;the fourth time it may be successful! Take care!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" />CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Much to the relief of the trio, the end of stage three was at length
+reached&mdash;and, thanks to Hamar, reached without further mishap. To keep
+Curtis and Kelson up to the mark, Hamar had worked indefatigably. He had
+never relaxed his efforts in the strict watch he kept over them, and he
+had unceasingly impressed upon them, the vital importance of obeying, to
+the very letter, the instructions they had received from the Unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The part he had thus taken upon himself, the difficulties he had to
+encounter in this unceasing vigilance, had produced a new Hamar&mdash;a Hamar
+that was a personality; a personality so utterly unlike the old
+Hamar&mdash;the meek and servile clerk&mdash;as to make one wonder if there could
+possibly be two Hamars&mdash;outwardly and physically the same&mdash;inwardly and
+psychologically diametrically opposed. A year ago, Curtis and Kelson
+would have ridiculed the idea of being afraid of Hamar&mdash;such an idea
+would have struck them as simply absurd; but they were afraid of him
+now, they dreaded his anger more than anything, more even than the
+prospect of infringing their compact with the Unknown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have made pots of money,&quot; Curtis remarked one day. &quot;Why can't we
+give up work and enjoy it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I say no!&quot; Hamar hissed. &quot;No! We can't give up&mdash;not, at least,
+until the last stage has been safely gone through. To give up now would
+be to break the compact!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, why not?&quot; Curtis mumbled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not!&quot; Hamar cried. &quot;Heavens, man, can't you understand! Can you
+form no conception of what failure to keep the compact means? Has the
+memory of that night&mdash;of that tree and all the foul things it suggested,
+passed completely out of your mind? It hasn't out of mine&mdash;it is as
+clear now as it was then. And often&mdash;mark this, both of you&mdash;often when
+I am alone in the night, I see queer luminous shapes&mdash;shapes of
+repulsive vegetable growths&mdash;of polyps&mdash;and of disgusting tongues that
+come towards me through the gloom and circle slowly round the bed,
+whilst the whole room vibrates with soft, mocking laughter! You know how
+mirrors shine in the moonlight. Well, the other night, when I looked at
+mine, I saw in it the reflection, not of a face, but of two light evil
+eyes that looked at me and&mdash;smiled! Smiled with a smile that said more
+plainly than words, 'I am waiting!' and that is what the shapes, and the
+very atmosphere of the place at night always seem to say&mdash;'We are
+waiting! You are enjoying the joke now&mdash;we shall enjoy it later on!' If
+we knew exactly what was in store for us it wouldn't be so bad, but it
+is the vagueness of it, the vagueness of the horrors that the Unknown
+has hinted at, that makes it so appalling! We may die awful deaths&mdash;or
+we may not die AT ALL&mdash;the shapes, indefinite and misty no longer, but
+materialized&mdash;wholly and entirely materialized&mdash;may come for us and
+take us away with them! And it is to prevent this, that I am urging you,
+compelling you, to stick to the compact, and give the Unknown no
+loophole! Think of the tremendous rewards, if we succeed in passing
+through the last stage! As I have said before, Curtis need do nothing
+else but eat, whilst you, Matt, can become a Mormon and marry all the
+pretty girls in London!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This speech had the desired effect, and nothing more&mdash;for the time at
+least&mdash;was said about retiring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think Leon is quite&mdash;er&mdash;like&mdash;er&mdash;like us?&quot; Kelson said, when
+Hamar left them, after administering his admonition. &quot;At times he hardly
+looks human. His face is such a funny colour, such a lurid yellow, and
+his eyes, so piercing! He gives me the jumps! I can't bear to think of
+him at night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rubbish,&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;You imagine it. There's nothing of the spook
+about Leon! He's of this world and nothing but this world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was odd, however, that from that time he, too, began to have the same
+feeling&mdash;the feeling that Hamar was perpetually watching them&mdash;watching
+them awake and watching them asleep! Curtis awoke one night to see,
+standing on his hearth, a shadowy figure with a lurid yellow face and
+two gleaming dark eyes, which were fixed on him. He called out, and it
+vanished!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it's the nut steak!&quot; And thus he tried to assure himself. But
+he was badly scared all the same.</p>
+
+<p>Another night, he saw some one, he took to be Hamar, peeping at him from
+behind the window curtains. He threw a slipper at the figure, and the
+slipper went right through it. If Hamar's phantom had been the only
+thing he saw, he would not have minded much; but both he and Kelson soon
+began to see and hear other things. Curtis frequently saw
+half-materialized forms, forms of men with cone-shaped heads and
+peculiarly formed limbs, stealing up the staircase in front of him, and,
+turning into his bedroom, vanish there. He heard them moving about, long
+after he had got into bed. Sometimes they would glide up to the bed and
+bend over him, and though he could never see their eyes, he could feel
+they were fixed mockingly on him. Once he saw the door of his wardrobe
+slowly open, and a white something with a dreadful face&mdash;half human and
+half animal&mdash;steal slyly out and disappear in the wall opposite. And
+once when he put out his hand to feel for the matches, they were gently
+thrust into his palm, whilst the walls of the room shook with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a
+different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room
+would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede, and
+recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber, full of
+gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly, close in
+upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to death. A feeling
+of suffocation would come over him, and he would gasp, choke, beat the
+air with his arms, be at the verge of losing consciousness, when there
+would be a loud, mocking laugh&mdash;and the walls and ceiling would be in
+their proper places again. At other times he would see strange figures
+on the wall&mdash;numbers of circles, that would keep on revolving in the
+most bewildering fashion. Then, suddenly, they would leave the wall and
+slowly approach him, increasing in circumference; and the same thing
+would happen, as happened with the wall and ceiling; he would undergo
+the whole sensation of asphyxiation, and be on the brink of swooning,
+when there would be a loud peal of evil, satirical laughter, and the
+circles would instantly disappear.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the bedclothes would assume extraordinary shapes; sometimes
+the articles on his dressing-table; sometimes his clothes; and once,
+when he was about to put on his bedroom slippers, he found them already
+occupied&mdash;occupied by icy cold feet. Another time, when he put out his
+hand to take hold of a tumbler, he put it on the back of another
+hand&mdash;smooth, cold and pulpy!</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a night passed without some sort of manifestation happening to
+one or other of the trio, and even Curtis&mdash;fat and stolid Curtis&mdash;began
+to lose flesh and look harassed.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of the initiation into stage four, the three, separating for
+the night, retired to their respective quarters in a far from pleasant
+state of expectation.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar was undressing, when there came a loud ring at the telephone,
+outside his door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holloa!&quot; he called out, &quot;who are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you Mr. Hamar?&quot; a voice asked, breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar replied in the affirmative, and the voice continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm Mrs. Anderson-Waite, of 30 Queen's Mansions, Queen's Gate. I have
+been holding a s&eacute;ance here, with some of my friends, and most
+extraordinary things have happened, and are still happening. There are
+violent knockings on the wall and ceiling, and the table has become
+positively dangerous. It has repeatedly sprung into the air, and
+savagely assaulted several of the sitters. It has thrown one lady on to
+the floor, and despite our efforts to prevent it, has rampled on her so
+viciously that she is badly hurt, and the doctor who has just arrived
+thinks very seriously of it. We wanted to stop, but some strange power
+seems to be forcing us to go on. The table has rapped out your name and
+address, and says it has something important to communicate with you,
+and that unless you come here at once, it won't answer for the
+consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;I'll come. I'll be with you in less than half
+an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Hamar arrived at Queen's Mansions, he found a terrified party of
+ladies awaiting him in the entrance to the flat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank goodness, you've come!&quot; they exclaimed, all together. &quot;We've been
+having an awful time. The table has driven us out of the
+drawing-room&mdash;it is obsessed by a devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me have a look at it,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;and I'll soon tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The leader of the party, Mrs. Anderson-Waite, very cautiously opened the
+drawing-room door, and Hamar peered in. In the centre of the room was a
+large, round, ebony table, that commenced to rock, in the most sinister
+fashion, the moment Hamar looked at it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It evidently wants to speak with me,&quot; Hamar said; &quot;you had better leave
+me here with it for a few minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do take care,&quot; Mrs. Anderson-Waite said, as she shut the door. &quot;It may
+want to murder you. If it does, ring this bell, and we will all come to
+your assistance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar gave her an assuring smile, but he was by no means as much at ease
+as he pretended to be. He stood staring at the table, too fascinated to
+take his eyes off it, and too afraid to move.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, pulling himself together, and convinced the table
+was the medium, through which the Unknown wished to give him fresh
+instructions, he stealthily approached it. He addressed it, and it
+rapped out to him that he must at once obtain pen and ink and take down
+what it wished to say.</p>
+
+<p>Obtaining the requisite materials from Mrs. Anderson-Waite, he sat down
+and was preparing to write on his knee, when the table told him to rub
+its surface briskly with his left hand, to trace on it the three
+Atlantean symbols, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> a club foot, a hand with the fingers clenched
+and the long pointed thumb standing upright, and a bat&mdash;and then&mdash;to
+place his paper on it, and transcribe what it had to say.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar obeyed, and after sitting for exactly three minutes with his
+pencil between his fingers, he felt a cold, pulpy hand laid over his,
+impelling him to write with lightning-like rapidity. The script read as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To Hamar, Curtis and Kelson&mdash;to the three of you in common&mdash;is given
+the knowledge of inflicting all manner of torments and diseases, of
+imparting all kinds of injurious properties, and of causing plagues.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place, you must understand that the essence of life,
+comprising the psychical, psychological and physical, permeates every
+part of the living corporeal body&mdash;and that any limb, or fragment of
+skin or flesh, cut off from the living corporeal body, retains the
+essence of life, comprising the psychical and physical in its full
+vigour and entirety. Consequently, if a person have grafted on to them a
+piece of skin or flesh, or be inoculated with the blood or veins of a
+tiger&mdash;then that person not merely becomes liable to all the physical
+infirmities of the tiger, but may&mdash;if the counteracting influences are
+not sufficiently strong&mdash;partake of all the tiger's psychological
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thus, if you give a person, in whom there is a latent tendency to
+drink, a drop of a drunkard's blood&mdash;in a glass of wine, or sweet, or
+pill, no matter what&mdash;that person will at once take to drink. Thus&mdash;mark
+you&mdash;people can be metamorphosed into libertines, suicides, idiots and
+murderers. This metamorphosis can also be produced by means of a magnet
+called the 'magnes microcosmi,' which is prepared from substances that
+have had a long association with the human body, and are penetrated by
+its vitality. Such substances are the hair and blood. Take either one of
+them, and dry it in a shady and moderately warm place, until it has lost
+its humidity and odour. By this process it will have lost, too, all its
+mumia&mdash;that is to say, its essence of life&mdash;and is hungry to regain it.
+It is now a magnes microcosmi, or a magnet for attracting diseases and
+properties, and if it be placed in close contact with a criminal or
+lunatic, it will be filled with his essence of life, and may then be
+used as a means of infecting other people with his pernicious qualities.
+Bury it under the doorstep of the person you wish infected, or hide it
+in his house, or mix it well with earth, and plant a shrub in the earth,
+and the vitality the magnet took from the criminal or lunatic will pass
+into the plant; and if the plant, or even flower of the plant, be given
+to any one, that person&mdash;unless she or he be a person absolutely free
+from the germs of vice&mdash;will be attracted to it, and greatly affected by
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or again, the earth over the grave of a lunatic or criminal will
+contain his essence of life, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> his vitality, which impregnates
+everything around it, and if that earth be placed somewhere in the
+immediate presence of a person, in whom there are latent tendencies to
+vice&mdash;then that person will be affected by it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And through these methods of using the essence of life, that is
+impregnated with the disease you wish to inflict&mdash;you may infect people
+with all kinds of incurable ailments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a quicker, and equally sure method of smiting people with disease,
+such as cancer, fever, epilepsy, apoplexy, etc.; of smiting them blind,
+deaf, dumb, lame, etc.; or bringing upon them all kinds of accidents, is
+to make an image of the person you wish to torment, and, setting it in
+front of you, preferably, at times when the moon is new, or in
+conjunction with Venus, Mars or Saturn, concentrate with all your will
+on whatever injury you wish to inflict. If, for example, you desire the
+person to become blind, stick a pin, or thorn, or nail in the eyes of
+the image; if deaf, in its ears; if maimed, cut a limb off the image; if
+to have a certain disease, will very earnestly that he or she shall have
+that disease. You may thus, too, torment the object of your aversion
+with plagues of insects and vermin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you desire to bewitch your neighbour's milk, wine, or any food he or
+she has, you may do it by placing the mumia, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the vehicle
+containing the essence of life of some criminal or lunatic, in the
+immediate vicinity of the food, etc.; or in the case of milk, by giving
+it to the cow to eat; or you may accomplish your design simply by means
+of concentration and an image.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Always, however, whatever methods you employ, prelude them with this
+prayer: 'I conjure thee, Great Unknown Power that is Antagonistic to
+man, that was at the Beginning, that is now, that always will be; by the
+winds and rain, and thunder and lightning; by the swirling rivers; by
+the Moon; by the sinister influence of the Moon with Venus, Mars and
+Saturn; help me obtain the perfect issue of all my desires, which I seek
+to perform solely for the furtherment of what is detrimental to
+humanity. Amen.' And conclude them with the signs of the foot, the hand
+and the bat. If you desire to know anything further it will be unfolded
+to you in your dreams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hand that had been laid on Hamar's was now removed. The writing
+ceased. The table rose several inches from the floor, and struck the
+latter three times in quick, violent succession. Then it remained quiet,
+and Hamar knew, by a subtle change in the atmosphere, that all occult
+manifestations&mdash;for that night at least&mdash;were at an end. The ladies
+were, of course, dying to know what had happened; and like most ladies,
+who dabble in spiritualism, were ready to believe anything they were
+told. Hamar, who had no intention whatever of telling them what had
+actually occurred, satisfied them admirably.</p>
+
+<p>He went home delighted&mdash;far too delighted to sleep&mdash;for he had in his
+possession now the greatest of all weapons&mdash;the weapon to torment. And
+with it what could he not do! What could he not get! He could
+get&mdash;Gladys!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" />CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SELLING OF SPELLS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The period of stage four promised to be one of such a lucrative nature,
+that the trio set to work to profit by it at once. They bribed medical
+men to procure for them the mumia of people suffering from every kind of
+disease; of criminal lunatics; of idiots and epileptics; they obtained,
+by bribery also, the blood and hair of the most abandoned men and
+women&mdash;rakes, thieves, murderers. They bottled and labelled, and
+arranged and catalogued, the mumia, in a laboratory designed for the
+purpose; and, when all their preparations were complete, advertised&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="line-height: 1.75em;">SPELLS FOR SALE<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.</span><br />
+offer for sale every variety of spells&mdash;love charms, sleep charms, etc. </p>
+
+<p>In order to carry out the principal conditions of the compact, namely,
+to do harm, they made pseudo-love charms as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>They procured the hair of a girl whom they knew to be an incorrigible,
+and, at the same time, heartless flirt; and, in the manner described
+(and related in the last chapter) made a magnes microcosmi of it. When
+ready for use, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> after it had been in immediate contact with the
+girl's flesh, so as to get it fully charged, they had portions of it set
+in rings, lockets and pendants. And the purchaser of any one of these
+trinkets had only to persuade the object of his (or her) affection to
+wear it, and his (or her) love would at once be reciprocated.</p>
+
+<p>Had the magnes microcosmi been charged with real, deep-rooted love, the
+effect on the wearer would have been highly satisfactory, but charged as
+it was with the effervescent and fleeting fancy of a flirt, the effect
+on whoever wore it could not be more disastrous. The sentiments of the
+hopeful purchaser would be reciprocated for a time, which would probably
+lead to marriage&mdash;after which the affection his adored had professed
+would suddenly decrease, and before the honeymoon was over, would have
+vanished altogether.</p>
+
+<p>During the week following the announcement of the sale of these spells,
+over a thousand were sold, the applicants being mostly shop girls,
+typists, clerks and servants; in the second week the sales rose to three
+thousand, and every succeeding week showed a still greater increase.</p>
+
+<p>In charging the magnes microcosmi, the motive of the purchaser had
+always to be taken into account. If the love charm were wanted by a
+woman&mdash;a housekeeper may be, who desired some rich old man to fall in
+love with her, in order that she might come into his property; or by a
+woman&mdash;a companion probably&mdash;who, having wormed herself into the
+confidence of some eccentric old lady, was anxious that that lady should
+leave her all her money&mdash;Hamar took care that the magnes microcosmi
+should be charged with a lasting infatuation; and the sale of this love
+spell&mdash;the spell that was sought solely that the purchaser might inherit
+property to which he (or she) had no claim&mdash;far exceeded the sale of any
+other spell. Indeed, it was extraordinary how many people&mdash;people one
+would never have suspected&mdash;desired spells that would do other people
+harm.</p>
+
+<p>Lady De Greene, the well-known humanitarian, who was most indefatigable
+in getting up petitions to the Home Secretary, whenever the perpetrator
+of any particularly heinous and inexcusable murder was about to be
+hanged, and who was universally acknowledged &quot;incapable of harming a
+fly,&quot; called, surreptitiously, on Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand,&quot; she said, &quot;everything you do here is in strict
+confidence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, madam, certainly!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;We make it a point of honour
+to divulge&mdash;nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being so,&quot; Lady De Greene observed, &quot;I want you to tell me of a
+spell that will hasten some very obnoxious person's death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will give me a rough idea of their personal appearance,&quot; Hamar
+said, &quot;I will make a wax image of them, and undertake they will trouble
+you no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lady De Greene shook her head. She had no desire to commit herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you do it in any other way,&quot; she said, &quot;can't you let me give
+them an unlucky charm&mdash;the sort of thing that might bring about a taxi
+disaster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar thought for a moment and then&mdash;smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; he said, &quot;I think I can accommodate you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Leaving her for a few minutes, he went to the laboratory, and from a tin
+box marked homicidal lunatic, he took a plain, gold ring. With this he
+returned to Lady De Greene, murmuring on the way the prayer he had
+learned from the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here you are,&quot; he said handing the ring to Lady De Greene, &quot;give it to
+the person you have mentioned to me&mdash;and the result you desire will
+speedily come to pass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Three days later, London was immeasurably shocked. It read in the papers
+that the highly accomplished Lady De Greene, beloved and respected by
+all, for the strenuous exertions on behalf of humanitarianism, had been
+barbarously murdered by her husband (from whom&mdash;unknown to the
+public&mdash;she had been living apart for years), who had suddenly, and, for
+no apparent reason, become insane. Hamar, who was immensely tickled,
+alone knew the reason why.</p>
+
+<p>This was no isolated case. Scores of Society women came to the trio with
+the same request. &quot;A spell, or charm, or something, that will bring
+about a fatal accident&mdash;not a lingering illness&quot;&mdash;and the person for
+whom the accident was desired, was usually the husband. And the trio
+often indulged in grim jokes.</p>
+
+<p>Without a doubt, Lady Minkhurst got her heart's desire when her husband
+abruptly cut his throat, but alas, amongst those decimated, when the
+charm fell into the hands of one of the footmen, was her ladyship's
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Mrs. Jacques, the beauty, who, at one time, wrote for half the
+fashion papers in England, certainly secured the demise of Colonel Dick
+Jacques, who tumbled downstairs and broke his neck, but as in his fall
+the Colonel alighted on one of the maids, who was not insured, and so
+seriously injured her that she was pronounced a hopeless cripple, Mrs.
+Jacques&mdash;with whom money was an object&mdash;had, of course, to maintain her
+for the rest of her life.</p>
+
+<p>Likewise, Sir Charles Brimpton, in jumping out of the top window of his
+house, besides pulverizing himself, pulverized, too, Lady Brimpton's pet
+Pekingese &quot;Waller,&quot; without whom, she declared, life wasn't worth
+living; and Lord Snipping, in setting fire to himself, set fire to Lady
+Snipping's boudoir (which he had been secretly visiting), and thereby
+destroyed treasures which she tearfully declared were quite priceless,
+and could never be replaced.</p>
+
+<p>Crowds of young married women were anxious to get rid of their rich old
+relatives, who clung on to life with a tenacity that was &quot;most
+wearying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you give me a spell that will make my grandmother go off suddenly?&quot;
+a girl with beautiful, sad eyes said plaintively to Kelson. &quot;Don't think
+me very wicked, but we are not at all well off&mdash;and she has lived such a
+long time&mdash;such a very long time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't want her to be ill first, I suppose,&quot; Kelson inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no!&quot; the girl replied, &quot;she lives with us and we could never endure
+the worry and trouble of nursing her. It must be something very sudden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will do it,&quot; Kelson said, giving her a locket containing the mumia
+or essence of life of a mad dog; &quot;fasten it round the old lady's neck,
+and you will be astonished how soon it acts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is your fee?&quot; the girl asked, her eyes brimming over with
+joyous anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For you&mdash;nothing,&quot; Kelson said gallantly. &quot;Only tell no one. May I kiss
+your hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The firm's sale of spells for getting rid of husbands having risen one
+day to five hundred&mdash;and the sale of their spells for putting old people
+out of the way to fifteen hundred&mdash;even Hamar, who was no believer in
+the perfection of human nature, was astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My word!&quot; he remarked. &quot;Isn't this a revelation? Who would have thought
+how many people have murder in their hearts? At least half Society
+would, I believe, become homicides if only there were no chance of their
+being found out and punished. Anyhow, if we go on at this rate there
+will be no old people left.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And it did indeed seem as if such would be the case. For the moment the
+idea got abroad that old people could be thrust out of existence with
+absolute safety and ease, there was a perfect mania amongst men, women,
+and even children, to get rid of them, and the deaths of people over
+sixty recorded in the papers multiplied every day. The following is an
+extract from the <i>Planet</i> of July 28&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bolt.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Elgin Avenue, S.W., Emily Jane, loved
+     and venerated mother of Mary Bolt, M.D., in her 69th year. Drowned
+     in her bath. And all the Angels wept!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Cushman.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Sheep Street, Northampton, Sarah
+     Elizabeth, adored mother of Josiah Cushman, Plymouth Brother, in
+     her 88th year. Run over by a taxi. Joy in Heaven!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Starling.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Snargate Street, Dover, Susan,
+     highly esteemed and greatly beloved mother of Alfred Starling,
+     Wesleyan Minister, in her 71st year. Lost in the harbour. Asleep in
+     Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Tretickler.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; The Terrace, St. Ives, Cornwall,
+     Elizabeth, adored grandmother of Tobias Tretickler,
+     Congregationalist, in her 91st year. Fell over the Malatoff. &quot;Oh,
+     Paradise! Oh, Paradise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Broot.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at Charlton House, Queen's Gate, S.W., Jane,
+     greatly beloved mother of John Broot, Labour M.P., in her 83rd
+     year. Fell down the area. Peace, blessed Peace.</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Gum.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Church Road, Upper Norwood, Sophia, widow
+     of the late Albert Gum, L.C.C., in her 85th year. Choked whilst
+     eating tripe. Sadly missed!</p>
+
+<p>     <span class="smcap">Paveman.</span>&mdash;On July 27, at No. &mdash;&mdash; Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol, Anne
+     Rebecca, dearly beloved mother of Alfred Paveman, grocer, in her
+     74th year. Accidentally burned to death! At rest at last. </p></div>
+
+<p>But it must not be supposed from these few notices, selected from at
+least a hundred, that the applicants for spells were by any means
+confined to the upper and middle classes. By far the greater number of
+spells were sold to the working people&mdash;to those of them who, prudent
+and respectable, counted amongst their aged relatives, at least, one or
+two who were insured.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the sale of spells confined to adults; for among the numbers,
+that flocked to consult the trio, were countless County Council
+children.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you give me a spell to make teacher break her neck?&quot; was the most
+common request, though it was frequently varied with demands such as&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more than
+three lumps of sugar in my tea;&quot;&mdash;or, &quot;Mother has got very teazy lately.
+I want a spell to make her fall downstairs&quot;&mdash;or, &quot;Father only gives me
+twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a spell to
+make him have an accident whilst he's at work.&quot; And it was not seldom
+that the trio were petitioned thus: &quot;Please give us a spell to make our
+parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect freedom is the
+birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have perfect freedom whilst
+our parents are alive.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" /><a href="#Footnote_22_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the
+week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were&mdash;over sixty
+years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and sixty,
+six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were
+responsible.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham,
+Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants
+became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with
+them, and were forced to raise their charges.</p>
+
+<p>Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant
+Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me a spell,&quot; demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a
+half-up-to-the-knee skirt, &quot;one that will cause the roof of the House of
+Commons to fall in and smash everybody&mdash;EVERYBODY. This is no time for
+half-measures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented, but
+he had no sympathy with the ugly&mdash;they set his teeth on edge&mdash;he loathed
+them. </p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, madam, certainly,&quot; he said, &quot;here is a spell that will have
+the effect you desire,&quot; and he handed her a ring containing a magnes
+microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot. &quot;Wear
+it,&quot; he said, &quot;night and day. Never be without it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home
+for incurables.</p>
+
+<p>Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him
+with a similar request.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me have a spell at once,&quot; she said, &quot;that will make every member of
+the Government be run over by taxis&mdash;and killed. They are monsters,
+tyrants&mdash;I abominate them. Let them be slowly&mdash;very slowly&mdash;SQUASHED to
+death!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, madam,&quot; Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, &quot;here is
+what you want&mdash;wear it next your heart;&quot; and he gave her a locket,
+containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a
+leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I consider your fee far too high,&quot; the Suffragette said. &quot;You take
+advantage of me because I'm a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, madam,&quot; he said, &quot;I will make an exception in your case, and
+let you have it for half the sum.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a good deal more grumbling she paid the half fee, and, fastening
+the locket round her neck, flounced out of the building. As Kelson
+gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
+such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
+Suffragette&mdash;a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
+animosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick! Quick!&quot; she cried, bursting into the room where he was sitting.
+&quot;Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet Minister, and their
+wives and families as well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such an ambitious request as that, madam,&quot; Kelson rejoined, &quot;cannot be
+granted in a hurry. I must have time&mdash;to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! No! At once!&quot; the lady cried, stamping her feet with ill-suppressed
+rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;&mdash;to consider how it can best be done,&quot; Kelson went on calmly. &quot;I must
+have time to think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
+gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its head
+off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her description
+had been run over by a train at Chislehurst&mdash;and decapitated.</p>
+
+<p>Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only plain
+but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
+decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
+longer.&quot; And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic to
+humour him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, Matt,&quot; he said, forcing a laugh. &quot;I'll try and arrange
+differently in future. After to-day you shall have your share of the
+pretty ones&mdash;anything to keep the peace. Only&mdash;remember&mdash;no falling in
+love.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Lest the reader should query this, let him consult the
+police in any of our big centres, and he will learn that crime and
+prostitution is immensely on the increase among children. In Newcastle
+it is estimated that there are over two thousand girls, of under
+fourteen years of age, voluntarily leading immoral lives, and making big
+incomes.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" />CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hamar's one great idea on reaching stage four was to utilize the
+torments as a means of getting Gladys. Though he saw crowds of pretty
+girls every day, none appealed to him as she did&mdash;and the very
+difficulty of getting her enhanced her value and stimulated his
+passions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will give her one more chance,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;and then if she
+won't have me I'll plague her to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went to the Imperial, and passing himself off as her father to the
+new official at the stage-door entrance, was shown into the ante-room
+(which led to her dressing-room). It took a good deal to scare Hamar,
+but he admitted afterwards that he did feel a trifle apprehensive whilst
+he awaited her advent; and his anticipations were fully realized.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, father!&quot; she began, as the door of her dressing-room swung open
+and she appeared on the threshold, clad in a shimmering white dress,
+that intensified her fair style of beauty, &quot;what brings you&mdash;&quot; The smile
+on her face suddenly died away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot; she cried, &quot;how dare you! Go! Go at once! And if you dare come
+here again or attempt to molest me in any way, I'll prosecute you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, dumbfounded at such an exhibition of wrath, slunk out of the room
+without uttering a syllable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The vixen,&quot; he muttered as soon as he found himself in the street. &quot;A
+thousand cats in one! Treated me like mud. Jerusalem! I'll pay her out.
+And I'll lose no time about it either. She'll look differently at me
+next time we meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He hurried back to Cockspur Street and going into the laboratory, threw
+himself into a chair and&mdash;thought.</p>
+
+<p>That same evening at nine-thirty, in the interval between her first and
+second &quot;going on,&quot; Gladys hastened to her dressing-room, and was
+preparing to partake of the light refreshments she had ordered, when&mdash;to
+her horror&mdash;she perceived crawling towards her, across the floor, a huge
+cockroach&mdash;a hideous black thing with spidery legs and long antennae
+that it waved, to and fro, in the air, as it advanced. It was at least
+double the size of any Gladys had hitherto seen, and her feelings can
+best be appreciated by those who fear such things&mdash;her blood ran cold,
+her flesh crawled, she sat glued to her chair, terrified to move, lest
+it should run after her. She screamed, and her dresser, startled out of
+her senses, came flying into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, madam? What is it?&quot; she cried.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys pointed at the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kill it!&quot; she shrieked. &quot;Stamp on it! Oh, quick, quick, it is coming
+towards me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the moment the dresser caught sight of the cockroach, she sprang on
+a chair and wound her skirts round her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, madam,&quot; she panted, &quot;I daren't! I daren't go near it. I'm
+frightened out of my life, at beetles. And there's another of them&quot;&mdash;and
+she pointed to the wainscoting&mdash;&quot;and another! Why, the room's full of
+them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so it was. Everywhere Gladys looked she saw beetles crawling
+towards her&mdash;dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds&mdash;and all of the
+same monstrous size and ultra-horrible appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look!&quot; she screamed. &quot;They are climbing on to my clothes. One's got
+into my shoes, and another will be in them, in a second. There's
+another&mdash;crawling up my cloak&mdash;and another on my skirt. Oh! Oh!&quot; and her
+cries, and those of the dresser, speedily brought a troop of actors and
+actresses to the door. The instant, however, the cause of the alarm was
+ascertained, there were loud yells, and a wild stampede down the
+passages. The Stage Manager was called, but one glance at the floor was
+enough for him&mdash;he fled. And in the end three of the supers had to be
+fetched. Hot water, brooms, ashes, and quicklime were used, and although
+thousands of the cockroaches were killed, thousands more came, and so
+hopeless did the task of getting rid of them become, that the room
+eventually had to be vacated, and the cracks under the door securely
+sealed.</p>
+
+<p>Before Gladys left the theatre, she was called on the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who are you?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hamar,&quot; came the reply, in insinuating tones. &quot;How do you like the
+beetles? You'll never see the end of them till&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Gladys rang off.</p>
+
+<p>On her return home something scuttled across the hall floor in front of
+her. She sprang back with a scream. It was a gigantic cockroach. The
+hall was full of them. She summoned the servants, and they set to work
+to kill them. But they might as well have tried to stop Niagara, for as
+fast as they squashed one battalion, another took its place. They came
+out of cracks in the floor, from behind the wainscoting, from every
+conceivable place in the kitchens, and in a dense black ribbon some six
+inches broad, ascended the staircase. Gladys tried to barricade her room
+against them, but it was of no avail. They came from under the boards of
+the floor and poured down the chimney. They swarmed over the furniture,
+in the cupboards, chest of drawers, the washstand (where they kept
+continually falling into the water), in her clothes (her dressing-gown
+was covered with them), over the bed, and the climax was reached when
+they approached the chair she stood on. Too fascinated with horror to
+move, she watched them crawling up to her. She was thus found by her
+father. He had come to her assistance in the very nick of time, and
+after lifting her from the chair and taking her to a place, as yet safe
+from molestation, returned to her room, where, with savage blows,
+smashing, equally, beetles and furniture, he remained till daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>With the first streak of dawn the beetles decamped, and the fray ended.
+The work of devastation had been colossal. Corpses were strewn
+everywhere&mdash;and it took the combined household hours, before all
+evidences of the slaughter were obliterated. As for Gladys, she had not
+slept all night and was a wreck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can never go through another night of it,&quot; she said to Miss
+Templeton. &quot;Do you think we shall ever get rid of the horrible things?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can but try, dear!&quot; Miss Templeton said consolingly, and she
+accompanied Gladys up to town, where they inquired of doctors, and
+chemists, and all sorts of possible and impossible people; and returned
+to Kew laden with chemicals, and patent beetle destroyers. But though
+they tried remedies by the score, none were of use, and the beetles
+repeated their performance of the preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys did not go to bed: surrounded with lighted candles, she sat on
+the top of a wardrobe till daybreak. The following morning the house was
+fumigated with sulphur; and people were told off to kill the
+cockroaches, as they made their escape out of doors. By this means an
+enormous number were killed; but at night they were just as bad as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>An engineer friend then suggested a freezing-machine. The temperature of
+the house was reduced to ten degrees below zero; the pipes froze (and
+burst next day), the milk froze, the housemaid's toes and the cook's
+little finger of the left hand froze, everything froze; and presumably
+the beetles froze, for there was not one to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>However, it was quite impossible to resort again to this extreme
+measure. John Martin had the most agonizing attacks of lumbago. Gladys
+had neuralgia, and Miss Templeton&mdash;a slight touch of pleurisy.</p>
+
+<p>When Gladys reached the Imperial that evening, she found that the staff
+had been battling with cockroaches all day, and that they had at last
+succeeded in getting rid of them with a fumigation mixture of camphor,
+cocculus, sulphur, bezonia and assaf&oelig;tida&mdash;suggested to them by a
+Hindoo student.</p>
+
+<p>For the next week not a beetle was to be seen at the theatre nor at the
+Cottage; and Gladys was beginning to hope that Hamar had ceased plaguing
+her (in despair of ever winning her), when the persecutions suddenly
+broke out again.</p>
+
+<p>She had been in bed about half an hour, and was falling into a gentle
+and much needed sleep, when a tremendous rap at the wall, close to her
+head, awoke her with a start, and set her heart pulsating violently.
+Thinking it must be some one on the landing, she got up and lit a
+candle. There was no one there. The moment she got into bed again, the
+rapping was repeated, and it continued, at intervals, all night. This
+went on for a week, during which time Gladys was never once able to
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>A brief respite ensued; but it was abruptly terminated one morning, when
+Gladys awoke feeling as if some big insect were attempting to penetrate
+her body. Uttering a shriek of terror, she whipped the clothes from her,
+and sprang out of bed. Miss Templeton, who slept in the next room, came
+rushing in, and they both saw an enormous insect, half beetle and half
+scorpion, dart under the pillow. John Martin was fetched, but although
+he searched everywhere, not a trace of the insect could be found.</p>
+
+<p>That night, directly Gladys got in bed and blew out the light, she heard
+a ticking sound on the sheets, and a huge insect with long hairy legs
+ran up her sleeve. Her shrieks brought the whole household to the room,
+but the insect was nowhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>She was thus plagued for nearly a fortnight. One insect only&mdash;never a
+number, but only one, of prodigious size and terrifying form&mdash;appeared
+to her in the least suspected places, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, on the dressing-table or
+chimney-piece, in her shoes, or pockets; crawled over her in the dark;
+and could never be caught.</p>
+
+<p>These perpetual frights, and consequent sleeplessness, wore Gladys out.
+She grew so ill that she had to give up acting, and go into a home to
+try the rest cure.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar then communicated with her, through a third person, and offered to
+leave off tormenting her, if she would agree to be engaged to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never will!&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I will never leave off persecuting you,&quot; was his retort.</p>
+
+<p>But he was wary. He had no wish to kill her or to damage her looks&mdash;so
+he let her get well and remain thus for a brief space. When she was once
+again in full vigour, acting at the Imperial, he recommenced his
+unwelcome attentions.</p>
+
+<p>At first he confined his new plague to the servants at the Cottage. The
+cook was one day turning out a drawer in the kitchen dresser, when she
+was horrified out of her senses to find squatting there, a large, black
+toad, which stared most malevolently at her, and then sprang in her
+face. She shrieked to the housemaid to help her kill it, but before a
+weapon could be got, the creature had bounced through an open window,
+and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>After this incident the servants knew no peace. Their bedclothes were
+thrown off them at night, their dresses torn and bespattered with ink,
+their brushes and combs thrown out of the window, and the water they
+poured out to wash in was sometimes quite black, sometimes full of a
+bright green sediment, and sometimes boiling, when it invariably cracked
+both the jug and basin.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to stand these annoyances the servants left in a body. Their
+successors fared the same, and worse. Besides having to endure the
+above-named horrors, pebbles were thrown through the windows, their
+chairs were pulled away as they were about to sit down (the cook, who
+was one of those upon whom this trick was played, thereby seriously
+injuring her spine), and all sorts of obstacles were placed on the
+stairs, so that those who ran down unwarily tripped over them and hurt
+themselves (two successive housemaids broke their legs, whilst another
+sprained her wrist).</p>
+
+<p>The meat, too, was a constant worry&mdash;it went so bad that enormous
+maggots crawled out of it by the thousand and covered the table and
+floor; and the milk, of which a large quantity was taken daily, &quot;turned&quot;
+in a very curious manner. After being deposited, in its usual place, in
+the pantry, it began to darken; first of all it became light blue, then
+deepened into an almost inky blackness, exhibiting curious zigzag lines;
+and, lastly, the whole mass began to putrefy and to emit a stench so
+overpowering that every one in the house retched, and the whole place
+had to be disinfected. This occurred day after day. Nothing would stop
+it. The dairyman who supplied the milk did all he could to counteract
+it. He had his dairies constantly cleansed, he saw that the cattle had a
+change of food, he bought an entirely new stock of dairy utensils, and
+no milk was ever sent to the Cottage that he had not had carefully
+analyzed.</p>
+
+<p>The troubles continued for three weeks, at the end of which period John
+Martin received a telephone call from Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hullo!&quot; the latter said, &quot;I guess you've had about enough of it by this
+time. Wouldn't you like some sweet-smelling milk for a change, or do you
+prefer to go on till you all get typhoid? The remedy, you know, lies in
+your own hands. You've only to tell that daughter of yours to accept me,
+and I'll undertake all your troubles shall cease.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll see you hanged first,&quot; John Martin answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then, you old mule,&quot; Hamar shouted, &quot;look out for
+yourself&mdash;and Miss Gladys.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" />CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>To bring about plagues of insects Hamar had resorted to a very simple
+method. He had first of all made a wax image representing a
+cockroach&mdash;scorpion&mdash;centipede, or whatever other species came into his
+mind. Then, placing the image he had made in front of him, and repeating
+the prayer he had learned from the Unknown, through the medium of Mrs.
+Anderson-Waite's table, he had concentrated body, soul, and spirit on
+plaguing Gladys with the insect, which the image represented. When his
+concentration reached the highest degree, insects in their actual
+physical bodies were transported from the tropics;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" /><a href="#Footnote_23_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> but when he was
+unable to concentrate to the utmost, only the ethereal projections of
+the insects were obtainable; hence the hybrid&mdash;partly scorpion and
+partly beetle, that appeared and disappeared in Gladys's bed and
+bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>To produce the rappings on the walls of Gladys's room, he had made a wax
+representation of a wall, and whilst concentrating to the very utmost,
+had struck it with his knuckles.</p>
+
+<p>The plaguing of the servants Hamar had also accomplished by means of
+images and concentration.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to bewitch milk, he had been obliged to resort to other
+means. He had converted the mumia of an idiot into a magnes microcosmi;
+and bribing the man who delivered the milk, he gave him instructions to
+soak the magnes microcosmi, for a few minutes, in every portion that he
+left at the Cottage.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" /><a href="#Footnote_24_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At length Hamar having failed to gain his object by plaguing Gladys and
+the servants, set about tormenting John Martin. He made a wax image of
+the latter, and after pronouncing the necessary prayer, stuck the image
+full of pins, crying out as he did so &quot;John Martin, I hate you. John
+Martin, I curse you. John Martin, a plague on you.&quot; And each time Hamar
+stuck a pin in the image he had made of John Martin, the real John
+Martin felt an acute pain in the region of his body corresponding to
+that in which the pin was stuck.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, who was called in, could make nothing of the malady, but,
+following the etiquette of the profession, cloaked his ignorance with a
+look of profound wisdom, and the pronouncement that he would tell them,
+in a day or two, what was the matter. In the meanwhile, he found it
+necessary and politic to prescribe a non-committal mixture of chalk and
+rhubarb, which, although disguised under the usual fanciful
+pharmacop&oelig;ia appellation, did not, however, allay the pain. Sharp,
+agonizing pricks, now on the neck now in the chest, now in the most
+sensitive part of the knee-cap, now under the toe-nail, now&mdash;most
+painful of all&mdash;under the finger-nail&mdash;continued to torment John Martin,
+who, though as a rule fairly stoical, could not stand these attacks with
+any degree of composure. He screamed, and swore, and cursed, until the
+whole household was terrified&mdash;and Gladys, pretty nearly out of her
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>During a lull&mdash;an interval, wherein John Martin enjoyed a brief respite,
+the telephone bell rang.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa,&quot; called a voice, &quot;I'm Hamar. Haven't you had about enough of
+it? Remember, you've only to say the word and I'll stop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him I'll do nothing of the sort,&quot; John Martin said, &quot;that he'll
+never get the better of me this way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton gave the message, and Hamar replied &quot;Wait! Wait and see!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then thrust wool, pins, horsenails, straw, needles and moss into the
+mouth of the image, and John Martin had such frightful pains in his
+stomach that he went into convulsions; and, after an emetic had been
+given him, vomited up all the above-named articles, save the pins and
+needles which worked their way out through his flesh, causing him the
+most exquisite tortures.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys, having given up going to the theatre in order to be with her
+father during these attacks, now declared that she could no longer bear
+to see him in such excruciating pain, whilst it was in her power to
+prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him,&quot; she said, &quot;tell Hamar you'll accept his conditions. Don't
+think of me! I would rather do anything than see you suffer like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can hold out a bit longer,&quot; he groaned, &quot;at any rate I needn't give
+in yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then there came a respite&mdash;perhaps for several hours,
+perhaps for several days&mdash;then the tortures recommenced. And always John
+Martin steeled himself to bear them. At last came the climax.</p>
+
+<p>Hamar, infuriated that his efforts, so far, had proved fruitless,
+resolved, since time was pressing, to play his trump card and either
+win, or lose all. He rang up Gladys on the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My patience is exhausted,&quot; he said. &quot;I'll give you one more chance, and
+one&mdash;only. Agree to be engaged to me at once&mdash;or I'll smite your father
+with the most virulent form of cancer, and leave him to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no question now in Gladys's mind as to what she should do. Of
+all things in the world, she dreaded cancer most, and after the many
+evidences Hamar had given her of his skill in Black Magic, she did not
+doubt for one instant that he could, immediately he chose, carry out his
+threat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided,&quot; she said faintly, &quot;to&mdash;to&mdash;give in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You accept me, then?&quot; Hamar said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Y-yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When may I see you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll come at once,&quot; Hamar replied. &quot;<i>Au revoir.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar, when he arrived at the Cottage, did not realize any of the
+gleeful anticipations he had indulged in <i>en route</i>. Gladys was ill&mdash;so
+Miss Templeton informed him&mdash;at the same time begging him, if he really
+had any regard for Miss Martin, not to ask to see her for the next few
+days; and to this request Hamar, seeing no alternative, was obliged to
+assent.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after he had gone, Shiel Davenport called, and found Gladys
+alone in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been told that your father is ill,&quot; he said, &quot;and should like to
+hear better news of him. How is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think he's all right now,&quot; Gladys replied, &quot;but he has suffered
+frightfully. Indeed, we've all had a terrible time,&quot; And she told him
+what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've not been acting at the Imperial lately?&quot; Shiel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for the past week,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;I couldn't leave father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How has Mr. Bromley Burnham got on without you?&quot; Shiel asked bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; Gladys said quietly. &quot;I have an understudy,
+and from what I am told she has given every satisfaction. I have some
+news which I fear won't be altogether welcome to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel turned a shade paler. &quot;What is it?&quot; he faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm engaged to be married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence, and then Shiel exclaimed
+mechanically &quot;Engaged to be married! To whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To Leon Hamar! I couldn't help it.&quot; And she explained the position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But he'll never keep you to it,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;He couldn't be such a
+brute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm afraid he will,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;He's shown pretty clearly that
+he's capable of anything. I've given him my promise&mdash;I must keep it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it's good-bye to all interest in life&mdash;for me,&quot; Shiel said, with a
+gulp. &quot;I've thought of no one but you since we first met. For you&mdash;in
+the hope of someday winning you, I've struggled on; I've reconciled
+myself to a bare existence. Now I've lost you, I've lost everything. I
+hate life. I shall&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll do nothing of the sort,&quot; Gladys interrupted, &quot;unless you want me
+to regret ever having met you. I wonder that you say 'I've nothing to
+live for'&mdash;when we can still be friends; and when you can, at least, win
+my respect, by putting your shoulder to the wheel, and exerting yourself
+to the utmost to get on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you&mdash;what about you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind me&mdash;I can well look after myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll live in Hell,&quot; Shiel cried, her eyes goading him to madness.
+&quot;Even though you may not care for me, I do not choose to stand quietly
+by, whilst you spend your life in Purgatory. Hamar has won you through
+some diabolical trickery, and if I can't thwart him in any other
+way&mdash;I'll kill him. He shan't marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will,&quot; Gladys sighed. &quot;No one can stop him. He is omnipotent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Apparently, Gladys's statement was more or less true; and ninety-nine
+men out of a hundred, in the same circumstances as Shiel, would have now
+recognized the hopelessness of the situation. But Shiel was abnormal. As
+he walked home from the Cottage that evening he kept on repeating to
+himself &quot;Gladys is my goal. I want only Gladys. I'll have only Gladys.&quot;
+And having once made up his mind to get Gladys, it seemed to him, as if
+out of every obstacle, that lay between him and Gladys, he could and
+would merely make a stepping-stone. &quot;Since,&quot; he argued to himself,
+&quot;all's fair in love and war, I'll win Gladys through another woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he straightway telephoned to Lilian Rosenberg to have tea with him.</p>
+
+<p>The latter had already made an engagement for the afternoon; but, all
+the same, she accepted Shiel's invitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you do me a favour?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it is anything that lies in my power,&quot; she said. &quot;What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to find out how Hamar works his spells. I asked you
+before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know you did and I've not forgotten,&quot; Lilian said, &quot;but I have to be
+very careful. I've played the part of eavesdropper once or twice, and
+heard enough to confirm me in my suspicions that Hamar is in touch with
+evil, occult powers. I've heard him praying aloud to them on more than
+one occasion, and I've also a shrewd idea he performs, at least, some of
+his spells by means of wax images. But why do you want to know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only curiosity. I am intensely interested in the occult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't want to start a rival show, do you?&quot; Lilian asked jestingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With a maximum capital of two pounds&mdash;and a minimum of knowledge!&quot;
+Shiel laughed. &quot;Hardly. I wish I could. I would offer you the post of
+manageress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Partner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, partner, if you like. Would you take it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps!&quot; she said, looking at him with a sudden shyness. &quot;What a pity
+you are not rich. Can't you get a post that would bring you in about
+&pound;200 a year for a start? I believe you really want something to
+stimulate you, to make you work in grim earnest&mdash;then you would succeed.
+There's grit in you&mdash;I love grit&mdash;but at present it's latent, it wants
+bringing out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very kind,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case,
+and, being such, have no business to be in your company. Will you come
+to the theatre with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The theatre! When you've no business to be in my company, and when it
+is as much as you can do to pay the rent of a back attic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, never mind that. I've had tickets given me. I've been doing odd
+bits of journalism lately, and a dramatic critic I know has given me two
+stalls at the Imperial!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Imperial!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. &quot;That's where Gladys Martin
+is acting, surely! I can't bear her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's not the only person in the cast,&quot; Shiel observed drily, &quot;and the
+play's a good one! Do come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a little more persuasion Shiel gained her consent; and both he and
+she enjoyed the play, or more correctly speaking, the occasion,
+immensely. So long as Gladys was on the stage Shiel's eyes never once
+left her; whilst throughout the performance Lilian Rosenberg saw only
+Shiel, thought only of Shiel. The interest she had taken in him, the
+interest she had so confidently asserted was only interest, had grown
+apace&mdash;had grown out of all recognition. It needed only a fillip now to
+convert that interest into something warmer; and the fillip was not long
+in coming.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel was seeing Lilian home to her lodgings in Margaret Terrace, a
+turning off Oakley Street, when a man knocked a woman down right in
+front of them. He was just the ordinary type of street ruffian&mdash;the
+whitewashed English labourer&mdash;and the woman, having without doubt been
+served by him in the same manner fifty times before, was probably well
+used to such treatment. But it was more than Shiel, who had spent so
+much of his life where they treat women differently, could stand, and
+before Lilian Rosenberg had time to remonstrate, he had rushed up to the
+prostrate woman, and was holding the man at bay. A scuffle now began, in
+which the woman, whom Shiel had helped to regain her feet, joined. Both
+man and woman now attacked Shiel, who, placing himself with his back
+against the railings, defended himself as best he could.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was late, there were no police about, and it seemed only too
+probable that the fracas would end in a tragedy. The labourer was a
+burly fellow, shorter than Shiel, but far broader and heavier, and any
+one could see at a glance that Shiel stood no chance against him. Lilian
+Rosenberg, at her wits' end to know what to do, ran into Oakley Street,
+and as there was no one in sight, she made for the nearest lighted house
+and rang the bell furiously. A man came to the door, whom, unheeding his
+expostulations, she caught by the arm and dragged into the street.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived on the scene of action, just as the ruffian, breaking
+through Shiel's guard, struck him a terrific blow on the forehead, which
+sent him reeling against the railings. The newcomer (upon whom, both man
+and woman, seeing Shiel incapacitated, instantly turned) would probably
+have shared the same fate, had not the occupants of several of the
+neighbouring houses&mdash;amongst whom were some half-dozen athletic young
+men&mdash;roused by the noise, come out into the street, and the ruffian and
+his companion, seeing the odds were against them, decamped.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel had not fully regained consciousness, when Lilian Rosenberg,
+regardless of propriety, led him into her sitting-room, bathed his
+forehead, dosed him with brandy, and making up a bed for him on the
+sofa, bade him rest there, till the morning.</p>
+
+<p>When he took his departure, he had quite recovered, and Lilian Rosenberg
+had, at last, realized that she loved him.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> There is no doubt that Moses inflicted the plagues, with
+which he tormented Pharaoh, in this way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In stage two this might have been performed by ethereal
+projection, but Hamar could not resort to this method as the power of
+projection had now passed from him.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" />CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUBP&OElig;NA</h3>
+
+
+<p>A few days after the incident in Margaret Terrace, Shiel had an
+inspiration. He was lunching with an old schoolfellow whom, quite by
+chance, he had met in Lincoln's Inn, having previously lost sight of him
+for many years, and the conversation, which had at first been confined
+to the old days, had gradually drifted to what was ever uppermost in
+Shiel's mind&mdash;namely, the Modern Sorcery Company, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Hamar, Kelson
+and Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you know,&quot; his friend remarked, &quot;that the old statute, introduced
+in Henry the Fifth's reign against sorcery, has never been repealed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean to say so,&quot; Shiel cried excitedly&mdash;a vague idea dawning
+on him. &quot;Tell me all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, that's rather a long order. For one thing, it imposes all kinds
+of penalties from capital punishment to fines. For another, it was in
+force up to the beginning of George the Third's reign, when the last
+case of a person being burned for witchery in England occurred, and
+since then it has fallen into disuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could it be revived?&quot; Shiel asked, a sudden wild hope surging through
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For all I know to the contrary, it could,&quot; his friend&mdash;who, by the way,
+was a barrister&mdash;replied. &quot;Of course no one could be burned or hanged
+under it, but they might be fined or imprisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I wish to goodness you would file a case against the Modern
+Sorcery Company! I'd move heaven and earth to get the scoundrels sent to
+prison!&quot; And he told his friend how matters stood between Gladys and
+Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>The barrister&mdash;whose name was Sevenning&mdash;H.V. Sevenning, of T.C.D. and
+Cheltenham College renown&mdash;was keenly interested. It was not only that
+his sense of chivalry was stirred, but he saw sport. Consequently, the
+foregoing conversation resulted in a prosecution which, taking place
+some four weeks later, was reported in the London Herald as follows&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hl">Extraordinary Charge Heard at the Old Bailey.<br />
+Revival of an Ancient Statute.</p>
+
+<p>     Yesterday, at the Old Bailey, before His Honour Judge Rosher, Leon
+     Hamar, Edward Curtis and Matthew Kelson, of the Modern Sorcery
+     Company Ltd., were indicted under the 23rd of Henry the Fifth, C.
+     15, which makes it a capital offence to practise and administer
+     spells. The case for the prosecution promises to be a lengthy one.
+     An enormous number of witnesses, who are most anxious to make
+     statements, will be called; and it is anticipated that much of
+     their evidence will be of a most extraordinary nature.</p>
+
+<p>     The accused are cited with having worked spells to the
+     injury&mdash;which injury, in many instances, has been fatal&mdash;of a vast
+     number of people, representative of every rank in life.</p>
+
+<p>     Hilda, Countess of Ramsgate, who appeared in heavy mourning, was
+     the first witness called. In her evidence she stated, that it was
+     owing to an advertisement she had seen in the <i>Ladies' Meadow</i>,
+     that she had consulted the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., with the
+     object of buying a spell to prevent her Pekingese pet, Brutus,
+     catching colds on his liver. She had hoped to see Mr. Kelson, as
+     she had heard that he was more sympathetic, where ladies were
+     concerned, than either Mr. Hamar or Mr. Curtis, but as Mr. Kelson
+     was engaged, she had consulted Mr. Edward Curtis instead. The
+     latter had given her a spell which he had assured her would have
+     the desired effect, but directly she got home, her adored Brutus
+     developed melancholia, and died raving mad, after having bitten her
+     child, who, by the way, had died, too.</p>
+
+<p>     For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., declared that the spell his
+     client had given the Countess was perfectly harmless; that it could
+     not possibly have produced either melancholia or madness. &quot;Can any
+     dependence,&quot; he said, &quot;be placed on a woman, who obviously thinks
+     more of her dog's death than that of her child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     The Court was adjourned till to-morrow. </p></div>
+
+<p>In the following day's paper, the evidence for the prosecution was
+continued. Lady Marjorie Tatler, who, in the weekly and illustrated
+journals, for no other reason than her reputed beauty, was reintroduced
+over and over again to the long-suffering public, was the first to step
+into the witness-box.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>She declared that Edward Curtis, instead of giving her a spell to
+     make Florillda win the Derby, had given her a diabolical something
+     that had brought out spots all over her face, and that she had to
+     undergo a most expensive treatment before they could be got rid of.</p>
+
+<p>     In cross-examination, Lady Marjorie Tatler admitted that she had
+     asked Edward Curtis for a spell that would cause all the horses
+     running in that particular race, save Florillda, to be taken ill.</p>
+
+<p>     For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., explained that his client was
+     so disgusted at the immorality of Lady Marjorie's request, that he
+     had purposely given her a spell that would have no effect upon a
+     horse, and could not possibly bring out spots on her Ladyship's
+     face. &quot;The spell Edward Curtis gave her,&quot; Gerald Kirby said, &quot;was a
+     mixture of hempseed and sago, flavoured with violet powder, and my
+     client instructed her Ladyship to wear it next her heart.&quot; (Loud
+     laughter.)</p>
+
+<p>     Lady Coralie Mars, the next witness, who declared she had sought a
+     spell to make the man, she was forced into marrying, fall into a
+     trance, just before the marriage ceremony was to take place; and
+     that, instead of bringing this about, the spell Edward Curtis had
+     sold her had caused her to have St. Vitus's Dance,&mdash;was adroitly
+     trapped into admitting that she had really wanted her fianc&eacute;
+     smitten with paralysis. &quot;A wish,&quot; Gerald Kirby announced, with a
+     dramatic flourish of his hands, &quot;that so aroused my client's
+     indignation that, instead of giving her the spell she wanted, he
+     gave her one that would make her affianced husband more than ever
+     hungry for the marriage hour to arrive. As for St. Vitus's Dance,
+     would any woman, with an emotional and hysterical-nature, such as
+     obviously was that of Lady Coralie Mars, ever be free from such a
+     complaint?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>     The Hon. Augusta Mapple, who stated that she had visited the Modern
+     Sorcery Company, for the purpose of obtaining a spell to bring
+     about a defeat of the Government, by afflicting the bulk of their
+     supporters with such bilious attacks as would necessitate their
+     absence from the House, and that, instead of giving her such a
+     spell, Edward Curtis had given her one which had caused every
+     member of her household to fall downstairs&mdash;admitted, under
+     cross-examination, that she had asked for a spell that would make
+     every supporter of the Government in the House be suddenly seized
+     with tetanus. &quot;A diabolical request, your lordship,&quot; Gerald Kirby
+     said, &quot;and one to which my client could not possibly accede.
+     Consequently, as a punishment for such cruelty, he sold her a spell
+     that would result in her having a sharp attack of toothache. It
+     could not possibly have produced any of the mishaps she attributes
+     to it.&quot; </p></div>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to quote further. By far the greater number of these
+witnesses, on being cross-examined by Mr. Kirby, who defended with an
+ability that has rarely, if ever, been excelled, were made to confess
+that they had wanted the spells for a far more subtle and dangerous
+purpose than they had previously stated; admissions which, of course,
+were highly prejudicial to the case for the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel lost hope. He had looked forward to the trial with an excitement
+that almost bordered on frenzy. It was never out of his mind. He thought
+of it at meals, he thought of it at his work, he thought of it out of
+doors, and, when he went to bed, he dreamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll save you! I'll save you yet!&quot; he wrote to Gladys. &quot;The trial can
+only result in one thing&mdash;the breaking up and imprisonment of the trio.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But when he read the papers each day, and saw how, in almost every
+instance, evidence which ought to have been damning to the accused, had
+been twisted into their favour, his heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one chance now&mdash;Lilian Rosenberg. She, of all the staff
+employed in the Hall in Cockspur Street, was best acquainted with the
+<i>modus operandi</i> of Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must get hold of that girl at all costs,&quot; H.V. Sevenning remarked to
+Shiel. &quot;You say you feel sure she likes you. Work upon her feelings to
+show the Firm up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't much like the idea of it,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;but I suppose the end
+justifies the means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it does!&quot; Sevenning retorted. &quot;It's your only chance of
+saving Miss Martin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the spells?&quot; he asked her. &quot;Have you found out yet how Hamar
+works them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only heard him muttering in his room again,&quot; she said, her
+cheeks paling. &quot;And&mdash;you will only laugh at me&mdash;I have seen queer
+shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages, shadows
+that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before I came to
+Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been almost too
+afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see something standing
+outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio practise
+sorcery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you approve of such proceedings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into
+the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but
+until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you think like that,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;how can you reconcile yourself to
+working for these people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I help myself?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg answered. &quot;Beggars can't be
+choosers. I am not responsible for what they do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous crime,
+wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;If I could stop them without
+running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop
+them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly
+shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays&mdash;especially good
+paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?&quot; Shiel
+said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends on the degree of friendship,&quot; Lilian replied. &quot;If it were
+for some one I liked very much, then&mdash;perhaps!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you
+being very fond of any one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Couldn't you?&quot; Lilian said, with a faint laugh. &quot;You don't think me
+capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman doesn't
+always wear her heart on her sleeve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I confess I don't understand women,&quot; Shiel said, &quot;and I had best come
+to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio&mdash;or at least one of
+the trio&mdash;is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable&mdash;a cruel and
+shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I may not be
+able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How <i>can</i> I?&quot; Lilian asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, by finding out something which might be damning evidence against
+them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of
+staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by
+getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What
+would become of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a
+noble action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on you
+personally?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some one you like?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A relation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can't say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I can't help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as you
+know, a woman's privilege. You must tell me all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's for a friend, then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; Shiel replied, &quot;for a girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I ever heard you mention her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Occasionally,&quot; Shiel replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do mean her!&quot; Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. &quot;She is to be coerced
+into marrying Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The silly fool!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said. &quot;I would like to see any one
+trying to coerce me. And it is to serve <i>her</i> you want me to sacrifice
+myself.&quot; And she turned away in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
+at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to H.V.
+Sevenning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must subp&oelig;na her,&quot; said Sevenning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll never get her to speak that way,&quot; Shiel said. &quot;If once she has
+made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard that said of people before,&quot; H.V. Sevenning replied dryly,
+&quot;but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the most
+mulish tongues in a marvellous manner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't hers,&quot; Shiel maintained.</p>
+
+<p>H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best&mdash;what lawyer doesn't?
+Moreover, it was all part of the game&mdash;the great game of becoming
+notorious at all costs. He served the subp&oelig;na.</p>
+
+<p>Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
+this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up with
+the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly what she
+thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however, the
+unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion, and
+confronted for the first time in her life with the startling proposition
+of &quot;self-sacrifice.&quot; She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry him for the
+very simple reason he had no money&mdash;but that only added poignancy to the
+situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel loved Gladys
+Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another matter&mdash;but he
+loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had been so abruptly
+thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should sacrifice herself, not
+only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar, but to pave the way for
+Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile herself to penury, to marry her
+himself. In other words she had been called upon to give up what was, at
+the moment, dearest to her in the world, and to court all the
+inconveniences and worries of being thrown out of employment&mdash;for if she
+gave evidence that would in any way tend to damage the firm of Hamar,
+Curtis &amp; Kelson, she would undoubtedly lose her post and, in all
+probability, never get another&mdash;at least not another as good&mdash;for the
+sake of a woman whom she did not know, but, nevertheless, hated.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
+date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she would
+have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
+actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it, too,
+until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up her mind
+to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the subp&oelig;na was
+served.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" />CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS IN A NEW R&Ocirc;LE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would adopt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a disgusting thing to do,&quot; she indignantly exclaimed. &quot;I wouldn't
+have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give evidence&mdash;of
+forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the woman he thinks he
+loves! I shan't do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
+witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
+appearance&mdash;she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women who
+had hitherto appeared in the witness-box&mdash;though many of them were
+so-called Society beauties.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were wrong,&quot; was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
+eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. &quot;She is on our side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
+lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
+assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
+misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
+favour of the trio.</p>
+
+<p>The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
+Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole proceedings
+as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two centuries, and
+wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a counsel for such
+a ridiculous prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even though,&quot; he remarked, &quot;spirits such as have been specified by the
+prosecution do exist&mdash;which is extremely dubious&mdash;there has never yet
+been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them, and
+the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
+medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
+their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
+Cockspur Street have been accomplished&mdash;as the defendants have all along
+stated&mdash;through will&mdash;sheer will power and nothing else; and I intend
+producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful efficacy of
+all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company, lies in will
+power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard to the
+purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out this fact to
+the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time that the rings,
+lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to assist them in
+concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such trivial articles
+could have produced, of themselves, such calamities as the witnesses for
+the prosecution attributed to them. But, of course you did not believe
+the statements of such witnesses. How could you? How could you expect
+anything but falsehood from women who, upon cross-examination, had owned
+that their object in obtaining the spells was a far more dangerous
+object than they had at first led you to suppose. They sought spells
+that would do evil, and that evil was not accomplished. Now, I ask you,
+if the Firm worked their spells through the instrumentality of evil
+spirits&mdash;for it is assuredly only evil spirits that are associated with
+Sorcery&mdash;would not the spells they sold naturally have brought about the
+sinister results for which they were required? Undoubtedly they would!
+And they failed to produce the desired effect, simply because their
+efficacy depended, not on spirit agency, but on human will power; which
+power one could only too plainly see the society ladies&mdash;who had
+witnessed for the prosecution&mdash;did not possess.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
+spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'&mdash;and
+so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.
+'The Sorcery Company' is an attractive title, a 'catchy' title, and for
+this reason, which is surely a legitimate one, since it is strictly in
+accordance with the prevailing custom of advertisement&mdash;the firm of
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson adopted it. They did not expect&mdash;they were not
+so extraordinarily foolish as to expect&mdash;any one would take them
+literally. They thought&mdash;as you and I think&mdash;that sorcery cannot be
+taken seriously&mdash;that it is confined to fairy tales&mdash;and that, as a
+fairy tale, it is potent only in the nursery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was the gist of counsel's speech for the defence. A number of
+witnesses then gave evidence for the defendants; and when the
+prosecuting counsel rose, it was only too evident that he was pleading
+for a lost cause. The Court with ill-concealed derision barely accorded
+him a hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later the <i>Meteor</i>, always the first in the field when
+sensations crop up, headed the first column of their front page with&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="hl">
+Collapse of the Sorcery Case<br />
+Crushing Speech by Gerald Kirby, K.C.<br />
+Acquittal of the Defendants
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Judge&quot;&mdash;so the <i>Meteor</i> reported&mdash;&quot;expressed himself in absolute
+agreement with the defending counsel. 'The action,' he said, 'ought
+never to have been brought&mdash;it was sublimely ridiculous to accuse any
+one of being in league with forces in the existence of which no sane
+person could possibly believe.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel was in despair. All chance of saving Gladys seemed to be fast
+disappearing. He telephoned to her, and was answered by Miss Templeton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gladys,&quot; she said, &quot;had gone out with Hamar, who had motored down to
+the cottage the moment the trial was over and the verdict known.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish to God we had won the case,&quot; Shiel observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I,&quot; Miss Templeton replied, &quot;and so did Gladys&mdash;she regards her
+position now as absolutely hopeless!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell her not to lose heart,&quot; Shiel answered hurriedly. &quot;If I can't find
+any other means, I'll&mdash;&quot; but Miss Templeton rang off, and he spoke to
+the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Full of wrath against Lilian Rosenberg, he went round to see her, and
+met her, just as she was entering her house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to see you for the last time,&quot; he announced. &quot;After the way
+you behaved in Court, we can no longer be friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand,&quot; she said in rather a faltering voice. &quot;What have I
+done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only perjured yourself,&quot; Shiel retorted. &quot;The tale you told the judge
+was very different to the tale you told me, therefore it is impossible
+for us to continue our friendship. I could never have anything to do
+with a woman whose word I can't rely upon&mdash;whose character I scorn, whom
+I despise&mdash;and&mdash;&quot; he was going to add, &quot;detest,&quot; but checked himself,
+and unable to trust himself in her presence any longer, he gave her a
+glance of the utmost contempt, and wheeling round, walked quickly away.</p>
+
+<p>As in a dream, Lilian Rosenberg went upstairs to her room, and throwing
+herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow and indulged in a fit
+of crying. It was not the thought of losing Shiel that was so painful to
+her&mdash;she might have grown reconciled to that&mdash;it was the thought of
+losing his esteem. Most people would agree with her&mdash;would assure her
+she had done the right thing in looking after number one. &quot;What, after
+all, is perjury?&quot; she argued. &quot;Nearly every one in this world perjure
+themselves at one time or another&mdash;certainly all women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But it was not the opinion of the majority she cared about&mdash;it was the
+respect of the one; the respect she had wilfully and spitefully
+sacrificed.</p>
+
+<p>Was it too late to recover it?</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Gladys she was very sceptical. The reluctance to accept
+Hamar as her future husband she still believed to be all pretence, and
+she felt convinced that Gladys, in her heart of hearts, was only too
+glad to get the chance of marrying any one so rich. This being so, she
+could not bring herself to think she had done Shiel any actual wrong.
+Gladys would never marry him. The only person she had harmed was
+herself. She had lied, and Shiel was not the sort of man to condone an
+offence of that sort easily. Still, weeping would do no good; it would
+only make her ugly. She got up, had tea, and went out. She could think
+better in the open air&mdash;it soothed her. For some reason or other&mdash;custom
+perhaps&mdash;she strolled towards Cockspur Street, and there ran into one of
+the few people she particularly wished to avoid&mdash;Kelson.</p>
+
+<p>He was delighted to see her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's nectar to me to be out again,&quot; he said. &quot;Jerusalem!&mdash;it was awful
+in the Courts. Have supper with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine starlight night&mdash;the air cool and refreshing, and a wild
+abandonment seized Lilian Rosenberg. She would have supped with the
+devil had he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've nothing to lose now,&quot; she said to herself. &quot;Nothing! I'll have my
+fling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where shall we go?&quot; she asked. &quot;It must be somewhere entertaining.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not to my rooms?&quot; he said. &quot;We can talk better there&mdash;we shall be
+all alone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised no objection, and they were about to step into a taxi, when
+Hamar and Curtis suddenly put in appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Hamar cried, seizing his elbow. &quot;I want a word with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not now,&quot; Kelson protested, looking hungrily at Lilian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, now!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;At once! I shan't keep you more than five
+minutes&quot;&mdash;and he dragged Kelson away with him.</p>
+
+<p>The moment they had gone, Curtis, who was obviously the worse for drink,
+addressed Lilian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kelson won't come back,&quot; he said. &quot;Hamar is mad with him. He says if
+he ever sees you two together again he'll sack you. Let me take his
+place!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sudden inspiration came to her. There were one or two things she badly
+wanted to know&mdash;and with a bit of coaxing, Curtis, in his present state,
+might tell her anything. She would try.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; she said. &quot;I'll come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They got into the taxi and Curtis, as far as his fuddled senses would
+allow, made violent love to her.</p>
+
+<p>After supper&mdash;they had supper in his rooms&mdash;he grew a great deal more
+amorous. She let him sit close beside her, she let him put his arm round
+her waist; but before she let him kiss her, she struck her bargain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; she said, thrusting him away. &quot;Not just yet. That can come
+later&mdash;if you are good. I want you to tell me something first. About
+this marriage of Mr. Hamar and Miss Martin&mdash;is it likely to come off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ish it likely!&quot; Curtis said with a stupid leer. &quot;Ish it likely! Not
+much. Leon means nothing! He only wants the fun of being engaged to a
+pretty girl&mdash;like I wantsh fun with you. Nothing more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then he'll throw her over after a while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After he gets what he wantsh to get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And suppose she prove different to what he expects?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After he pashes stage seven&mdash;that will be all right!&quot; Curtis said
+giving her waist an emphatic squeeze. &quot;Everybody will be all right then.
+You and Matt&mdash;for exshample&mdash;and I and&mdash;and&mdash;whishky!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stage seven! What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't&mdash;you know!&quot; Curtis gurgled&mdash;and then a sudden gleam of
+intelligence coming into his watery eyes, he added. &quot;Then I shan't tell
+you&mdash;nothing shall make me. It's a shecret!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't kiss you till you do!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll make you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, you won't,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg cried, disengaging herself from
+his grasp, and rising. &quot;Don't you dare touch me. I'm going.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis watched her with a helpless grin. Then he suddenly cried out,
+&quot;Come back! Come back, I shay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, will you do as I want?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do anything&mdash;anything to please you&mdash;if only you shtay with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat down, and his arm once again encircled her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; she said, pushing his face away. &quot;Tell me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bit by bit she drew out of him the whole history of the compact with the
+Unknown, how in stage five, the stage they were about to enter, they
+would have fresh powers conferred upon them&mdash;their present power, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>
+of working spells and causing diseases, being then cancelled; how they
+would obtain supreme power over women when they reached the final
+stage&mdash;stage seven; and how the compact would be broken and their ruin
+brought about, should either of them marry, or should anything happen
+before this final stage was reached, to disunite them.</p>
+
+<p>Lilian could account for a great deal now. The uncanny feeling she had
+always experienced in the building; the curious enigmatical shadows she
+had seen hovering about the doorways and flitting down the passages;
+the extraordinary nature of the feats and spells; Hamar's mutterings and
+his fury, whenever Kelson spoke to her&mdash;were no longer wholly
+unintelligible. But she must know all. She must be most exacting.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, she got from Curtis everything there was to be got from him,
+and she laughed immoderately, when he excused himself on the grounds
+that it was all Leon's doings&mdash;Leon had told him to offer her a little
+compensation for the loss of her escort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you have compensated me more than enough,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said.
+&quot;Now you shall have your reward,&quot; and she kissed him&mdash;kissed him three
+times for luck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you're not going?&quot; he said, staggering to his feet and attempting
+to hold her. &quot;You're not going till the roshy morning sun shines
+shaucily in on us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I am,&quot; she said. &quot;I've had quite enough of you! Good-bye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And before he could prevent her, she had run to the front door and let
+herself out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI" />CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>But now that Lilian Rosenberg was possessed of all this information
+respecting the trio, she was once again in doubt how to act, or whether
+to act at all. Supposing she were to attempt to warn Gladys Martin
+against Hamar, how would Gladys take the warning? Would she pay any
+attention to it? The odds were she would not; that having set her heart
+on marrying Hamar for his money, she would blind herself to his faults
+and resolutely shut her ears to anything said against him. Also there
+was the very great possibility of Gladys being rude to her&mdash;and even the
+thought of this was more than she could bear to contemplate. If only
+Shiel were reasonable! If only he could be made to see how utterly
+ridiculous it was for him to think of winning such a girl as
+Gladys&mdash;Gladys the pretty, dolly-faced, pampered actress, who had never
+known a single hardship, had always had a well-lined purse, and would
+never, never marry poverty! Then back to Lilian Rosenberg's mind came
+her parting with Shiel&mdash;she recalled his intense scorn and indignation.
+A liar! He did not wish to have anything to do with a liar! It's a good
+thing every man is not so fastidious, she said to herself bitterly, or
+the population of the world would soon fizz out. She laughed. He had
+never questioned her morals in any other sense&mdash;perhaps, in his
+innocence or assumed innocence, he had thought them spotless&mdash;at all
+events he had most graciously ignored them. But a liar! A liar&mdash;he could
+not put up with. And why! Because the lie had touched him on a sore
+point. When lies do not touch a sore point, they, too, are ignored.</p>
+
+<p>She walked to the Imperial and looked again at Gladys's photographs. How
+any man could fall madly in love with such a face, was more than she
+could conceive. It was a mincing, maudlin, finicking face&mdash;it irritated
+her intensely. She turned away from it in disgust, yet came back to have
+another look&mdash;and yet another. God knows why! It fascinated her. Finally
+she left it, fully resolved to let its odious original go to her
+fate&mdash;without a warning. Soon after her return to the Hall in Cockspur
+Street, she was sent for by Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Didn't I tell you,&quot; he said, &quot;that you were on no account to encourage
+Mr. Kelson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you kindly explain, then,&quot; Hamar said, &quot;why you have disobeyed my
+orders?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have I disobeyed them?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How!&quot; Hamar retorted, his cheeks white with passion. &quot;You dare to
+inquire how! Why, you were on the point of accompanying him to his rooms
+last night to supper, when I stopped you! I have overlooked your
+disobedience so many times that I can do so no longer. Your services
+will not be required by the Firm after to-day fortnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't they?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, her anger rising. &quot;I think you
+are mistaken. I know a great deal too much to make it safe for you to
+part with me. I know&mdash;for instance&mdash;all about your Compact with the
+Unknown!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know nothing,&quot; Hamar said, his voice faltering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I do!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg answered. &quot;I know everything. I know
+how you first got in communication with the Unknown in San Francisco; I
+know how you receive fresh powers from the Unknown every three months
+(the old powers being cancelled). I know the penalty you will undergo
+should the Compact be broken&mdash;and&mdash;what is more&mdash;I know how the Compact
+can be broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How the deuce have you learned all this?&quot; Hamar stammered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never you mind. Am I to remain in your service or leave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; Hamar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, &quot;it is better
+that you should remain&mdash;better for all parties. I owe you some little
+recompense for your loyalty to the Firm, and for the admirable way you
+spoke up for the Firm in Court. I will make you out a cheque for a
+hundred pounds now&mdash;and your salary shall be doubled at the end of this
+week. Promise to keep out of Mr. Kelson's way in future&mdash;for the next
+six months at any rate&mdash;after that time you may see him as often as you
+like&mdash;and I will give you as a wedding present a cheque for twenty
+thousand pounds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Twenty thousand pounds! You are joking!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not. I vow and declare I mean it. Is that a bargain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will certainly think it well over,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;and let
+you know my decision later on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From what Curtis had told her she knew it was the last day of stage
+four, that the trio that evening would be initiated into stage five&mdash;the
+Stage of Cures, and a mad desire seized her to witness the initiation.
+But how would the Unknown manifest itself on this occasion&mdash;and to which
+of the trio? She could not keep a close watch on the three of them. If
+only she had been friends with Shiel, they might, in some way, have
+worked it together. Curtis had carefully avoided her since the supper;
+but she had seen Kelson, and he had looked at her each time he met her
+as if he yearned to fall down at her feet and worship her. Should she
+attach herself to him for the evening&mdash;and run the risk of another
+quarrel with Hamar? She dearly loved risks and dangers&mdash;and the danger
+she would encounter in defying Hamar appealed to her sporting nature. It
+was easy to secure Kelson&mdash;one glance from her eyes&mdash;and he would have
+followed her to Timbuctoo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Charing Cross&mdash;under clock&mdash;after show to-night,&quot; she whispered as she
+flew hurriedly past him. &quot;I want to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that Hamar had given Kelson orders to return to his
+rooms, directly the performance was over, and to remain in them till
+morning, in case he was wanted in connection with the initiation. But he
+might have spared himself the trouble. It was Lilian, and Lilian only,
+that Kelson now thought of&mdash;it was Lilian, and Lilian only, that he
+would obey. The idea of meeting her&mdash;of having her all to himself&mdash;of
+being able to do her a service&mdash;filled him with such uncontrollable
+delight, that he hardly knew how to comport himself so as not to arouse
+Hamar's suspicions. Directly the performance was over he sneaked out of
+the Hall, and pretending not to hear Hamar, who called after him, he
+jumped into a taxi, and was whirled away to the trysting-place. Lilian
+Rosenberg, who arrived a moment later, was dressed in a new costume, and
+Kelson thought her looking smarter and daintier than ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall kiss me at once,&quot; she said, &quot;if you promise me one thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is that?&quot; he asked, looking hungrily at her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to let me see the Unknown when it comes to you to-night,&quot;
+she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God! What do you know about the Unknown!&quot; he exclaimed, his jaws
+falling, and a look of terror creeping into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great deal,&quot; she laughed, &quot;so much that I want to learn more&quot;&mdash;and of
+what she knew she told him, just as much as she had told Hamar. &quot;And
+now,&quot; she said, &quot;I repeat my promise&mdash;you shall have a kiss&mdash;think of
+that&mdash;if only you will hide me somewhere so that I can see the Unknown
+or its emissary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would do anything for a kiss,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;but I fear it is
+impossible to fulfil the condition, because I haven't the remotest idea
+where or when the Unknown will appear. Besides, it is just as likely to
+go to Hamar or Curtis as to come to me; and up to the present I haven't
+felt the remotest suggestion of its favouring me. Is this the only
+condition I can fulfil, so that you will let me kiss you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I am not in the habit of being
+kissed. Such an event can only happen in the most exceptional and
+privileged circumstances&mdash;such, for example, as exist at the present
+moment, when I ask you to put yourself to some considerable trouble&mdash;if
+not actually to incur danger&mdash;in order to accomplish what I wish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet I remember kissing you unconditionally,&quot; Kelson commented.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Memory is a fickle thing,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, &quot;and so is woman.
+Times have changed. I'll leave you at once, unless you promise to do
+your very utmost to grant my request.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson promised, and&mdash;after they had had supper at the Trocadero,
+suggested that they should take a stroll in Hyde Park.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope you are not awfully shocked?&quot; he inquired rather anxiously, &quot;but
+a sudden impulse has come over me to go there. I believe it is the will
+of the Unknown. Will you come with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't be able to get in, shall we, it's so late?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+said. &quot;Otherwise I should like to&mdash;I'm rather in a mood for adventure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They don't shut the gates till twelve,&quot; Kelson said, &quot;and it's not that
+yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, let's go, then. I'm game to go anywhere to see the Unknown,&quot;
+and so saying Lilian rose from the table, and Kelson followed her into
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>They took a taxi, and alighting at Hyde Park Corner entered the Park. It
+was very dark and deserted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's nearly closing time,&quot; a policeman called out to them rather
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are only taking a constitutional,&quot; Kelson explained. &quot;We shall be
+back in five minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They crossed the road to the statue, and were deliberating which
+direction to take, when they heard a groan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's only some poor devil of a tramp,&quot; Kelson said. &quot;The benches are
+full of them&mdash;they stay here all night. We had better, perhaps, turn
+back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I'm not a bit afraid. There's
+another groan. I'm going to see what's up,&quot; and before he could stop her
+she had disappeared in the darkness. &quot;Here I am,&quot; she called; &quot;come,
+it's some one ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Plunging on, in the darkness, Kelson at last found Lilian. She was
+sitting on a chair under a tree, by the side of a man, who was lying,
+curled up, on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's had nothing to eat for two days, and has Bright's Disease,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg announced. &quot;Can't we do something for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two gentlemen told me just now,&quot; the man on the ground groaned, &quot;that
+if I stayed here for a couple of hours&mdash;they would pass by again and
+guarantee to cure me. I reckoned there was no cure for Bright's Disease,
+when it is chronic, like it is in my case; but they laughed, and said,
+'We can&mdash;or at least&mdash;shall be able to cure anything.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What were the two gentlemen like?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could I tell?&quot; the man moaned. &quot;I couldn't see their faces any more
+than I can see yours&mdash;but they talked like you. Twang&mdash;twang&mdash;twang&mdash;all
+through their noses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sounds as if it might be Hamar and Curtis,&quot; Kelson remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's it!&quot; the man ejaculated. &quot;'Amar. I heard the other fellow call
+him by that name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long ago is it since they were here?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't say, perhaps ten minutes. I've lost count of time and
+everything else, since I've slept out here. They talked of going to the
+Serpentine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had better try and find them,&quot; Kelson said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you had the money couldn't you get shelter for the night,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said. &quot;It must be awful to lie out here in the cold, feeling
+ill and hungry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dare say some place would take me in,&quot; the man muttered, &quot;only I
+couldn't walk&mdash;at least no distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well! here's five shillings,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;put it somewhere
+safe&mdash;and try and hobble to the gates. If they haven't closed them, you
+will be all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five shillings!&quot; the man gasped; &quot;that's&mdash;it's no good&mdash;I can't count.
+I've no head now. Thank you, missy! God bless you. I'll get something
+hot&mdash;something to stifle the pain.&quot; He struggled on to his knees, and
+Lilian Rosenberg helped him to rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could you be so foolish as to touch him,&quot; Kelson said, as they
+started off down a path, they hoped would take them to the Serpentine.
+&quot;You may depend upon it, he was swarming with vermin&mdash;tramps always
+are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very probably, but I run just as much risk in a 'bus, the twopenny
+tube, or a cinematograph show. Besides, I can't see a human being
+helpless without offering help. Listen! there's some one else groaning!
+The Park is full of groans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What she said was true&mdash;the Park was full of groans. From every
+direction, borne to them by the gently rustling wind, came the groans of
+countless suffering outcasts&mdash;legions of homeless, starving men and
+women. Some lay right out in the open on their backs, others under
+cover of the trees, others again on the seats. They lay
+everywhere&mdash;these shattered, tattered, battered wrecks of
+humanity&mdash;these gangrened exiles from society, to whom no one ever
+spoke; whom no one ever looked at; whom no one would even own that they
+had seen; whose lot in life not even a stray cat envied. Here were two
+of them&mdash;a man and a woman tightly hugged in each other's embrace&mdash;not
+for love&mdash;but for warmth. Lilian Rosenberg almost fell over them, but
+they took no notice of her. Every now and then, one of them would emerge
+from the shelter of the trees, and cross the grass in the direction of
+the distant, gleaming water, with silent, stealthy tread. Once a tall,
+gaunt figure, suddenly sprang up and confronted the two adventurers; but
+the moment Kelson raised his stick, it jabbered something wholly
+unintelligible, and sped away into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A scene like this makes one doubt the existence of a good God,&quot; Lilian
+Rosenberg said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It makes one doubt the existence of anything but Hell,&quot; Kelson said.
+&quot;Compared with all this suffering&mdash;the suffering of these thousands of
+hungry, hopeless wretches&mdash;the bulk of whom are doubtless tortured
+incessantly, with the pains of cancer and tuberculosis, to say nothing
+of neuralgia and rheumatism&mdash;Dante's Inferno and Virgil's Hades pale
+into insignificance. The devil is kind compared with God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you are right,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;I never thought the
+devil was half as bad as he was painted. The Park to-night gives the lie
+direct to the ethics of all religions, and to the boasted efforts of all
+governments, churches, chapels, hospitals, police, progress and
+civilization. There is no misery, I am sure, to vie with it in any pagan
+land, either now or at any other period in the world's history.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True,&quot; Kelson replied, &quot;and why is it? It is because civilization has
+killed charity. Giving&mdash;in its true sense&mdash;if it exists at all&mdash;is
+rarely to be met with&mdash;giving in exchange&mdash;that is, in order to
+gain&mdash;flourishes everywhere. People will subscribe for the erection of
+monuments to kings and statesmen, or to well-known and, often,
+richly-endowed charitable institutes, in exchange for the pleasure of
+seeing, in the newspapers, a list of the subscribers' names, and
+themselves included amongst those whom they consider a peg above them
+socially; or in exchange for votes, or notoriety, they will give
+liberally to the brutal strikers, or outings for poor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose, by the poor, you mean the pampered, ill-mannered and
+detestably conceited County Council children,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg chimed
+in. &quot;I wouldn't give a farthing to such a miscalled charity, no&mdash;not if
+I were rolling in riches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I think you would be right,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;But for these really
+poor Park refugees it is a different matter. Obviously, no one will make
+the slightest effort to work up the public interest on their behalf,
+simply because they are labelled 'useless.' They belong nowhere&mdash;they
+have no votes&mdash;they are too feeble to combine&mdash;they are even too feeble
+to commit an atrocious murder; consequently, for the help they would
+receive, they could give nothing in return. By the bye, I doubt if they
+could muster between them a pair of suspenders&mdash;a bootlace&mdash;a
+shirt-button, or even a&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg caught him by the arm. &quot;Stop,&quot; she said, &quot;that's
+enough. Don't get too graphic. What's the matter with that tree?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were now close beside the banks of the Serpentine; the moon had
+broken through its covering of black clouds, and they perceived some
+twenty yards ahead of them, a tall, isolated lime, that was rocking in a
+most peculiar manner.</p>
+
+<p class="cs" style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;"><a name="ILLUSTRATION3" id="ILLUSTRATION3" /><img src="images/image3.jpg" width="441" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THEY GAZED FASCINATED]" /><br />
+THEY GAZED FASCINATED</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII" />CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Though the wind was nothing more than the usual night breeze of early
+autumn, the lime-tree was swaying violently to and fro, as if under the
+influence of a stupendous hurricane. Lilian Rosenberg and Kelson were so
+fascinated that they stood and watched it in silence. At last it left
+off swaying and became absolutely motionless. They then noticed, for the
+first time, that there were three figures standing under its branches,
+and that one of the figures was a policeman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hide quickly,&quot; Kelson whispered, &quot;those two are Hamar and Curtis.
+Quick, for God's sake&mdash;or they will see you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg hid behind an elm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; Kelson called out, advancing to the group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why it's you, Matt!&quot; Curtis cried. &quot;Hamar said you would come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Said I would come! How the deuce did he know?&quot; Kelson exclaimed. &quot;I
+didn't know myself till the moment before I started.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I willed you,&quot; Hamar explained; &quot;as soon as I got back to my rooms
+after the Show, a voice said in my ears&mdash;I heard it distinctly&mdash;'Be at
+the Serpentine&mdash;the south bank&mdash;underneath a lime-tree&mdash;you will know
+which&mdash;at twelve to-night.' I looked round&mdash;there was no one there.
+Naturally, concluding this was a message from the Unknown I hastened off
+to Curtis, who was in his digs&mdash;and needless to say&mdash;eating, and having
+dragged him away with me in a diabolical temper&mdash;I then sought you.
+Where were you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Taking a walk. I felt I needed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone! Are you sure you weren't out with some girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems as if I'm not the only liar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said to herself
+in her place of concealment. &quot;What would Shiel say to that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph! I don't know if I ought to believe you,&quot; Hamar remarked. &quot;Did
+you feel me willing you to come here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rather!&quot; Kelson said. &quot;That is why I came. I seemed to hear your voice
+say 'To Hyde Park&mdash;to Hyde Park&mdash;the Serpentine&mdash;the Serpentine.'&quot; Then
+sinking his voice he whispered, &quot;What's up with the policeman, he looks
+deuced queer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's in a trance. We found him like this,&quot; Hamar said. &quot;He is
+undoubtedly under the control of the Unknown. I expect it to speak
+through him every moment. Get ready to take down all he says. I've come
+prepared,&quot; and he handed Kelson and Curtis, each, a pencil and a
+reporter's notebook.</p>
+
+<p>He had hardly done so, when the policeman&mdash;a burly man well over six
+feet in height, who was standing bolt upright as if at &quot;attention,&quot; his
+limbs absolutely rigid, his eyes wide open and expressionless&mdash;began to
+speak in a soft, lisping voice that the trio at once identified with the
+voice of the Unknown&mdash;the voice of the tree on that eventful night in
+San Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The great secret of medicine&mdash;the secret of healing&mdash;will now be
+revealed to you,&quot; the voice said. &quot;Pay heed. In cases of tumours and
+ulcers take a young seringa, lay it for half an hour over the stomach of
+the afflicted person, then plant it with the mumia, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> either the
+hair, blood, or spittle of the sick person, at midnight. As soon as the
+seringa begins to rot, the ulcer will heal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In phthisis pulmonalis, the mumia of the sick person should be planted
+with a cutting of the catalpa, after the latter has been subjected for
+some minutes to the breath of the diseased person. As soon as the
+cutting shows signs of decay, the sick person will be cured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In diabetes, plant the mumia of the patient with a bignonia, and as
+soon as the latter begins to rot, the diabetes will go.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In appendicitis, cover the stomach of the sick person with a piece of
+raw beef, until the sweat enters it. Then give the meat to a cat, and as
+soon as the latter has eaten it, the patient will recover.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What becomes of the cat?&quot; Kelson asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The appendicitis is transferred to it,&quot; the voice explained. &quot;It should
+be killed at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cancer take the sea wrack Torrek Mendrek&mdash;a weed of deep mauve
+colour streaked with white. It must be boiled for three hours in clear
+spring water (3 ozs. of wrack to half a pint of water), and then let to
+cool. When quite cold, a dessert-spoon of it should be taken by the
+sufferer every four hours&mdash;and at the end of two days the disease will
+have completely disappeared. The wrack is to be found at the twenty
+fathom level, six miles west-south-west of the Scilly Isles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Bright's disease, the mumia of the afflicted should be planted at 1
+a.m., with a cutting of sassafras, after the latter has been slept on,
+for one whole night, by the sufferer. As soon as the sassafras begins to
+rot, the patient will be cured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In dropsy, place a hare, that has been strangled, over the diseased
+portion of the body, and let it remain there for one hour. Then bury the
+hare, together with the mumia of the sick person, and as soon as the
+hare begins to decay, the patient will recover.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In jaundice and liver diseases (apart from sarcoma), plant the mumia of
+the afflicted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of black walnut, and as soon as
+the latter begins to decay, the sufferer will get well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In all skin diseases, the mumia of the patient must be planted, at
+midnight, with a cutting of hickory, and when the latter begins to rot
+the disease disappears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In all fevers, the mumia must be planted, at 3 a.m., with laurel
+cuttings, after the latter have been placed under the bed of the patient
+for one night. As soon as the cuttings show signs of rotting, the fever
+abates.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In acute inflammations, diseases of the heart, rheumatism, and lumbago,
+the mumia must be buried, at midnight, with a raven that has been
+drowned, and placed on a chair by the left side of the patient for one
+night. As soon as the raven begins to rot, the patient will be fully
+restored to health.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cases of insanity, hysteria, and nervous diseases the mumia of the
+sufferer must be planted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of white poplar, and
+as soon as the latter shows evidences of decay, the afflicted will get
+well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In cases of hypochondria, and melancholia, the mumia of the sufferer
+must be planted, at 4 a.m., with a crocus, and as soon as the latter
+begins to rot, the disease will depart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In every case it will be necessary to prelude the performance with the
+following invocation&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Oh most powerful and prescient Unknown, before whom the greatest of
+the Atlanteans prostrate themselves. That was in the Beginning, that is
+now and always will be. I conjure thee by the magic symbols of the
+club-foot, the hand with the fingers clenched, and the bat, in this the
+magical year of Kefana, to extend to me thy wonderful powers of healing.
+Rena Vadoola Hipsano Eik Deoo Barrinaz.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lisping voice ceased, and, with a convulsive start, the policeman
+came to himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hulloa!&quot; he said, in his natural gruff tones, rubbing his eyes. &quot;I must
+have 'dropped off.' Who are you? What are you doing in the Park at this
+time of night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been watching you!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;It is a bit of a phenomenon to
+see a London bobby asleep on his beat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to hear him talking in his sleep too,&quot; Curtis added.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't know I was talking,&quot; the policeman muttered. &quot;It all comes of
+being too many hours on duty. What have you got those note-books out
+for? Not been taking down anything about me, have you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Show us out of the Park and you'll hear no more about it,&quot; Hamar said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we'll give you half a sovereign into the bargain,&quot; Kelson chimed
+in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Follow me then,&quot; the policeman said. &quot;I'll take you to one of the side
+entrances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matt!&quot; Hamar exclaimed as they passed the tree behind which Lilian
+Rosenberg was hiding, &quot;I smell scent&mdash;and what is more I recognize it.
+It is Violette de mer&mdash;the scent that&mdash;Rosenberg uses! You were with her
+this evening!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear I wasn't!&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I bought some scent in Regent
+Street this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph,&quot; Hamar grunted. &quot;I have my doubts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence till they came to a small iron gate, where the
+policemen left them, whilst he went to the lodge for the keys; and all
+the while Kelson was in terror, lest Hamar should catch sight of Lilian
+Rosenberg, who had kept close behind them, and was now standing, but a
+few yards away, trying to conceal her identity and escape notice.</p>
+
+<p>But the policeman on his return with the keys called out to her, and
+Kelson, fearing that she might be either taken in charge for loitering
+there, in apparently suspicious circumstances, or made to remain in the
+Park all night&mdash;neither of which contingencies he could possibly
+permit&mdash;at once came forward, and explained that she was a friend of
+his.</p>
+
+<p>The policeman was satisfied. The sight of another half-sovereign had
+rendered him more than polite, and, without saying a word, he let them
+all out together.</p>
+
+<p>The moment they were in the street, Hamar turned on Kelson, white with
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So,&quot; he said, &quot;I was right after all&mdash;liar! fool! You would risk all
+our lives for a few hours' flirtation with this silly girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it's only flirtation, Leon, what does it matter?&quot; Curtis interposed.
+&quot;For goodness' sake shut up wrangling and let's get home. I'm starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall have something to say to you to-morrow morning,&quot; Hamar
+remarked, in an undertone, to Lilian Rosenberg.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I to you,&quot; was the furious reply. &quot;I shall not forget the
+disrespectful way in which you have just spoken of me, in alluding to
+the scent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She signalled to a taxi, and giving Kelson a friendly good-night, jumped
+into it and was speedily whirled away.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, the evening had been a disappointment. She had wanted to
+see the Unknown&mdash;the awful thing that had inspired Kelson and his
+colleagues with such unmitigated horror&mdash;and instead she had seen only
+an obsessed policeman&mdash;a cataleptic &quot;copper&quot;&mdash;who, had he not spoken in
+a strangely uncanny voice, would certainly have seemed to her absolutely
+ordinary.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Hamar's displeasure, she was not in the slightest degree
+disturbed. He would never dare say anything to her. And after all that
+had occurred he would never venture to &quot;sack her.&quot; All the same she
+hated him. There was just sufficient in her conduct to make the name he
+had called her by applicable&mdash;therefore her bitterest wrath and
+indignation were aroused against him. He had behaved unpardonably. She
+could kill him for it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll just show him,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;what that uncivil tongue of
+his can do. He shall see that it can do him infinitely more harm than
+all Kelson's love-making. For one thing I'll spoil his chances with
+Gladys Martin; and&mdash;I wonder if I could make use of what I know about
+him, as a means of getting friendly again with Shiel. At all events I'll
+try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With this object in view she went round to Shiel's lodgings, and was
+informed by the landlady that Shiel was ill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing serious I hope?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has been,&quot; the landlady replied, &quot;but he is better now. It all came
+through his not taking proper care of himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I see him, do you think?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know,&quot; the landlady grumbled. &quot;He's in a very touchy mood&mdash;no
+one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
+your trying,&quot; she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in Lilian
+Rosenberg's fingers.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered. Shiel
+was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had very
+considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some resentment,
+he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation for his health.
+She put his room straight and dusted the furniture, got tea for him, and
+when she had completely won him over by these kindly actions, and made
+him beg her pardon for ever having spoken harshly to her, she broached
+the subject all the while uppermost in her mind&mdash;the subject of Hamar
+and Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her,&quot; she said. &quot;All he
+wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
+the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He is
+tremendously taken with her of course&mdash;her physical beauty, which he had
+the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he had seen,
+appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't give in to
+him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you,&quot; Shiel said feebly; &quot;why in six months' time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; she added, &quot;that if the final stage is reached no woman
+will be safe&mdash;the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
+mercy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How inconceivably awful!&quot; Shiel exclaimed. &quot;Surely there is some way of
+stopping them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is only one way,&quot; Lilian said slowly, &quot;the union between the
+three must be broken&mdash;they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may be sure they will take good care not to do that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be too sure,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;Matthew Kelson is very
+fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
+Hamar!&quot; Shiel asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you will&mdash;you will save Gladys Martin after all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian did not reply at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty,&quot; she
+said, evasively, &quot;poverty like this!&quot; and she glanced round the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't ask her to!&quot; Shiel exclaimed. &quot;Whilst I have been lying in bed,
+ill, I have thought of many things&mdash;and have come to the conclusion I
+have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult for me to earn
+enough to keep one person in comfort&mdash;and I've lost all hope of ever
+earning enough to keep two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, if you don't ask her,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;there's one thing,
+she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out of it.
+If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit&mdash;a girl that would be a
+real 'pal' to you&mdash;a girl that would help you to win fame!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII" />CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHOM WILL HE MARRY?</h3>
+
+
+<p>Had Lilian Rosenberg been able to see the effect of her conversation
+upon Shiel after she had left him, she would have been disappointed. He
+had, prior to this interview with Lilian Rosenberg, as he told her, made
+up his mind to abandon all idea of marrying Gladys Martin; and there is
+a possibility that had her name not been mentioned, had she not been
+recalled so vividly to his mind, he would have adhered to that
+resolution&mdash;at all events so long as he refrained from seeing her. But
+such is human nature&mdash;or at least man's nature&mdash;that directly Lilian
+Rosenberg had left him, Shiel's love for Gladys burst out with such
+wild, invigorated force that it swept reason and everything else before
+it. Gladys! He could think of nothing else! Every detail in her
+appearance, every word she had spoken, came back to him with exaggerated
+intensity. Her beauty was sublime. There was no one like her, no one
+that could inspire him with such a sense of ideality, no one that could
+lead him on to such dizzy heights of greatness. It was all nonsense to
+say, as Lilian Rosenberg had said, there were just as many good fish in
+the sea as had ever come out of it&mdash;there was only one Gladys. Hamar
+should never marry her&mdash;he would marry her himself. She must be told at
+once of Hamar's infamous designs. A mad desire to see her came over
+him, and disregardful of the doctor's orders that he should remain in
+bed several more days, he got up, and dressing as fast as his weak
+condition would allow him, took a taxi and drove to Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the Cottage, at Kew, he found Gladys at home, and to his
+great joy, alone.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that appeals to a woman more than a sick man, and
+Shiel, in coming to Gladys in his present condition, had unwittingly
+played a trump card. Had he appeared well and strong she would probably
+have received him none too cordially&mdash;for she was very tired of men just
+then; but the moment her eyes alighted on his thin cheeks and she saw
+the dark rings under his eyes, pity conquered. This man at least was not
+to blame&mdash;he was not of the same pattern as other men, he was not like
+so many men whose adulations had grown fulsome to her, and&mdash;he was
+totally unlike Hamar.</p>
+
+<p>In very sympathetic tones she inquired how he was, and on learning that
+he had been sufficiently ill to be kept in bed, asked why he had not
+told her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunty and I would have called to see you,&quot; she said, &quot;and brought you
+jelly and other nice things. Who waited on you, had you no nurse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fearful lest he should give her the impression he was speaking for
+effect, or trying to trade on her feelings (Shiel was one of those
+people who are painfully exact), he told her as simply as he could just
+how he had been placed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But why come here,&quot; Gladys demanded, &quot;when you were told to stay in bed
+till the end of the week. It is frightfully risky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shiel then explained to her the purport of his visit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it was to warn me, to put me on my guard against Hamar, that you
+disobeyed the doctor's orders,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Shiel nodded. &quot;You are not displeased, are you?&quot; he asked nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am displeased with you for thinking so little of yourself,&quot; Gladys
+said, &quot;and more than obliged to you for thinking so much of me. You know
+I only consented to marry Mr. Hamar to save my father&mdash;and you say he no
+longer has the power to work spells?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe that to be a fact,&quot; Shiel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then he lied to me!&quot; Gladys observed. &quot;He threatened that unless I saw
+him as often as he wished, and went with him wherever he wanted, and a
+good many more things, he would inflict my father with every conceivable
+disease. You are quite sure your information is correct?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, thank God!&quot; Gladys said with a great sigh of relief. &quot;I shall
+know how to act now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will break off your engagement?&quot; Shiel inquired eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! I can't do that!&quot; Gladys said sadly. &quot;I've promised to marry Mr.
+Hamar, and, therefore, marry him I must.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Promises made under such conditions are mere extortions, they don't
+count.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear they do,&quot; Gladys replied. &quot;I've never yet broken my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then there's no hope for me,&quot; Shiel gasped. &quot;I must go&mdash;it maddens me
+to see you the affianced bride of that devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rose to go, but had hardly gained his feet, when his strength utterly
+failed and he collapsed. Gladys helped him into a chair, and then flew
+for some brandy. In the hall, she met her aunt, who had just returned
+from an afternoon call. In a few words she explained what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor young man,&quot; Miss Templeton said. &quot;I thought he looked very ill the
+last time I saw him. And he came here solely to benefit you! Well, you
+have a good deal to answer for, and your face is not only your own
+misfortune, but other people's too. But it will never do for your father
+to see Mr. Davenport. He went off in a very bad temper this morning, and
+if he comes back and finds him here, there'll be a scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton and Gladys consulted together for some minutes, and then
+decided to send for a taxi and have Shiel conveyed back to his rooms,
+Miss Templeton accompanying him.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton knew that Shiel was poor, but like most people who have
+lived in comfortable surroundings all their lives, she had no idea of
+what poverty was like&mdash;the poverty of a seven-and-sixpenny a week room
+in a back street; and when she saw it she nearly swooned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why this is a slum!&quot; she ejaculated as the taxi stopped next door to a
+fried fish shop in a narrow street swarming with children sucking bread
+and jam, and rolling each other over in the gutters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't wonder the man is ill here!&quot; she said to herself, as the door
+of the house they stopped at opened and she snuffed the atmosphere. &quot;The
+place reeks&mdash;and&mdash;oh! gracious! is this the landlady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet the woman was ordinary enough&mdash;the type of landlady one sees in all
+back streets&mdash;greasy face, straggling hair, dirty blouse, black hands,
+bitten fingernails, short skirts, prodigious feet, a grubby child
+clinging on to her dress and every indication of the speedy arrival of
+another.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you're 'is mother hain't you, mum?&quot; she said, gaping at Miss
+Templeton's rather fashionable clothes in open-mouthed wonder. &quot;I told
+'im 'ee ought not to go out, but 'ee never 'eeds what I says.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton, though not particularly flattered at being taken for
+Shiel's mother&mdash;since, like most ladies of mature age, she wished to be
+regarded as much younger&mdash;nevertheless, thought it better not to
+disillusion the woman. The poor, she told herself, often have very
+decided views on propriety. With the woman's aid she got Shiel upstairs,
+and, as he was too feeble to undress himself, despite his protestations,
+helped to disrobe him. She had thought, when she first saw the slum, of
+returning to Kew at once, but she did no such thing. She stayed with
+Shiel; persuaded the landlady to make him some gruel (which proved to be
+a sorry mess, but had at least the advantage of being hot), and bribed
+one of the children to fetch the doctor. Shiel nearly died. Had it not
+been for the careful nursing and good food provided by Miss Templeton,
+who visited him every day, he would never have turned the corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The poor boy is terribly fond of you,&quot; Miss Templeton said to Gladys.
+&quot;In his delirium he talked of nothing but saving you from Leon
+Hamar&mdash;from that devil Leon Hamar&mdash;and if one can place any reliance at
+all, on the ravings of a sick man, a devil, Leon Hamar undoubtedly is.
+What a pity it is Shiel hasn't money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These remarks were naturally not without effect on Gladys, and she could
+not help growing more and more interested in the man, whose love for
+her had proved so deep-rooted and ideal, that he had practically
+sacrificed his life, in an attempt to serve her. Finally, she found
+herself awaiting her aunt's daily report of his illness with an anxiety
+that was almost acute.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, John Martin came home one evening in a rare state of
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you think!&quot; he exclaimed, throwing a bundle of letters on the
+table, &quot;one of Dick's speculations has turned out trumps, after all. He
+had invested several thousands of pounds&mdash;in Shiel's name&mdash;in
+enamel-ivorine, the new stuff for stopping teeth, which looks exactly
+like part of the teeth. I remember I thought it an absurd venture at the
+time, but for once in a way I was wrong&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ahem!&quot; interrupted Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There has been a sudden boom in the patent, every dentist is using it,
+and, as a consequence, the shares have risen enormously. I've heard from
+Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand pounds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good heavens!&quot; Miss Templeton ejaculated, &quot;and Gladys has bound herself
+to Hamar! I suppose,&quot; she said afterwards, when John Martin and she were
+alone together, &quot;that you would not have any objection to Shiel now, if
+Gladys were free to marry him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not!&quot; John Martin said, &quot;certainly not, I always liked Shiel.
+A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one usually meets
+nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an impossibility.
+Gladys is stubbornness itself&mdash;when once she has made up her mind to do
+a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; Miss Templeton said, &quot;wait and see. I think I can see a possible
+way out of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She had learned much from Shiel in his &quot;wanderings.&quot; He had constantly
+alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson&mdash;and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
+compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact&mdash;namely
+through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
+the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
+greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg&mdash;and it was from these
+statements that she finally received an inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel&mdash;it had always been her custom to
+read between the lines. &quot;Now,&quot; she argued, &quot;if Kelson were so easily
+influenced by Lilian Rosenberg, who was young and attractive, it was
+almost a <i>sine qu&acirc; non</i> that he was in love with her,&quot; and as marriage
+was one of the eventualities strictly forbidden to the trio in the
+compact&mdash;&quot;they must neither quarrel nor marry,&quot; Shiel had
+exclaimed&mdash;here was their chance. Kelson must marry Lilian Rosenberg,
+and by so doing, break the compact and overwhelm the trio in some sudden
+and dire catastrophe. But the marriage must take place within six
+months' time. How could that be arranged? Could Lilian Rosenberg be
+bribed or persuaded into it? for of course Miss Templeton being a
+woman&mdash;albeit an old maid&mdash;had at once divined that Lilian Rosenberg was
+in love with Shiel&mdash;that she did not care a straw for Kelson, and that
+to marry the latter she would need some very strong inducement. And the
+only inducement she could think of was Lilian's genuine love for Shiel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, it is upon this one weakness of Lilian's that I must work,&quot; she
+said to herself. &quot;It is the only way I can see of saving Gladys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Resolved at any rate to experiment upon these lines, she lost no time in
+seeking out Lilian Rosenberg, who received her very coldly and was
+distinctly rude.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have my affairs to do with you? Who sent you here?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humanity!&quot; Miss Templeton replied. &quot;I have come entirely of my own
+accord to plead the cause of one who is seriously ill&mdash;possibly dying!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seriously ill!&mdash;possibly dying!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said incredulously,
+nevertheless, turning pale. &quot;Mr. Davenport is surely not as bad as all
+that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When did you see him last?&quot; Miss Templeton asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fortnight ago,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied. &quot;I have been inundated with
+work the past two weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you've not heard that he's had a relapse,&quot; Miss Templeton said,
+&quot;and is now in a most critical condition! He has something on his mind,
+and the doctor assures me that whilst he is still worrying over that
+something, there is no chance of his recovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what it is&mdash;the something?&quot; Lilian Rosenberg asked, the
+white on her cheeks intensifying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Miss Templeton said slowly, and trying to appear calm. &quot;He is
+very worried about Miss Martin's engagement to Mr. Hamar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why, pray?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because he knows all about Mr. Hamar&mdash;and the compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has told you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has he been as ill as that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day before
+yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;Can
+you believe what a man says in delirium?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In this instance I feel sure you can,&quot; Miss Templeton replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
+Davenport?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Templeton thought for a moment. &quot;Because,&quot; she said at last, &quot;he is
+in love with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you sure of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?&quot; and she snapped
+her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think she may care for him a very great deal some day&mdash;she has begun
+to care for him already!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
+Davenport. He is practically starving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was&mdash;but he's not now. He's come into money.&quot; And she explained
+about the fifty thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, &quot;that accounts
+for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some one
+who had been fond of him all along&mdash;in the days when he hadn't a
+halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should feel very sorry for that person,&quot; Miss Templeton said, &quot;but
+setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness&mdash;it would be wrong for him
+to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which you say it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which I am sure it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, supposing it is&mdash;what does it concern me? Why tell me all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
+about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
+can accomplish all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I do,&quot; Miss Templeton said, briskly. &quot;I believe I am right in
+saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you&mdash;that you can make him do pretty
+well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on to
+propose and insist on his marrying you at once&mdash;or at all events before
+the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the Compact
+will be broken!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may be,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, &quot;but where, pray, should I
+come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&quot; Miss Templeton replied, slowly, &quot;why, because by marrying a man
+you don't care a snap for, you would save the life of a man&mdash;I am quite
+sure, you care a very great deal for.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX" />CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE END AND &quot;THE BEYOND&quot;</h3>
+
+
+<p>It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's extraordinary,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;how fond I am of Shiel. I
+used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of anyone....
+The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with him, to give
+him up to that soft little cat&mdash;Gladys Martin! If it weren't for this
+illness&mdash;if I could only persuade myself that he isn't as ill as Miss
+Whatever-her-name-is&mdash;said, I shouldn't think twice&mdash;I should let things
+be&mdash;but as I feel sure he is really ill&mdash;dangerously ill&mdash;and the only
+chance of his recovery lies in the possibility of his marrying Martin&mdash;I
+must deliberate. Shall I or shall I not? If it were any other woman I
+shouldn't so much mind&mdash;but&mdash;Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is
+one hope, however, namely&mdash;that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
+her&mdash;and&mdash;and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would be!
+But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because&mdash;because&mdash;well there&mdash;just like my
+infernal luck&mdash;I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even if there
+were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could. But what
+is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
+Martin&mdash;and&mdash;I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to settle
+is&mdash;Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can marry
+Shiel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
+and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another. In
+the end&mdash;very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she had
+ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have tea with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large mushroom
+hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that face belonged
+to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had a colossal
+weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have tea with you? Of course I will,&quot; he said. &quot;But we must be careful.
+Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow in a taxi,
+and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg
+laughed. &quot;I'm not! I've found him out&mdash;he's all talk. But do as you
+will&mdash;get your taxi and I'll walk on&mdash;we'll have tea in my new flat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson was so delighted he hardly knew if he stood on his head or his
+heels. &quot;You are prettier than ever,&quot; he said, as the taxi-door shut and
+they sped away. &quot;I declare there seems no limit to your beauty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only because you're partial,&quot; she said. &quot;I shall grow ugly one day.
+Perhaps&mdash;soon.&quot; With a savage energy, she set to work to completely
+overcome him. With a languishing expression in her eyes&mdash;eyes, which she
+made use of mercilessly, without giving him a moment's respite&mdash;she
+watched his whole being vibrate with love and adoration.</p>
+
+<p>They had hardly entered the drawing-room of her flat when he threw
+himself at her feet, and poured forth his worship of her in the most
+extravagant phrases.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here, Mr. Kelson,&quot; she said at length, withdrawing the hand it
+seemed as if he would never leave off kissing, &quot;this is all very well;
+but I daresay you make love to countless other girls in this same
+fashion. How can I tell if you are really serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't I look as if I am?&quot; he cried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One can never judge correctly by looks,&quot; she replied; &quot;they are
+terribly deceptive. You are very emphatic in your avowals of love, but
+you say nothing about marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you do care for me! Jerusalem! How happy I should be if only I
+thought that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Think it, then,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;and let us come to an
+understanding. Can you afford to keep a wife&mdash;keep her, as I should
+expect to be kept&mdash;plenty of new dresses, jewelry, theatres, balls,
+motors, Ascot, Henley, Cowes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon I could do all that,&quot; Kelson replied. &quot;I've just over a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank, and with this 'cure'
+business, I'm taking on an average ten thousand per week. I would settle
+a hundred thousand on you, and make you a handsome allowance&mdash;a thousand
+a week&mdash;more if you wanted it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said after a slight pause, during which Kelson
+had again seized her hand and was kissing it convulsively, &quot;to quote one
+of your Americanisms&mdash;I reckon I'll fix up with you. On one condition,
+however.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that,&quot; Kelson murmured, still kissing her feverishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That we marry a week to-day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelson dropped her hand as if he had been shot. &quot;We can't!&quot; he cried.
+&quot;The Compact!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, damn the Compact!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said coolly. &quot;You marry me
+then&mdash;or not at all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are joking&mdash;you know what the Compact means!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know what you think it means. For my own part I don't see that you
+have the slightest reason to fear. The Unknown cannot really harm you.
+All you have to do is to turn religious. Anyhow you must risk it&mdash;that
+is to say, if you want me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will lead to a quarrel with Hamar,&quot; Kelson said desperately. &quot;The
+Firm will dissolve&mdash;and I shan't get a cent more money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll be content with what you have in the bank now. We can live on the
+interest of fifty thousand. The hundred thousand you will, of course,
+settle on me at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was silent. She taunted him, she ridiculed him; she at last lost her
+temper with him&mdash;whereupon he succumbed. The marriage should take place
+at a registry office within the week.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There'll be no time for a trousseau!&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, hang the trousseau!&quot; she said. &quot;I shall have the hundred thousand
+pounds. And now for a word of advice. Be sure that you do not let Hamar
+get any inkling of our approaching marriage, and be most careful to
+avoid doing anything that might arouse his suspicions. It isn't that I'm
+afraid of him&mdash;but I don't want rows&mdash;I'm sick to death of them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can rely on me to be careful, darling!&quot; Kelson said, kissing her
+on the lips. &quot;I'll be discretion itself,&quot; and so he meant to be. All the
+same&mdash;as is the case with every lover&mdash;every lover worthy of the name of
+lover&mdash;who loves with all the full, ripe vigour of genuine passion, his
+heart played havoc with his head; and he was blind to everything save
+visions of his beloved. In other circumstances this would not have
+mattered very much, but with Hamar's lynx eyes continually watching him,
+it was certain to lead to disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ed!&quot; Hamar said to Curtis one day. &quot;Matt's been getting into mischief.
+I know the symptoms well. He can't look me in the face, and every now
+and then, when he fancies my attention is attracted elsewhere, I catch
+him peeping furtively at me as if he were frightened out of his life I
+should ferret out some secret. It would be deplorable if now that we
+have got so near the end of the Compact, we should be held up by some
+idiotic blunder&mdash;some nonsensical love affair of his. I wonder whether
+it's Rosenberg or some other girl. Will you find out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I?&quot; Curtis growled. &quot;I'm not his keeper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that!&quot; Hamar said. &quot;Come be reasonable. You want to be a
+Cr&oelig;sus&mdash;so that you can eat and drink your head off&mdash;don't you! Well!
+You will! You will be one of the three wealthiest men in the world&mdash;you
+will have the world at your feet, if only you stick to me for the next
+seven months: till we have passed the seventh stage. If you don't&mdash;if
+either you or Matt deliberately quarrel with me, or marry&mdash;then, as I've
+dinned into your ears a thousand times, the Compact will be broken,
+and&mdash;not only that, but some frightful catastrophe will wipe us off.
+Now will you do what I ask? Come&mdash;a dinner with me every night this
+week, at the Piccadilly&mdash;champagne&mdash;and no vegetables!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; Curtis said sulkily, &quot;for the good of the cause I suppose I
+must, but I hate spying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two nights later in a private room at the Piccadilly, after dinner, when
+the champagne and liqueurs had got into Curtis's head and he was leaning
+back in his chair, smiling and silly, Hamar suddenly said, &quot;Ed! you
+remember what I told you&mdash;about watching Kelson. Have you discovered
+anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shupposing I have,&quot; Curtis replied, &quot;shupposing I haven't&mdash;whatch
+then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, but I know you have,&quot; Hamar said, striving to hide his eagerness.
+&quot;Come, tell me, another liqueur&mdash;I'll square it with the Unknown&mdash;it
+won't hurt you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't it!&quot; Curtis gurgled. &quot;Wont'ch it! I'll tell you everything.
+No&mdash;nothingsh, I mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Hamar when once he had smelt a rat, was not easily put off. He
+coaxed, and coaxed, and eventually succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leonsh!&quot; Curtis said, with a sudden burst of drunken confidence.
+&quot;Leonsh! it's worse than either you or I shuspected. I caught them alone
+this morning&mdash;in my offish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them! Rosenberg and Matt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yesh, of course, shilly! I told Matt I was going out. He thought I
+had&mdash;so into the room I came&mdash;quite unshuspected, unobsherved. She was
+sitting on hish knees, cuddling&mdash;and he was putting a ring on her
+finger. 'Four more days, darling,' shays he, 'and we are married!
+Jerushalem! Damn the Compact and damnsh Hamar!' 'Hamar doesn't
+shuspect, does he?' Rosenberg shays. 'Not a bit&mdash;not in the slightest,'
+old Matt replieshes, 'why it is I who amsh brave now.' Then he kisshes
+her, and fearing they would detect my presence, I slipsh quietly out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you swear this is true?&quot; Leon said, his voice trembling with
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll schwear it!&quot; Curtis answered, &quot;but you look crossh. Whatsh the
+matter, Leon? <i>God! What's the matter!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, as Kelson was rising from his chair in front of the fire
+to gaze, for the hundredth time that evening, into the eyes of Lilian
+Rosenberg's portrait on the mantelshelf, the door of his room flew open
+and in staggered Curtis&mdash;white, wet and bloated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great heavens!&quot; Kelson cried. &quot;What the deuce have you been doing to
+yourself? You look a perfect devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am one!&quot; Curtis groaned. &quot;I am one, Matt! I've given your show away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My show away! Why, what the deuce do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In a string of broken sentences Curtis explained what had happened. &quot;I'm
+damned sorry, Matt, old man,&quot; he pleaded. &quot;It was the drink that did
+it&mdash;I didn't know what I was saying till it was too late&mdash;till I saw
+Leon's face&mdash;and that cleared my brain&mdash;brought me to myself. It was
+hellish. I remember the moment I mentioned the word marriage&mdash;he sprang
+up from his chair, and as he hurried out, I heard him mutter, 'I'll go
+to her straight&mdash;I'll&mdash;' Matt, old man, he meant mischief. I'm certain
+of it. Come with me to her flat&mdash;for God's sake&mdash;COME.&quot; And catching
+hold of Kelson, who leaned against the mantelshelf, dazed and
+stupefied, he dragged him into the street.</p>
+
+<p>To revert to Hamar. Curtis's information had transformed him. He was,
+now, another creature. Prior to his conversation with Curtis, he had
+suspected, at the most, that Kelson might be contemplating a secret
+engagement to Lilian Rosenberg&mdash;but a hasty marriage&mdash;a marriage in a
+few days' time&mdash;he had never dreamt that Kelson could be as mad as that.
+It was outrageous! It was abominable! It was sheer wholesale homicide!
+At all costs the marriage must be stopped. And mad with rage, Hamar
+dashed out of the hotel, and calling a taxi, drove direct to Lilian
+Rosenberg's flat.</p>
+
+<p>He found her alone&mdash;alone&mdash;and with a strange expression in her eyes&mdash;an
+expression he had never noticed in them before. She was in the act of
+examining a magnificent diamond ring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're quite out of breath,&quot; she said coolly, &quot;didn't you come up by
+the lift?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to talk business,&quot; Hamar panted. &quot;It's no use looking like
+that. I know your secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My secret!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg replied, opening her eyes and simulating
+the greatest unconcern, &quot;what secret? I don't understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, you do!&quot; Hamar said, &quot;you understand only too well&mdash;you
+deceitful minx. Had I only been smart&mdash;I should have given you the sack
+months ago. This marriage of yours with Kelson shall not come off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My marriage with Mr. Kelson!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, turning a trifle
+pale. &quot;I really don't know what you are talking about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You do!&quot; Hamar shouted, his fury rising. &quot;You do! You know all about
+it. You were seen sitting on his knee this morning, and all your
+conversation was overheard. I have found out everything. And I tell you,
+you shan't marry him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shan't marry him!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said with provoking coolness.
+&quot;Whoever thinks I want to marry him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He does&mdash;I do!&quot; Hamar shouted&mdash;his voice rising to a scream. &quot;You've
+hoodwinked me long enough&mdash;you hoodwink me no longer. You've encouraged
+him from the first&mdash;made eyes at him every time you've seen him&mdash;taken
+advantage of my absence to prowl about the passages to waylay him&mdash;had
+him round to your rooms and visited him in his. You've no sense of shame
+or honour&mdash;you've broken your promises to me&mdash;you're a liar!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else Mr. Hamar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, her eyes glittering.
+&quot;When you've quite finished, perhaps&mdash;you'll kindly go and leave me in
+peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go! Leave you in peace!&quot; Hamar shouted. &quot;Damn you, curse your
+impertinence! Go! I'll not budge an inch till I wring from you an
+oath&mdash;a solemn binding oath, that you'll break off your engagement with
+Kelson at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really, Mr. Hamar!&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said, &quot;I cannot put up with quite
+so much noise. Will you go, or shall I ring for the porter to turn you
+out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She moved in the direction of the bell as she spoke, but before she
+could touch it Hamar had intercepted her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop this foolery!&quot; he said catching hold of her wrist, &quot;I'm in grim
+earnest&mdash;the lives of all three of us are at stake&mdash;jeopardized through
+you&mdash;through your infernal greed and selfishness. Do you hear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please let go my wrist,&quot; she said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I won't!&quot; he shouted. &quot;I'll squeeze, crush it, break it! Break you,
+too, unless you swear to break off your marriage!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll swear nothing,&quot; Lilian Rosenberg said faintly. &quot;You're a brute.
+Let me go or I'll cry for help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She screamed, but before she could repeat the scream, Hamar had her by
+the throat&mdash;and then blind with passion and before he fully realized
+what he was about, he had shaken her to and fro&mdash;like a terrier shakes a
+rat&mdash;and had dashed her on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes he stood rocking with passion, and then, his eyes
+falling on the inanimate form at his feet, he gave a great gasping cry
+and bent over it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God in Heaven!&quot; he ejaculated, &quot;she's dead! I've killed her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was still bending over her&mdash;still feeling her lifeless pulse, still
+trying to resuscitate her&mdash;feebly wondering how he had killed her,
+feverishly debating the best course to pursue&mdash;when Curtis and Kelson
+burst in on him.</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of Lilian Rosenberg's lifeless body both men started back.
+&quot;Great God! Hamar!&quot; Curtis gasped. &quot;What have you done to her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing!&quot; Hamar said, turning a ghastly face to them. &quot;I&mdash;I found her
+like this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Liar!&quot; Kelson shouted beside himself with fury. &quot;Liar! We heard her
+scream. Look at your hands&mdash;there's blood on them! You've killed her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before Curtis could stop him he sprang at Hamar, and the next moment
+both men were rolling on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call for the police, Ed!&quot; Kelson gasped, &quot;the police&mdash;or&mdash;&quot; But before
+he could utter another syllable, walls, floor and ceiling shook with
+loud, devilish laughter. There was then silence&mdash;enthralling,
+impressive, omnipotent silence&mdash;the electric light went out&mdash;and the
+room filled with luminous, striped figures.</p>
+
+<p class="cs"><a name="ILLUSTRATION4" id="ILLUSTRATION4" /><img src="images/image4.jpg" width="416" height="750" alt="[Illustration: THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES]" /><br />
+THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SORCERY CLUB***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sorcery Club, by Elliott O'Donnell
+
+
+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 Sorcery Club
+
+Author: Elliott O'Donnell
+
+Release Date: December 10, 2004  [eBook #14317]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SORCERY CLUB***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Nathan Strom, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14317-h.htm or 14317-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h/14317-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14317/14317-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SORCERY CLUB
+
+by
+
+ELLIOTT O'DONNELL
+
+Author of _Byways of Ghostland_, _Werwolves_,
+_Dreams and Their Meanings_, _Some Haunted Houses of England
+and Wales_, _Scottish Ghost Tales_, _Haunted Houses of London_, etc., etc.
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+8 Paternoster Row, E.C.
+
+1912
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF!" KELSON SHRIEKED]
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+    II THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+   III LEARNING TO SIN
+
+    IV THE TESTS
+
+     V THE INITIATION
+
+    VI THE FIRST POWER
+
+   VII SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+  VIII TWO DREAMS
+
+    IX LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+     X HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+    XI LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+   XII THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+  XIII THE MODERN SORCERY CO. LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+   XIV SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+    XV HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+   XVI HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+  XVII THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+ XVIII STAGE THREE
+
+   XIX A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+    XX THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+   XXI THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+  XXII THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+ XXIII LOVE
+
+  XXIV THE SUBPOENA
+
+   XXV CURTIS IN A NEW ROLE
+
+  XXVI IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+ XXVII THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+XXVIII WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+  XXIX THE END AND 'THE BEYOND'
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP OFF," KELSON SHRIEKED (frontispiece)
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+THEY GAZED FASCINATED
+
+THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW THEY FIRST HEARD OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of
+vegetables--it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller,
+of man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that
+the French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not,
+Confucius alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the
+Chinese by the same factor.
+
+It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a
+second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion to any
+literature saving a financial gazette or the stock and shares column
+of a daily, that nothing would have induced him to get within touching
+distance of a book save the risk of a severe wetting. Now, to his
+unutterable disgust, he found himself surrounded by the things he
+loathed. Books ancient--very ancient, judging by their bindings--and
+modern--histories, biographies, novels and magazines--anything from
+ten dollars to five cents, and all arrayed with most laudable tact
+according to their bulk and condition. But Hamar was neither to be
+tempted nor mollified. He frowned at one and all alike, and the
+colossal edition of Miss Somebody or Other's poems--that by reason of
+its magnificent cover of crimson and gold occupied a most prominent
+position--met with the same vindictive reception as the tattered and
+torn volumes of Whittier stowed away in an obscure corner.
+
+Backing still further into the entrance of the store for a better
+protection from the rain, which, now falling heavier and heavier, was
+blown in by the wind, Hamar collided with a stand of books, with the
+result that one of them fell with a loud bang on the pavement.
+
+A man, evidently the owner of the store, and unmistakably a Jew,
+instantly appeared. Picking up the book, and wiping it with a dirty
+handkerchief, he thrust it at Hamar.
+
+"See!" he said, "you have damaged this property of mine. You must
+either buy it or give me adequate compensation."
+
+"What!" Hamar cried, "compensation for such rubbish as that? Why all
+your books together are not worth five dollars. Indeed I've seen twice
+as many sold at a sale for half that amount. You can't Jew me!"
+
+The two men eyed each other quizzically.
+
+"Perhaps," the owner of the store observed slowly, "perhaps some of
+your ancestors were once Yiddish. In which case there ought to be a
+bond of sympathy between us. You may have that book for a nickel.
+What, no! Your cheeks are hollow, your fingers thin. A nickel is too
+much for you. I will take your chain in exchange."
+
+"And leave me the watch!" Hamar retorted, with a grim smile. "You are
+a philanthropist--not a storekeeper."
+
+"I should leave you nothing!" the Jew laughed.
+
+"There's no watch there! See!" and he pointed to the concave surface
+of the watch-pocket. "I noticed its absence at once. It's been keeping
+you alive for some days past. I'll give you four dollars on the
+chain--and you may have the book!"
+
+"The book's no good to me!" Hamar grunted. "The money is. Here! hand
+me over the four dollars and you can have the chain. It's eighteen
+carat gold and worth at least ten dollars."
+
+"Then why not take it to some one who will give you ten dollars!"
+sneered the Jew. "Because you know better. You're no greenhorn. That
+chain is fifteen carat at the most, and there's not a man in this city
+who would give you more than four dollars for it."
+
+"Very well, then!" Hamar said sulkily. "I agree. No! the money first."
+
+The Jew dived deep down into his trouser pocket, and, after foraging
+about for some seconds, produced a handful of greasy coins, out of
+which he carefully selected the sum named.
+
+Hamar, who had been watching him greedily, grabbed the coins, bit them
+with his teeth, and rang them on the counter. With an air of relief he
+then slipped his watch-chain into the outstretched palm before him,
+remarked upon the fact that the rain had suddenly ceased, and prepared
+to take his departure.
+
+"Here's the book!" the Jew ejaculated, whilst his face became suffused
+with a smirk. "Don't go without it. Now! there's no knowing but what
+we may not have further dealings with one another. I'm a
+money-lender--I've a place down-stairs--I take all sorts of
+things--all sorts of things. On the strict Q.T. mind. Sabez!"
+
+In another moment Hamar found himself standing on the wet pavement,
+nursing the four dollars in his waistcoat pocket with one hand, and
+mechanically clutching the despised volume with the other. Had he ever
+acted upon impulse, he would most certainly have hurled the book into
+the gutter; but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion that it
+would be better to dispose of it less obstrusively.
+
+It was now evening, and having tasted nothing since mid-day, he
+realized, for at least the hundredth time that week, that he was
+hungry. The touch of the dollars, however, only made him smile. He
+could eat his full for twenty-five cents and yet live well for another
+four days. And, besides, he still had a tie-pin and a fur coat. He
+might get a dollar on the one and two, if not two and a half, on the
+other; which would carry him through till the end of the week when
+something else might turn up--something which would not involve too
+hard work and would just keep him clear of jail. He turned sharply
+down Montgomery Street, crossed Kearney Street, and slipped
+noiselessly through the side doorway of a restaurant, in a
+suspicious-looking alley, not a hundred yards distant from the
+gorgeously illuminated Palace Hotel. Here, within five minutes, he was
+served with as good a meal as one could get in San Francisco for the
+money--and if the table linen was not as clean as it might have been,
+the food was not a whit the less excellent for that. At least so Hamar
+thought; and it was not until there was nothing left to eat that he
+left off eating. When he thought no one was looking in his direction,
+he popped the despised book under his chair and rose to go. Before he
+had gone ten yards, however, one of the waiters came running after
+him.
+
+"Hi, sir, stop, sir!" the fellow cried. "You've left something
+behind!" And in spite of Hamar's denials the officious menial
+persisted the book was his. In the end Hamar was obliged to submit.
+He took the book, and rewarded the waiter with curses.
+
+Hamar next tried to dispose of it down the area of a Chinese laundry;
+but a policeman saw him, and he only escaped being taken up on
+suspicion, by parting with a dollar. This was the climax. He did not
+dare make any further attempt to dispose of the book, but, with bitter
+hatred in his heart, tucked it savagely under his arm, and made direct
+for his room in 115th Street.
+
+To his annoyance--for under the circumstances he preferred to be
+alone--he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They
+were Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues
+at Meidler, Meidler & Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had
+been thrown out of work when the firm had "smashed." Since that affair
+Hamar had studiously avoided them. It was true he had once been as
+friendly with them as he deemed it politic to be friendly with any
+one; but now--they were out of employment, and in danger of
+starvation. That made all the difference. He did not believe in
+poverty encouraging poverty, any more than he believed in charity
+among beggars. He had nothing to share with them, not even a thought;
+and resolving to get rid of his quondam friends as soon as possible,
+he confined his welcome to a frown.
+
+"Hulloa! what's the matter?" Kelson exclaimed. "When a man frowns like
+that, it usually means he is crossed in love."
+
+"Or has an empty stomach, which amounts to the same thing," Curtis
+interposed. "Come--let the sun loose, Leon! We've good news for
+you!--haven't we, Matt?"
+
+Kelson nodded.
+
+"What is it, then?" Hamar grunted. "Have you both got cancer?"
+
+"No! We've come to borrow from you!"
+
+"Then you've come to the wrong shop! I'm about done, and unless
+something turns up mighty quick I shall clear out."
+
+"For good?"
+
+"I don't count on being a ghost nor yet an angel," Hamar said; "when
+we've done here, I reckon we've done altogether!"
+
+"I shouldn't have thought suicide was in your line," Curtis remarked.
+"More Matt's. I should have credited you with something more
+original."
+
+"Original!" Hamar snarled. "I defy any man to be original when he
+hasn't a cent, and his stomach contains nothing but air. Give me
+money, give me food--then, perhaps, I'll be original."
+
+"You don't mean to say you're cleared out of grub!" Kelson and Curtis
+cried in chorus. "We've come to you as our last hope. We've neither of
+us tasted anything since yesterday."
+
+"Then you'll taste nothing again to-day--at least as far as I'm
+concerned," Hamar jeered. "I tell you I'm broke--haven't as much as a
+crumb in the room; and I've pawned everything, save the clothes you
+see me in!"
+
+"And yet you can buy books--unless--unless you stole it!" Curtis said,
+eyeing with suspicion the volume Hamar had thrown on the table.
+
+"Buy it! Not much!" Hamar cried quickly. "It's one I've had all my
+life. Belonged to my grandfather. I took it with me to-night to see
+what I could raise on it."
+
+"And no one would have it? I should guess not," Kelson said, drawing
+it towards him. "Why it's got a new label inside--S. Leipman! I know
+him. He's slick even for a Jew. This looks as if it belonged to your
+grandfather, Leon. If I'm not real mistaken you bought the book
+to-night. There's something in it you thought you could make capital
+of. Trust you for that. Now I wonder what it was!"
+
+"You're welcome to see!" Hamar sneered. "Perhaps you'd like some
+water!"
+
+"Water! Why water?"
+
+"Well, instead of tea or whisky to help digest the book. Besides, it's
+the only thing I have to offer you."
+
+"Look here, Leon," Curtis interrupted; "what's the good of behaving
+like this? We are all in the same boat--starving--desperate. So let us
+lay our heads together and see if we can't think of something--some
+way out of it."
+
+"A Burglary Company Limited, for instance!" Hamar sneered. "No! I'm
+not having any. I've neither tools nor experience. The San Francisco
+police handle one roughly, so I'm told, and hard labour isn't to my
+liking."
+
+"There are other things besides burglary!" Curtis said in tones of
+annoyance. "We might work a fake."
+
+"If I work anything of that sort," Hamar said hastily, "I work alone.
+Think of something else."
+
+"I tell you Matt and I are pretty well desperate," Curtis cried, "and
+if we don't think of something soon, we shan't be able to think at
+all. We've tried our level best to get work--we've answered every
+likely and unlikely advertisement in the papers--and all to no
+purpose. So if Providence won't help us we must help ourselves.
+Robbery, burglary, fakes, anything short of murder--it's all the same
+to us now--we're tired of starving--dead sick of it. We would do
+anything, sell our very souls for a meal. My God! I never imagined how
+terrible it is to feel so hungry. You appear to be interested, Matt.
+What is it?"
+
+"Why, look here, you fellows!" Kelson said slowly. "This book is all
+about a place called Atlantis that is said to have existed in the
+Atlantic Ocean between America and Ireland, and to have been deluged
+by an earthquake owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants. They
+practised sorcery."
+
+"Practised foolery," Hamar said. "It's tosh--all tosh! Wickedness is
+only a matter of climate--and there's no such thing as sorcery."
+
+"So I thought," Kelson replied; "but I'm not so sure now. The author
+of this book writes darned sensibly, and is apparently at no loss for
+corroborative testimony. He was a professor too. See! Thomas Henry
+Maitland, at one time Professor of English at the University of Basle
+in Switzerland. There's an asterisk against his name and a footnote in
+very old-fashioned handwriting--the 's's' are all 'f's,' and half the
+letters capitals. Listen--
+
+    "'Thomas Maitland, despite the remonstrances of his friends,
+    visited Spain. By order of the Holy Inquisition he was arrested,
+    May 5, 1693, on a charge of practising sorcery, and burned alive
+    at the Auto da Fe, in the Grand Market Square, Madrid; having in
+    the interim been subjected to such tortures as only the subtle
+    brains of the hellish inquisitors could devise. On receipt of a
+    message from him, delivered in his supernatural body, we attended
+    his execution, and can readily testify that he suffered no pain,
+    although the torments endured by those around him were pitiable to
+    behold.
+
+    "(Signed) GEORGE RICHARD POOL, Physician; and ROBERT JAMES FOX,
+    Merchant.
+
+    "Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts; August 1, 1693.'"
+
+"Rot!" Hamar said savagely; "don't waste time reading such bunkum."
+
+"It may be bunkum, but if it takes away his mind from his stomach let
+him go on," Curtis interposed. "It's very obvious you haven't arrived
+at our pitch of starvation yet, Leon, or you would welcome anything
+that would make you forget it even for a moment. Let's hear some more,
+Matt! Go on, tell us something. How to make coyottes out of paraffin
+paint, or convert a Sunday pair of pants into a glistening harem
+skirt! Anything that won't remind us of food."
+
+Thus encouraged Kelson slowly turned over the pages of the book. "I
+see it was printed and published for--I presume that means by--A.
+Bettesworth and J. Batley in Pater-noster-Row, London, England, in
+1690. Basle, London, Boston, Madrid! The author seems to have had
+wandering on the brain. By the bye, Leon, with your features you could
+easily work off a fake as 'the Wandering Jew.' There's money in
+it--people will swallow anything in that line now."
+
+"I don't see how it would profit you anyhow," Hamar snarled. "Leave my
+features alone and go on with your reading."
+
+Kelson chuckled--here was one way at least in which he could
+occasionally get even with Hamar. Hamar's features were Yiddish, and
+the Yids were none too popular in California.
+
+"Oh, all right!" he said; "if the subject is so painful I'll try and
+avoid it in future; but it's odd how some things--for instance, murder
+and noses--will out. Let me see, what have we here? 'Discovery of
+ancient books, manuscripts, etc., relating to Atlantis.' Apparently,
+Thomas Maitland, when shipwrecked on an island, called Inisturk, off
+Mayo, in Ireland, found a wooden chest of rare workmanship--he had
+seen, he says, similar ones in Egypt and Yucatan--containing some very
+ancient books--curiously bound, and some vellum manuscripts, which,
+after an infinite amount of labour, he managed to translate. The
+books, he says, were standard histories, biographies, and scientific
+works on occultism--all published in Banchicheisi, the capital of
+Atlantis--and the manuscripts, he affirms, had been transcribed by one
+Coulmenes, who believed himself to be the only survivor of a
+tremendous submarine earthquake that had destroyed the whole of
+Atlantis. The manuscripts included a diary of the events leading up to
+the catastrophe--even to the meals! How about this?--'Sunrise on the
+day of Thottirnanoge in the month of Finn-ra. Breakfasted on cornsop,
+fish (Semona, corresponding to salmon), fruit, and much sweet milk.'"
+
+"For God's sake, don't!" Curtis groaned. "Skip over that part. The
+very mention of grub makes the gnawing pain in my stomach ten times
+worse."
+
+"You're different to me then!" Hamar grinned; "I love to think of it.
+My word, what wouldn't I give to be in Sadler's now. Roast beef--done
+to a turn, eh! As only Sadler knows how! Potatoes nice and brown and
+crisp! Horseradish! Greens! Boiled celery! Pudding under the meat!
+Beer!--What, going?"
+
+Curtis had risen from the table with his fingers crammed in his ears.
+"There's a fat splice of the devil in you to-night, Leon!" he panted.
+"I've had enough of it. I'm off. Come on, Matt. If you want us, you
+know where to find us--only if we don't get something to eat
+soon--you'll find us dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BLACK ART OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+For some time after Kelson and Curtis had left him, Hamar lolled back
+in his seat, lost in thought. Thought, as he told himself repeatedly,
+should be the poor man's chief recreation--it costs nothing: and if
+one wants a little variety, and the walls of one's rooms are tolerably
+thick, one can think aloud. Hamar often did, and derived much
+enjoyment from it.
+
+"I'm convinced of one thing," he suddenly broke out; "I'd rather be
+hungry than cold. One can, in a measure, cheat one's stomach by
+chewing leather or sucking pebbles, but I'll be hanged if one can kid
+one's liver. It's cold that does me! A touch of cold on the liver! I
+could jog along comfortably on few dollars for food--but it's a fire,
+a fire I want! The temperature of this room is infernally low after
+sunset: and half a dozen coats and three pairs of pants don't make
+up for half a grateful of fuel. Hunger only makes me think of
+suicide--but cold--cold and a chilled liver--makes me think of crime.
+Yes, it's cold! Cold that would make me a criminal. I would
+steal--burgle--housebreak--cut the sweetest lady's throat in
+Christendom--for a fire!
+
+"There! that little outbreak has relieved me. Now let me have a look
+at the book."
+
+He dragged the volume towards him, and despite the feeling of
+antagonism with which it had inspired him, and despite the cynical
+attitude he had, up to the present, adopted towards the supernatural,
+he speedily became engrossed. On a few leaves, somewhat clumsily
+inserted between the cover and first page of the book, Hamar read an
+account, presumably in the author's own penmanship, of how he, Thomas
+Maitland, after being shipwrecked, had remained on Inisturk Island for
+a fortnight before being rescued, and had spent the greater portion of
+that time in examining the books, etc., in the chest he had found--his
+only food--shell-fish and a keg of mildewy ship's biscuits.
+
+He was taken, so the account ran, by his rescuers, on the barque
+_Hannah_, to London, where he lived for five years. His lodgings were
+in Cheapside, and it was there that he compiled his work on Atlantis,
+having obtained his subject matter from the Atlantean books he had
+managed to bring with him, and which, after an enormous amount of
+perseverance and labour, he had translated into English. Though these
+books were subsequently destroyed in a big fire that demolished the
+entire street, luckily for him, he had sent his MS. to the publishers,
+Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley, a week or so before the conflagration
+broke out; so that he was, at any rate, spared the loss of his own
+arduous and invaluable work.
+
+The publishers did not accept the MS. at once. At that time there were
+very severe laws in operation against anything savouring of witchcraft
+and magic, and as the manuscript dealt at length with these subjects,
+and in a manner that left no doubt whatever that he, Thomas Maitland,
+had practised sorcery extensively, Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were
+forced to consider whether it would be injurious to them to publish
+it. Mrs. Bettesworth was eventually consulted--as indeed she always
+was, on extraordinary occasions--and her interest in the MS. being
+roused, she decided in its favour. Within a week of its publication,
+however, it was suppressed by law; all the copies saving three
+presentation ones to the author, which he successfully concealed, were
+destroyed; Messrs. Bettesworth and Batley were put in the stocks on
+Ludgate Hill and fined heavily, and he, Thomas Maitland, was ordered
+to be arrested, flogged and imprisoned.
+
+"But," wrote Maitland, "I was not to be caught napping. My previous
+adventures and hairbreadth escapes had rendered me unusually wary, and
+perceiving a number of people, among whom were two or three sheriff's
+officers, approaching my house, I at once interpreted their mission,
+and climbing through a trap-door leading on to the roof of the
+building, nimbly made my way to the end of the row, and slipping down
+a waterpipe easily eluded my enemies. London, however, being now too
+hot to hold me, I booked passage on board the _Peterkin_, a Thames
+trading vessel of some eighty tons, and sailed for Boston. My flight
+had been so hasty that I brought very little with me--nothing in fact
+except the clothes I stood in--a stout winter suit of home-spun brown
+cloth, a cloak, and a pair of good, strong leather leggings--a purse
+of fifty sovereigns (all I had), a knife, pistol and two copies of my
+precious book, the third copy, alas! I had left behind in my hurry."
+
+After giving a few unimportant details as to his life on board ship,
+Maitland went on to say:--
+
+"Owing to a succession of storms the _Peterkin_ was driven out of her
+course, and after narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces on the
+Florida reefs, Lat. 24-1/2 deg. N., Long. 82 deg. W., we ran ashore with the
+loss of only two lives--the second mate and cabin boy--on the Isthmus
+of Yucatan, close to the estuary of a river.[1] Here we were forced to
+spend nearly a year, during which time I made several journeys of
+exploration into the interior of the continent. In the course of one
+of my rambles amid a dense mass of tropical foliage, I suddenly found
+myself face to face with a gigantic stone Sphinx, which I at once
+recognized and identified. It was Tat-Nuada, an Atlantean deity,
+elaborately described in one of the burned books. Much excited, I set
+to work, and, after clearing the base of the idol of fungi and other
+vegetable growth adhering to it, discovered a superscription in
+Atlantean dialect to the effect that the image had been set up there
+by one Hullir--to commemorate the destruction of Atlantis, of which
+catastrophe Hullir believed himself and his family, _i.e._ his wife
+Ozilmeave and daughters, Taramoo and Niketoth, and the crew of his
+yacht, the _Chaac-molre_ (ten in number), the sole survivors.
+
+"Here, then, to my unutterable joy, was strong corroborative evidence
+of the great disaster narrated in detail in the manuscripts I had
+found in Inisturk Island. The existence of Atlantis was now thoroughly
+substantiated. On all sides of me I stumbled across further evidences
+of these early settlers. Here, standing in bold outline on a slight
+eminence, was a stone edifice adorned with symbolical carvings of
+eggs, harps, mastodons, triangles, and numerous other objects, all of
+which were capable of interpretation, and indicated that the building
+was a temple to some god.
+
+"I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity in many of the
+things I saw--notably in the sphinx, idols and symbols--to many I had
+seen in Egypt, and to some extent in Ireland, and I at once set to
+work to draw up a careful analogy between the languages of those
+countries.
+
+"The word Banchicheisi[2] I found to contain the Celtic ban, a barrow;
+and Coptic isi, plenty; whilst I recognized in the words Coulmenes,[3]
+the Celtic Coul, a man's name, _i.e._ Finn, son of Coul; in
+Thottirnanoge, the Coptic Thoth, _i.e._ name of ancient Egyptian
+deity, and Erse Tirnanoge, the name of the wife of Oisin, the last of
+the Feni; in Chaac-molree[4] the Coptic deity, re; in Ozilmeave,[5]
+the Celtic Meave, a girl's name; in Taramoo,[6] the Celtic Tara, a
+girl's name; and in Niketoth,[7] toth, the Erse technical form of
+feminine gender; and comparing the alphabets I traced a very striking
+likeness between the Atlantean--
+
+"[Atlantean: a] (a) and the Gaelic or Erse [Erse: A]
+[Atlantean: B] (B) and the Coptic [Coptic: B]
+[Atlantean: d] (d) and Erse [Erse: D]
+[Atlantean: g] (g) and Erse [Erse: g]
+[Atlantean: T] (T) and Coptic [Coptic: T]
+
+"and many of the other letters. To the Atlantean
+
+"[Atlantean: C, O, E, Z][8]
+
+"I could, however, find no likeness.
+
+"From all these similarities, _i.e._ in architecture, symbols,
+letters, and words, I could come to no other conclusion than that
+there was some strong connecting link between Atlantis and ancient
+Ireland and Egypt.
+
+"Assuredly this great link could not have been merely due to stray
+survivors of the great catastrophe! Was it not much more probable that
+the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Egypt had originally migrated
+from Atlantis, carrying its language, and ways and customs with them?
+Moreover, since the Atlanteans were so deeply versed in magic and
+everything appertaining to the occult, this migration would account
+for the mysticism that has always been so closely associated with
+Egypt and Ireland, and for the psychic faculty so strongly observable
+in the inhabitants of these two countries.
+
+"I was highly satisfied--I had proved much and my discoveries had
+upset many of the theories advanced by the modern sages. I could now
+positively assert that the wisdom of the world came not from the East
+but from the West. It was to the golden West--to Banchicheisi, capital
+of Atlantis, that humanity owed its knowledge of the sciences and
+arts, and of all things good and evil. Eden, if Eden existed at all,
+was not in Asia, it was in Atlantis; and the Deluge, that is recorded
+in the Hebrew Bible, and is traditional in the histories of nearly
+every tribe and nation, was none other than the mighty inrush of the
+ocean over Atlantis, due to some abnormal submarine earthquake.
+
+"Of what eventually became of the Atlanteans whose relics I had so
+opportunely alighted upon, I could only surmise.
+
+"The last record I found was on a tablet set up by Niketoth. On this
+she spoke of the death of Hullir and Ozilmeave, of the inter-marriage
+of the crew of the _Chaac-molre_ with native women; of the consequent
+growth of the colony; and of her determination to leave it, and,
+accompanied by a chosen few, to push her way further inland.[9]
+
+"The anxiety of my comrades to leave the continent, perforce put an
+end to my explorations, and in the beginning of the year 1692--exactly
+ten months after our landing--the _Peterkin_ was refloated.
+
+"This time nothing happened to impede our progress, and in April of
+the same year, we sighted Boston. Here I remained for some months,
+making many new friends, and studying magic and sorcery. But the love
+of travel had laid so strong a hold on me that I again took to a
+roving life. I set sail for Spain in November 1692; landed at Corunna,
+and made my way to Madrid, where I arrived on January 1, 1693."
+
+For the rest, Hamar had to turn to Messrs. Fox and Pool's addendum,
+_i.e._ the footnote that Matt Kelson had read aloud.
+
+Hamar was now inclined to regard the book in a very different light.
+What he had read seemed to him to be set down in too simple,
+straightforward, and, at the same time, detailed a manner to be other
+than true. Up to the present he had not believed in ghosts and
+witches, for the very simple reason that--like all sceptics--he had
+never inquired into the testimony respecting them. He had pooh-poohed
+the subject, because every one he knew pooh-poohed it, and also
+because it had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But
+provided he thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in
+anything--in Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or
+any other creed; and granted the book he had in his hands was
+really written by Maitland, and Maitland was _bona fide_ (which Hamar
+saw no reason to doubt), and granted, also, that Maitland was sane and
+logical--which from his writing he certainly appeared to be--then
+there was a certain amount in the volume that in Hamar's opinion
+was "a find." Needless to say, he referred to the magic of the
+Atlanteans--the art through the practice of which they had got in
+touch with the Powers that could endow them with riches. The actual
+history of Atlantis--once he was satisfied there had been such a
+place--did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly, and I
+append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent and
+disinterested readers.
+
+The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world--they
+existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their
+mariners and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom
+their novelists wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore
+Cooper and Mayne Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful
+stories about the Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they
+believed that, in the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that
+some of these Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst
+others--neither benevolent nor malevolent--were merely neutral. To the
+benevolent creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in
+the world (_i.e._ certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals,
+insects, and pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and
+agreeable in the human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the
+arts and sciences--in a word all that in any degree affected the
+welfare of mankind; and to the malevolent creative Powers they
+attributed all that was noxious in creation; all that was harmful to
+man, and detrimental to his moral and physical progress (_i.e._
+diseases, and all savage and filthy passions); all races of low
+intelligence, viz. Paleolithic and Neolithic man--and all those born
+with black or red skins (those colours being particularly significant
+of the malignant Occult Elements); all destructive animals; (_i.e._
+reptiles such as the teleosaurus, steneosaurus, etc.; birds, such as
+the ptereodactyl, vulture, eagle, etc.; mammals, such as the cave
+lion, cave tiger, etc.; fish, such as the shark, octopus, etc.); and
+all ugly and venomous insects.
+
+These earliest records show that at one time the physical and
+superphysical world were in close touch; all kinds of spirits--trolls,
+pixies, nymphs, satyrs, imps, Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.--mixing
+freely with living human beings; but that as the population increased
+and civilization evolved, superphysical manifestations became more and
+more rare, until finally they became restricted to certain conditions
+dependent on time and locality.[10]
+
+Up to this period there had been no state religion--no temples in
+Atlantis. If any one wished for a particular favour from the Occult
+Powers--for example, from the Rabses, the Occult Powers of music; the
+Brakvos, the Occult Powers of medicine; or the Derinas, the Occult
+Powers of love, they retired to some secluded spot and held direct
+intercourse with these Powers. The idea of praying to an invisible
+being--who might or might not hear them--never entered their minds;
+they were far too matter of fact for that--and it was not until
+superphysical manifestations had become confined to a very select few,
+that the plan of erecting public buildings in spots frequented by the
+spirits, so that all who wished could assemble there and communicate
+with them, was proposed and put into operation. In these buildings,
+however, the spirits did not choose always, to appear to
+order--sometimes they quitted the spot where the edifice had been
+erected; sometimes they would only appear there periodically; and
+sometimes, out of perversity, they would appear when least expected.
+But whether occult manifestations really took place in these buildings
+or not, those assembled to see them were persuaded by those in charge
+of the building, who saw thereby an opportunity of making money, that
+the spirits were actually there; and in due time these buildings
+became known as temples, and their showmen as priests. Every temple
+was dedicated to an individual spirit--one to the Spirit Bara-boo;
+another to the Spirit Karaboro, and so on; whilst in the absence of
+genuine spirit manifestations, prayers, incantations and rituals,
+invented by the priests, always attracted a large concourse of people
+to these temples, and finally proved a greater source of attraction
+than the spirits themselves.
+
+It was to gain favours from the Occult Powers that donations from the
+public were at first invited, then demanded; and the priests in this
+manner accumulated vast fortunes. Later on, too, there sprang up, in
+connection with these temples, colleges for the training of young
+men--invariably selected from the wealthy classes--to the priesthood;
+and from the parents of these youthful aspirants large fees, which in
+course of time became exorbitant, were extracted, thereby furnishing
+another source of revenue to the priests. The most famous colleges for
+the training of priests in Atlantis were those of Bara-boo-rek[11] at
+Keisionwo, Karaboro-rek at Diniangek, and Ballygarap-rek at Tijimin.
+
+It was in the reign of Barrahneil,[12] fifty-first sovereign of the
+Dynasty of Shaotak, that the evocation of spirits (from which modern
+spiritualism takes its origin) commenced. Barrahneil was most eager to
+see a superphysical manifestation. Being of a somewhat poetical turn
+of mind he was particularly enamoured of fairies, and in the hope of
+seeing one, constantly frequented their favourite haunts, _i.e._
+woods, caves, and lonely isolated habitations. But all to no
+purpose--they never would manifest themselves to him. At last, he lost
+patience. Against the advice of his oldest and most trusty
+counsellors, and accompanied by one or two of his favourite courtiers,
+he went to an excessively lonely spot in the heart of a desert, and
+besought spirits--spirits of any sort--he did not care what--to
+manifest themselves. To his surprise--for he had grown extremely
+sceptical--an Occult form, half man and half beast,[13] materialized.
+It informed them that it was Daramara, _i.e._ in Atlantis, the
+Unknown--that it had no beginning and no end, and that it would remain
+an impenetrable mystery to them during their existence in the physical
+sphere, but would be fully revealed to them when they passed over into
+Malanok--one of the superphysical planes. On this, and on several
+subsequent occasions, when it manifested itself to them, it gave them
+instructions with regard to evocation, and described to them the tests
+they must undergo before they could acquire the great powers the
+Unknown was able to bestow on them, namely, (1) second sight; (2)
+divining other people's thoughts and detecting the presence of waters
+and metals; (3) thought transference, _i.e._ being able to transmit
+messages, irrespective of distance, from one brain to another without
+any physical medium; (4) hypnotism; (5) the power to hold converse
+with animals; (6) invisibility, _i.e._ dematerializing at will; (7)
+walking on, and breathing under, water; (8) inflicting all manner of
+diseases and torments; (9) curing all kinds of diseases; (10)
+converting people into beasts and minerals; (11) foretelling the
+future by palmistry, pyromancy, hydromancy, astrology, etc.; (12)
+conjuring up all manner of spirits antagonistic to men's moral
+progress, _i.e._ Vice Elementals--Vagrarians, Barrowvians, etc.
+
+Taking every care to observe the greatest secrecy, Barrahneil caused a
+full account of these interviews with Daramara, together with all the
+instructions the latter had given him, to be transcribed in a book,
+which he called _Brahnapotek_[14]--or the _Book of Mysteries_; and
+which he kept sealed and guarded in a room in his palace.
+
+During his lifetime no one held communication with Daramara saving
+himself and his friends, but after his death the secret of black magic
+leaked out; countless people sought to acquire it, and ultimately the
+practice of it became universal. But the Atlanteans little knew the
+danger they were incurring. The spirits they conjured up--though at
+first subservient, that is to say, mere instruments--at length
+obtained complete dominion over them--the whole race became steeped in
+crime and vice of every kind--and so horrible were the enormities
+perpetrated that, fearful lest Man should be entirely obliterated the
+benevolent Occult Powers, after a desperate struggle with the
+malevolent Occult Powers, succeeded, by means of a vast earthquake, in
+submerging the Continent and hurling it to the bottom of the Atlantic
+Ocean, where, what remains of it, now lies. This catastrophe took
+place in the reign of Aboonirin, twentieth sovereign of the Dynasty of
+Molonekin--three thousand years after the reign of Barrahneil.
+
+So ran the history of Atlantis, or at least all of it that need be
+quoted for the elucidation of this story. That Black Magic--the Black
+Art of the Atlanteans was by no means dead--Hamar felt convinced, and
+if Maitland could resuscitate it--why could not he? At any rate he
+might try. He could lose nothing by giving it a trial--at least
+nothing to speak of--the outlay on chemicals would be a mere
+song--whereas, on the other hand, what might he not gain! He eagerly
+perused the tests--the test he must impose upon himself before he
+could get in touch with the Unknown, and acquire the magic
+powers--which, according to Thomas Maitland, were copied from the
+original Brahnapotek, and including a preface, ran as follows:
+(_Preface_) "It is essential that the person desirous of being
+initiated into the Black Art--the Art of communicating with the
+Unknown (Daramara) in order to acquire certain great powers, should
+dismiss from his mind all ideas of moral progress, and wholly
+concentrate on the bettering of his material self--on acquiring riches
+and fame in the physical sphere. His aspirations must be entirely
+earthly, and all his affections subordinate to his main desire for
+wealth and carnal pleasures. Having acquired this preliminary
+psychological stage, for one clear week he must give himself up
+entirely to the breaking of all the conventionalities of morality with
+which society is hedged in. He must practice every kind of
+deception--lie, cheat and steal, and go out of his way to seek an
+opportunity to avenge any personal injury; and if his mind is
+earnestly and wholly concentrated on acquiring knowledge of the Black
+Art no bodily mishap will befall him. During this time of probation he
+must will himself to dream, at night, of all the deeds he had it in
+his mind to do, during the day; when he will know, by his visions, to
+what extent he is progressing. At the end of the week he must apply
+the tests to see if he is in a ripe state to proceed.
+
+    "The tests--
+
+    "No. 1. At midnight, when the moon is full, place a mirror, set in
+    a wooden frame, in a tub of water, so that it will float on the
+    surface with its face uppermost. Put in the water fifteen grains
+    of bicarbonate of potash, and sprinkle it with three drops of
+    blood, not necessarily human If the reflection of the moon in the
+    mirror then appear crimson, the test is satisfactorily
+    accomplished.
+
+    "No. 2. At midnight, when the moon is full, take a black cat, place
+    it where the moonbeams are thickest, sprinkle it with three drops
+    of blood, not necessarily human, and rub its coat with the palm of
+    the hand. Sparks will then be given out, and if those sparks
+    appear crimson the test is satisfactorily done.
+
+    "No. 3. Take a human skull--preferably that of some person who has
+    met with an unnatural end, pour on it a single drop of fresh,
+    human blood--place it on a couch, and go to sleep with the back
+    part of the head resting on it. If you are awakened, at the second
+    hour after midnight, by hearing a great commotion close at hand,
+    and the room is then discovered to be full of crimson light, the
+    test is satisfactorily fulfilled.
+
+    "No. 4. Take half a score of the berries of enchanter's
+    nightshade,[15] two ounces of hemlock leaves in powder, and one
+    ounce of red sorrel leaves. Heat them in an oven for two hours,
+    pound them together, in a mortar, and at midnight boil them in
+    water. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, remove them from
+    the fire and stand them in a dark place; and if the experiment is
+    to prove satisfactory, three bubbles of luminous green light will
+    rise simultaneously from the water and burst.
+
+    "No. 5. In the above preparation after the test described, soak a
+    hazel twig, fashioned in the shape of a fork. On meeting a child
+    hold the fork with the V downwards in front of its face, and if
+    the child exhibits violence and signs of terror, and falls down,
+    the experiment is successful.
+
+    "No. 6. Take a couple of handfuls of fine soil from over the spot
+    where some four-footed animal has recently been buried. Put it in
+    a tin vessel, mix with it three ounces of assafoetida and one
+    drachm of quassia chips, to which add a death's-head moth
+    (_Acherontia atropos_). Heat the vessel over a wood fire for three
+    hours. Then remove it and place it on the hearth, rake out the
+    fire and make the room absolutely dark. Keep watch beside the
+    vessel, and if, at the second hour after midnight, any strange
+    phenomena occur, the test will be known to have been
+    satisfactorily executed.
+
+    "(_Addendum_) If any of these tests fail the candidate must wait
+    for six months before giving them a further trial, and he must
+    occupy the interim by training his thoughts in the manner already
+    prescribed. But if, on the other hand, the tests have been
+    successfully performed, he can proceed with the rites appertaining
+    to the Black Art."
+
+Hamar had read so far when, with a gesture of impatience, he closed
+the book. "What a fool I am!" he exclaimed, "to waste my time with
+such stuff!... But Maitland writes in such a devilish convincing way!
+Jerusalem! Any straw is good enough for the drowning man, and if
+witchcraft and sorcery with motors dashing by every second and the
+whole air alive with wireless and telephones, is a bit beyond my
+comprehension, what then? All I care about is money--and I'll leave no
+stone unturned to get it. If it were possible for man to get in touch
+with Daramara--the Unknown--Devil, or whatever else it chooses to call
+itself--I'll call it an angel if it only gives me money--twenty
+thousand years ago--why shouldn't it be possible to get in touch with
+it now? Anyhow as I said before, I'll have a try. As far as the
+preliminary stage is concerned, I fancy I'm pretty well fixed. My mind
+is occupied right enough with things of this world--I don't give a
+cent for anything belonging to another--and if only I had half a dozen
+souls, I'd sell them right away now, for less than twenty thousand
+dollars--a damned sight less. As for these tests--foolish isn't the
+word for them--but it won't cost much just to try them.... Now,
+according to Thomas Maitland, the ceremony of calling up the Unknown
+stands a far greater chance of success if there are three human beings
+present ... but, of course, if there is any truth in this business,
+I'd rather keep the secret of it to myself. However, if I try alone,
+the Unknown may not come to me, and then I shall have had all the
+trouble of going through the tests for nothing!... Ah! now I see! If
+the other two get more of the profits than I think necessary--I can
+make use of my newly acquired Occult Power to--to dissolve
+partnership! Ha! ha! I could--I could trick the Unknown if it comes to
+that. Trust a Jew to outwit the Devil! I'll just look up Kelson
+and--Curtis."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 1: The river referred to by Maitland is the river
+  Lagartos, which was then (1691) unnamed.]
+
+  [Footnote 2: For chiche compare the ancient Maya or Yucatan word
+  Chicken-Itza (_i.e._ name of town in Yucatan where excavations are
+  now taking place--1912).]
+
+  [Footnote 3: For Menes compare Mayan Menes, wise men.]
+
+  [Footnote 4: Compare Mayan Chaac-mol, a leopard.]
+
+  [Footnote 5: Compare Ozil, Mayan for well-beloved.]
+
+  [Footnote 6: Moo, Mayan for Macaw.]
+
+  [Footnote 7: Nike, woman's name in Mayan.]
+
+  [Footnote 8: Recent (1912) discoveries of statues in Easter Island
+  still further corroborate the sinking of Atlantis.
+
+  The Atlantean character [C] resembles the Easter Island [C] (C)
+          "         "     [O]     "        "      "       [O] (O)
+          "         "     [E]     "        "      "       [E] (E)
+          "         "     [Z]     "        "      "       [Z] (Z)
+
+  It will be noticed that all the Atlantean characters are
+  distinguished by additional curling strokes.]
+
+  [Footnote 9: In all probability she was the founder of Chicken-Itza,
+  the capital of Yucatan.]
+
+  [Footnote 10: Types of Elementals still to be met with in certain
+  localities (vide _Byeways of Ghostland_, published by Rider & Son).]
+
+  [Footnote 11: Compare Egyptian re.]
+
+  [Footnote 12: Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil
+  was the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is
+  every possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to
+  Ireland, carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic--to which
+  might be traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.]
+
+  [Footnote 13: Probably a Vice Elemental.]
+
+  [Footnote 14: All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were
+  founded on it.]
+
+  [Footnote 15: Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in
+  botany as _Circaea_. It is found in damp, shady places and was used
+  to a very large extent in mediaeval sorcery.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LEARNING TO SIN
+
+
+Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the
+Popes hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are
+wont to entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there
+were no massive granite steps flanked with equally massive
+pillars--such as herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare
+glass bow-windows looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast
+betiled hall, with rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak
+staircases; no frescoed ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk
+draperies; and no sweet perfumery--only the smell, if one may so
+suddenly sink to a third-class expression--only the smell of rank
+tobacco and equally rank lager beer. No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis
+resided within a stone's throw of the five cent baths in Rutter
+Street--and that was the nearest they ever got to bathing. Their suite
+of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by eight feet, which
+served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir, kitchen,
+bedroom, and--from sheer force of habit, I was about to add bathroom;
+but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs and
+chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
+furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
+reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
+six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes--a pair of
+discarded overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck
+wrap, a yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round
+and rather rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited
+number of culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most
+important. Its handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for
+frying, roasting and boiling, did duty for a teapot and a slop-basin.
+They had no crockery. They had only one thing in abundance--namely,
+air; for the lower frame of the window having long lacked glass in it,
+a couple of pages of the _Examiner_, fixed in it, flapped dismally
+every time the wind came blowing down 216th Street.
+
+They had not lived there always. In the palmy days of work, before the
+firm smashed, they had aspired to what might properly be called
+diggings; and, moreover, had "digged" in respectable surroundings. It
+was the usual thing--the thing that is happening always, every hour of
+the day, in all the great cities of the world--starvation, through
+lack of employment. Civilization still shuts its eyes to everyday
+poverty. Who knows? Who cares? Who is responsible? No one. Is there a
+remedy? Ah! that is a question that requires time. Time--always time!
+Time for the politician, and time for the starving ones! Half the
+world thinks, whilst half the world dies; and the cause of it all is
+time--too much, a damned sight too much--time!
+
+But Kelson and Curtis could not grumble. They had their room--bare,
+dirty and well-ventilated--for next to nothing. Fifty cents a week!
+And they could furnish it as they pleased. Fancy that! What a
+privilege! They were glad of it all the same--glad of it in preference
+to the streets; and probably, when asleep, they thought of it as home.
+But on leaving Hamar's, that evening, they had fully resolved to
+convert their little room into a cemetery. What else could they do?
+What can any one do who has no money and no prospect of getting any,
+and who has reached the pitch of acute hunger? He has passed the stage
+of wanting work, because, if work were offered to him, he would not be
+in a fit state to do it--he would be too weak. Too weak to work! What
+a phenomenon! Yes--to all those who have never missed a day's meals.
+To others--no! They can understand--and understand only too well--the
+really poor who have long ceased to eat, cannot work--they are beyond
+it.
+
+When Curtis and Kelson staggered down the stairs of the house where
+Hamar lodged, they realized that unless something turned up pretty
+soon, it would be too late--they would be past the stage of caring for
+anything--too feeble to do anything but lie on the ground and pray
+that death would come quickly.
+
+"Home?" Kelson inquired, as they emerged on to the pavement.
+
+"Hell!" Curtis answered, and Kelson, taking it for granted that the
+terms were synonymous, at once headed for their garret.
+
+"Don't walk so confoundedly fast," Curtis gasped; "this pain in my
+side is like a hundred stitches rolled in one. It fairly doubles me
+up. Ease down a bit, for heaven's sake!"
+
+Kelson obeyed, and presently came to a dead halt before a
+dingy-looking restaurant. Both men leaned against the window and gazed
+wolfishly at the food. A warm, foetid rush of air from under the
+grating at their feet tickled their nostrils and mocked their hunger
+with a mockery past endurance. Arranged on the window-sill was a
+miscellaneous collection of very smeary plates and dishes, containing
+an even more miscellaneous collection of food. A half-consumed ham,
+with more than a mere suspicion of dirt on its yellowish-white fat;
+some concoction in a bowl that might have been brawn made from some
+peculiarly liverish pig, or--from one of the many homeless mongrels
+that roam the streets at night; a pile of noxious-looking mussels,
+side by side with a glistening mass of particularly yellow whelks; a
+round of what purported to be beef--very fat and very underdone; some
+black shiny sausages, and a score or so of luridly red polonies. A
+similar assortment was to be seen on the counter behind which lolled
+an anaemic girl, in a dirty cotton blouse, and a much soiled sky-blue
+skirt.
+
+A month ago such an exhibition would have been an offence in the
+fastidious eyes of Messrs. Kelson and Curtis; but now it was
+otherwise. Their stomachs would have refused nothing short of garbage.
+
+"Matt!" Curtis's hands had left off clutching at his belt and were now
+hanging by his side; the fingers twitching to and fro in a manner that
+fascinated Kelson. "Matt! Is there any logic in our starving?"
+
+"None, excepting that we haven't a cent between us!" Kelson rejoined.
+
+"I know that," Curtis went on slowly, "but--I mean--why should we
+starve when all this grub is within two inches of us! It's
+unreasonable--it's intolerable."
+
+"Doesn't the smell of it satisfy you?" Kelson replied, attempting to
+force a smile, and failing dismally.
+
+"D--n the smell!" Curtis cried. "It's the ham I want. I'd give my soul
+for a good munch at it. And just look at that tea, too! Don't you see
+it steaming over there? What wouldn't I give for just one cup! Ten
+minutes more and it may be too late. The pain will come on again--and
+it will be very doubtful if I shall ever get home. I'm close on the
+stage when one begins to digest one's own stomach. Curse it! I won't
+starve any longer! Matt! she's in there all by herself!"
+
+"So I've been thinking," Kelson murmured, glancing uneasily up and
+down the street. "Still she's a girl, Ed!"
+
+"That's just it!" Curtis whispered; "it is because she is a girl. If
+she were a man, in our present condition we shouldn't stand a chance.
+Come! It's this or dying in the gutters. It's our one and only chance.
+Let's go in--have a feed--take what we can and make a bolt for it. If
+she tries to stop us we can settle her right enough."
+
+"Without being too rough! There's no need to be too rough with her,
+Ed."
+
+"I shouldn't stick at much!" Curtis answered. "Occasions like these
+don't admit of chivalry. Come along! It's the ham I'm after."
+
+Curtis shuffled forward as he spoke, and the next moment Kelson and he
+were standing in front of the counter.
+
+The girl eyed Curtis very dubiously and it is more than likely would
+have refused to serve him had he been alone. But her expression
+changed on looking at Kelson. Kelson was one of those individuals who
+seldom fail to meet with the approval of women--there was a something
+in him they liked. Probably neither he nor they could have defined
+that something; but there it was, and it came in extremely handy now.
+
+"What do you want?" she inquired shortly.
+
+"Ham! Give me some of that ham over there, miss, and a cup of tea!
+Bread too!" Curtis cried eagerly. "Do you know what it is to have a
+twist on, miss? I have one on now--so please give us a full
+twenty-five cents' worth."
+
+Kelson said nothing, but his eyes glistened, and the girl wondered as
+she passed him the polonies.
+
+Both men ate as they had never eaten before, and as they would not have
+eaten now had they paid any attention to the advice of hunger experts.
+However, they survived, and when they could eat no more they leaned
+back in their chairs to enjoy the sensation of returning--albeit,
+slowly returning--strength.
+
+Curtis was the first to make a move. "Matt," he murmured, "we've about
+sat our sit. We'd better be off. You go and say a few nice words to
+the girl and make pretence of paying. I'll secure the ham--there's
+still a good bit left--and anything else I can grab. The moment I do
+this, throw these chairs on the ground so that the girl will fall over
+them when she makes a dash for me, which she is certain to do. We will
+then head straight away for 216th Street. Don't look so scared or she
+will think there is something up. She has never taken her eyes off you
+since we sat down!"
+
+"She's rather a nice girl!" Kelson said. "I wish I didn't look quite
+such a blackguard--and--I wish I hadn't to be quite such a blackguard.
+Who'll pay for all this? Will she?"
+
+"We shan't, anyway," Curtis sneered. "Come, this is no time to be
+sentimental. It was a question of life and death with us, and we've
+only done what any one else would do in our circumstances. The girl
+won't lose much! Are you ready?"
+
+Curtis rose, and Kelson, who was accustomed to obey him, reluctantly
+followed suit. A look almost suggestive of fear came into the girl's
+eyes as they encountered those of Curtis, and she shot a swift glance
+at an inner door. Then Kelson spoke, and as she turned her head
+towards him, her lips parted in a sort of smile.
+
+"Nice night, miss, isn't it?" Kelson said, halting half-way between
+the counter and the chairs. "Aren't you a bit lonely here all by
+yourself?"
+
+"Sometimes," the girl laughed. "But my mother's in the room there,"
+and she nodded in the direction of the closed door. "And one can't be
+dull when she's about. She's that there active as a rule, there's no
+keeping her quiet--only just at present"--here she glanced
+apprehensively at Curtis--"she's recovering from ague. Gets it every
+year about this time. Your friend seems to have kind of taken a fancy
+to our ham!"
+
+Kelson looked at Curtis and his heart thumped. Curtis's right hand was
+getting ready to spring at the ham, whilst his left was creeping
+stealthily along the counter in the direction of a loaf of bread.
+Kelson slowly realized that an acute crisis in both their lives was at
+hand, and that it depended on him how it would end. He had never
+thought it possible to feel as mean as he felt now. Besides, his
+natural sympathy with women tempted him to stand by the girl and
+prevent Curtis from robbing her. He was still deliberating, when he
+saw two long dark objects, with lightning rapidity, swoop down on the
+plates and dishes. There was a loud clatter, and the next moment the
+whole place seemed alive with movement.
+
+A voice which in his confusion he did not recognize at once
+shouted--and seemingly from far away--"Quick, you fool, quick! Fling
+down the chairs and grab those sausages!" Whilst from close beside
+him--almost, he fancied, in his ears--came a wild shriek of "Mother!
+Mother! We are being robbed!"
+
+Had the girl appealed to him to help her it is more than likely that
+Kelson, who was even yet undecided what course to adopt, would have
+offered her his aid; but the instant she acted on the defensive his
+mind was made up; a mad spirit of self-preservation swept over
+him--and dashing the chairs on the ground at her feet, he seized the
+sausages, and flew after Curtis.
+
+Ten minutes later, Curtis and Kelson, their arms full of spoil,
+clambered up the staircase of their lodgings, and reeled into their
+room.
+
+"Look!" Curtis gasped, sinking into the chair. "Look and see if we are
+followed!"
+
+"There's no one about!" Kelson whispered, peering cautiously out of
+the window. "Not a soul! I don't believe after that first rush across
+Rutter Street, any one noticed us. To leave off running was far the
+best thing to do. You are a perfect genius, Ed. I wonder if this sort
+of thing--er--thieving--is dormant in most of us? I say, old fellow, I
+wish I hadn't looked at that book of Hamar's. Do you know, directly I
+took it up, an extraordinary sensation of cunning came over me; and I
+declare, when I put it down, I felt it would take very little to make
+me a criminal!"
+
+"We're both criminals now--in the eyes of the law--anyway!" Curtis
+said. "And now we've got so far there's no alternative but to go on!
+It's easier for a hundred camels to pass through the eye of a needle
+than for a clerk to get work, that's a fact. The markets are
+hopelessly overstocked--no one wants us! No one helps us! No one even
+thinks about us. The labouring man gets pity and cents galore--we get
+nothing!--nothing but rotten pay whilst we work, and when we're out of
+work, dosshouses or kerbstones. D--n clerks, I say. D--n everything!
+There's no justice in creation--there's no justice in anything--and
+the only people who prate of it are those who have never known what it
+is to want. Say, when shall we take the next lot?"
+
+"When we're obliged, not before!" Kelson said. "Or rather, you do as
+you like--and I'll do the same."
+
+"Well, I'm not going to commit suicide anyhow," Curtis sneered. "We
+haven't the money to buy poison--and I've no mind to drown myself or
+cut my throat--they're too painful! If we don't go on doing what we've
+done to-night, what are we going to do?"
+
+"Trust to luck," Kelson sighed.
+
+"All right--you trust to luck--but I won't trust any more in
+Providence, and that's a fact," Curtis retorted. "We've been done
+enough. Now I'm for doing other people. Good-night."
+
+He tumbled into the makeshift bed as he spoke; and in a few minutes,
+worn out after the unwonted exertions of the evening, both men were
+fast asleep.
+
+They were at breakfast next morning--real _dejeuner a la
+carte_--sausages, bread, water--and they were doing ample justice to
+it, when some one rapped at the door. For a few seconds there was
+silence. Their hearts stood still. Had they been followed, after all?
+Was it the police? Some one spoke--and they breathed again. It was
+Hamar.
+
+"This looks like starving, I must say!" Hamar exclaimed, as he sniffed
+his way into the room and sat on the bed. "Why, from what you fellows
+told me last night I thought you were cleared out. And here you are,
+stuffing like roosters! You look a bit surprised to see me, but you'll
+look more surprised, I reckon, when I tell you what brings me here.
+You remember that book?"
+
+Kelson and Curtis nodded.
+
+"Well," Hamar went on. "I read it after you left last night, and I've
+come to the conclusion that there's something in it that may be of use
+to us."
+
+"Us!" Curtis ejaculated.
+
+"Yes! Us!" Hamar mimicked. "It contains full particulars of how we can
+get in touch with certain Occult Powers--that can give us money or
+anything else we want!"
+
+"Rot, of course!" Curtis said.
+
+"You say that now. But, listen to me," Hamar replied. "Since I've read
+that book, I believe there's a lot more in Occultism than people
+imagine. You may recollect the name of the author of the book--Thomas
+Maitland? Well! to begin with, he impresses me as being truthful; and
+he not only believed in Magic but he practised it. If he hadn't gone
+into details I shouldn't think anything of it, but he's so darned
+thorough, and tells you exactly what you've got to do to get in touch
+with the Occult Powers and to practise sorcery. He learned it all from
+that old MS. he found, written by an Atlantean; and the Atlanteans, he
+says, were adepts in every form of Occultism. I tell you, this chap
+himself scoffed at it at first; and it was more out of curiosity, he
+says, than because he was convinced, that he began to experiment. He
+afterwards came to the conclusion that the Atlanteans were no fools.
+What they had written about the Occult was absolutely correct--there
+was another world, and it was possible to get in touch with it. Now,
+if Thomas Maitland was able to practise sorcery, why can't we? There
+was a gap of close on twenty thousand years between his time and that
+of Atlantis, and there's not much more than two hundred years between
+his day and ours. But, of course, if you're going to pooh-pooh the
+whole thing I won't trouble to tell you any more!"
+
+"Well, Leon," Kelson ejaculated, "magic and sorcery do seem a trifle
+out of date, don't they? Could any one look out of the window at what
+is going on in the streets below, and at the same time believe in
+fairies and hobgoblins? Still the book made a bit of an impression on
+me, so that I'm inclined to agree with you. Anyway, go ahead! Ed is
+agreeable, aren't you, Ed?"
+
+Curtis gave a sulky nod. "I'm not averse to anything that may put us
+in the way of a livelihood," he said.
+
+Hamar, somewhat appeased, briefly informed them of the tests and other
+preliminaries necessary for the acquirement of the Black Art, and
+without more ado proposed that they--the three of them--should form a
+Syndicate and call it the Sorcery Company Limited. "To begin with," he
+said, "we might sell tricks and spells, and later on tackle something
+more subtle. Why, we could soon knock all the jugglers and doctors on
+the head--and make a huge fortune."
+
+"That is to say if it isn't all humbug!" Curtis observed.
+
+"Well--do you or don't you think it worth trying?" Hamar cut in. "You
+call me a Jew--but Jews, you know, have a tolerably cool head, and a
+keen faculty for business. They don't touch anything unless it is
+pretty certain to bring them in money. Will you try?"
+
+"Y-e-s!" Curtis said slowly; "I'll try."
+
+"And you, Matt?" Hamar queried. "We must have three."
+
+"I don't mind trying," Kelson replied. "I expect it will be only a
+try."
+
+"That settles it, then!" Hamar cried. "Now, we'll get to business. To
+begin with we're all wholly occupied with things of this world--money
+chiefly!"
+
+"Sometimes music!" Curtis said sententiously.
+
+"And sometimes girls," Kelson joined in. "Music's a pose on Ed's part.
+I don't believe he really cares a bit for it. He's far too material."
+
+"Just what I want him to be!" Hamar laughed. "Girls are material
+enough too--especially when you take them out to supper. Anyhow, money
+is our first consideration, isn't it?"
+
+To this there was general assent.
+
+"The preliminary requirement is fixed then," Hamar said. "Now for the
+week of wild oats! Lying, stealing, cheating--anything to counteract
+the code of Moses! Let's take them in turn. Lying won't trouble us
+much. Every one lies. Lying is the stock-in-trade of doctors, lawyers,
+sky pilots, storekeepers--"
+
+"And dentists!" Curtis chimed in.
+
+"And shop girls!" Kelson added.
+
+"All women--rich as well as poor!" Hamar went on. "Lying is woman's
+birthright. She lies about her age, her looks, her clothes--everything.
+With a lie she sends callers away, and when she is in the mood,
+entertains them with lies. Women are born liars, but they are not the
+only liars. In these days of keen competition every one lies--every
+editor, publisher, undertaker, piano-tuner, dustman--they couldn't live
+if they didn't. Moreover lying is natural to us all. Every child lies
+as soon as it can speak; and education merely teaches him to lie the
+more effectually. Lying comes just as natural as sweating--"
+
+"Or kissing," Kelson interrupted.
+
+"Or any of the other so-called vices," Hamar continued. "So we can
+manage that all right. As to cheating--having nothing to cheat
+with--according to instructions we've got to keep in with each other,
+so present company is excepted--we must pass over that. Now--how about
+thieving!"
+
+"Never done any yet, so can't say," Curtis exclaimed.
+
+"Nor I either," Kelson put in rather hurriedly.
+
+"Well, I didn't suppose you had!" Hamar laughed; "though, after all,
+more than half the world does thieve--all employers steal labour from
+their employes, all tradesmen steal a profit--the wholesale man from
+the middleman--the middleman from the retailer. Every Government
+thieves. Look at England--righteous England! At one time or another
+she has stolen land in every part of the world. But theft is an ugly
+word. When statesmen steal it's called diplomacy, when the rich steal
+it's called kleptomania or business, and it's only when the poor steal
+that stealing is termed theft. We who have every excuse--we who are
+starving--will be content with--that is to say--we will only
+take--just enough to keep us alive--a few lumps of sugar, a handful of
+raisins, or a loaf of bread. How about that?"
+
+"I might manage that," Curtis said. "I might--but I don't want to get
+caught."
+
+"And you, Matt?"
+
+"I don't mind stealing food so much," Kelson said. "In the face of so
+much wealth--and waste too--it seems a bigger sin to starve than to
+steal a loaf of bread."
+
+"The lying and stealing are fixed then," Hamar laughed. "What you have
+to do, too, is to make the most of every opportunity you can find of
+doing people--present company excepted--bad turns."
+
+"I don't see how--in our present condition--we can do any one much
+harm," Curtis remarked. "We haven't even the means to buy a tin sword,
+let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
+instead."
+
+"Possibly--but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!"
+Hamar said. "Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given
+you, and we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TESTS
+
+
+Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door
+and walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.
+
+"I see we are all right so far," he said. "I wondered whether I should
+find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death.
+Have you experimented?"
+
+"We have," Curtis said. "We've done our best. In what way, we prefer
+not to say."
+
+"Perhaps there is no need," Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf
+which bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's
+feet which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A
+handsome overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his
+attention; but that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been
+there on the occasion of his last visit.) "But you had better dry up
+now, Ed," he continued somewhat caustically, "or there'll be no chance
+of forming the Sorcery Society; it will be dissolved before it's
+started. There's no need to ask if you've tried to carry out
+instructions as to thoughts, I see it--in your faces. I could never
+have believed one experimental week in badness would have made such a
+difference to your looks."
+
+"You told us to try hard!" Kelson murmured, "and naturally we did. I
+reckon you've done the same by your expression. I should hardly have
+known you."
+
+"It shows pretty clearly," Curtis said, "what a lot of bad is latent
+in most people; and that the right circumstances only are needed to
+bring it out. Starvation, for instance, is calculated to bring out the
+evil in any one--no matter whom. But what puzzles me, is how we have
+escaped being caught!"
+
+"That's a good sign," Hamar said. "It bears out what is written in the
+book. If you give your whole mind to doing wrong during this trial
+week you'll meet with no mishap. But you must be heart and soul in it.
+Hunger made us--hunger has been our friend."
+
+"What do you mean?" Curtis said.
+
+"Why," Hamar replied, "if we hadn't been well-nigh starving we
+shouldn't have been able to carry out the instructions quite so
+thoroughly."
+
+"Have you, too, stolen?" Curtis queried.
+
+"I have certainly appropriated a few necessaries," Hamar said shortly,
+"but I mean to stop now. We have higher game to fly at. Now, with
+regard to the tests. I have not been idle I can assure you. I have
+secured all the requisites. The mirror and black cat I--well, er--to
+use a conventionalism that comes in rather handy--the mirror and
+cat--I picked up. The skull I borrowed from a medical I know--the
+moth--er--from some one's private collection--and the elderberries,
+hemlock and chemicals I obtained from a drug store man in Battery
+Street with whom I used to deal. The moon will be full to-night so
+that we may as well begin. Will you come round to my room at
+eleven-thirty?"
+
+They promised; and Hamar, as he took his departure, again glanced at
+the handsome fur coat hanging on the door.
+
+He was hardly out of hearing when Curtis looked across at Kelson. "Do
+you think he recognised it!" he whispered. "You may bet he did, and he
+had only just stolen it himself! However, it's his own fault. He told
+us to lie and steal, and we've done his bidding."
+
+"We have indeed!" Kelson sighed; "at least you have. For my part I'd
+rather be content with food!"
+
+"Well, I needed clothes just as much as food!" Curtis snarled. "If I
+went about naked I should only be sent to prison--that's the law. It
+punishes you for taking clothes, and it punishes you for going without
+them. There's logic for you!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson spent the rest of the day indoors; and at night
+sallied forth to Hamar's.
+
+The solitary attic--if one could thus designate a space of about three
+square feet--which comprised Hamar's lodging--had the advantage of
+being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper--at least a
+skyscraper for that part of the city. From its window could be seen,
+high above the serried ranks of chimney-pots on the opposite side of
+the street, those two newly erected buildings: William Carman's chewing
+gum factory in Hearnes Street, and Mark Goddard's eight-storied
+private residence in Van Ness Avenue; and, as if this were not enough
+architectural grace for the eye to dwell on, glimmering away to the
+right was the needle-like spire of Moss Bates's devil-dodging
+establishment in Branman Street; whilst, just behind it, in saucy
+mocking impudence, peeped out the gilded roof of the Knee Brothers'
+recently erected Cinematograph Palace.
+
+All this and more--much more--was to be seen from Hamar's outlook, and
+all for the sum of one dollar and a half per week. When Curtis and
+Kelson entered, the room was aglow with moonlight, and Hamar and the
+black cat were stealthily regarding one another from opposite corners
+of the room. From far away--from somewhere in the very base of the
+building, came the dull echo of a shout, succeeded by the violent
+slamming of a door; whilst from outside, from one of the many deserted
+thoroughfares below, rose the frightened cry of a fugitive woman.
+Otherwise all was comparatively still.
+
+"You're a bit early!" was Hamar's greeting, "but better that than
+late. Everything is ready, and all we've got to do is to wait till
+twelve. Sit down."
+
+They did as they were bid. Presently the cat, forsaking its sanctuary,
+and ignoring Curtis's solicitations, glided across the floor, and
+climbing on to Kelson's knee, refused to budge. The trio sat in
+silence till a few minutes before midnight, when Hamar rose, and,
+selecting a spot where the moonbeams lay thickest, placed thereon the
+tub of water, in which--with its face uppermost--he proceeded to float
+a small mirror, set in a cheap wooden frame. He then calmly produced a
+pocket knife.
+
+"What's that for?" Kelson inquired nervously.
+
+"Blood!" Hamar responded. "One of us must spare three drops. The
+conditions demand it--and after all the ham and sausages you two have
+eaten I think one of you can spare it best. Which of you shall it be?
+Come, there's no time to lose!"
+
+"Matt has more blood than I have!" Curtis growled; "but why not the
+cat?"
+
+"It would spoil our chances with it for the other experiment," Hamar
+said. "It's a sulky, cross-grained brute, and would give us no end of
+trouble. Besides it can bite. Look here, let's draw lots!"
+
+Curtis and Kelson were inclined to demur; but the proposed method was
+so in accordance with custom that there really did not seem any
+feasible objection to raise to it. Accordingly lots were drawn--and
+Hamar himself was the victim. Curtis laughed coarsely, and Kelson hid
+his smiles in the cat's coat. A neighbouring clock now began to strike
+twelve.
+
+"Look alive, Leon!" Curtis cried, nudging Kelson's elbow. "Look alive
+or it will be too late. The Unknown is mighty particular to a few
+seconds. Let me operate on you. I've always fancied I was born to use
+the knife--that I've really missed my vocation. You needn't be
+afraid--there's no artery in the palm of your hand--you won't bleed to
+death."
+
+Thus goaded, Hamar pricked away nervously at his hand, and, after
+sundry efforts, at last succeeded in drawing blood; three drops of
+which he very carefully let fall in the tub.
+
+"I wish it was light so that we could see it," Curtis whispered in
+Kelson's ear. "I believe Jews have different coloured blood to other
+people."
+
+Though Kelson was apprehensive, Hamar did not appear to have heard;
+his whole attention was riveted on the mirror, on the face of which
+was a reflection of the moon.
+
+"I knew nothing would happen," Curtis cried, "you had better wipe your
+knife or you'll be arrested for severing some one's jugular. Hulloa!
+what's up with the cat?"
+
+Hamar was about to tell him to be quiet when Kelson caught his arm.
+"Look, Leon! Look! What's the brute doing? Is it mad?" Kelson gasped.
+
+Hamar turned his head--and there crouching on the floor, in the
+moonlight, was the cat, its hair bristling on end and its green eyes
+ablaze with an expression which held all three men speechless. When
+they were at last able to avert their eyes a fresh surprise awaited
+them; the reflection of the moon in the mirror was red--not an
+ordinary red--not merely a colour--but red with a lurid luminosity
+that vibrated with life--with a life that all three men at once
+recognized as emanating from nothing physical--from nothing good.
+
+It vanished suddenly, quite as suddenly as it had come; and the
+reflection of the moon was once again only a reflection--a white,
+placid sphere.
+
+For some seconds no one spoke. Hamar was the first to break the
+silence. "Well!" he exclaimed, drawing a long breath; "what do you
+think of that!"
+
+"Are you sure you weren't faking?" Curtis said.
+
+"I swear I wasn't," Hamar replied; "besides could any one produce a
+thing like THAT? The cat didn't think it was a fake--it knew what it
+was right enough. Besides, why are your teeth chattering?"
+
+"Why are yours?" Curtis retorted; "why are Matt's?"
+
+"Shall we try the second?" Hamar asked.
+
+"No!" Kelson and Curtis said in chorus. "No! We've had enough for one
+night. We'll be off!"
+
+"I think I'll come with you," Hamar said, "after what has happened I
+don't quite relish sleeping here alone--or rather with that cat.
+Hi--Satan, where are you?"
+
+Satan was not visible. It had probably hidden under the bed, but as no
+one cared to look, its whereabouts remained undiscovered.
+
+With the coming of the sun, the terrors of the night wore off, and the
+trio separated. Hamar would on no account accept his friends'
+invitation to breakfast on the sausages and ham they had run such
+risks in procuring; he made hasty tracks for a snug restaurant in
+Bolter's Street, where he had a sumptuous repast for a dollar; and
+then slunk home.
+
+Shortly before midnight all three met again, and at once commenced
+preparations for the second test. The question arose as to who should
+hold Satan. They all had vivid recollections of the cat's behaviour
+the previous night; consequently no one was anxious to officiate.
+Finally they drew lots, and fate settled on Curtis. An exciting chase
+now began. Satan, demonstrating his resentment of their treatment of
+him, at every turn, knocked over a water bottle, ripped the skin of
+Kelson's knuckles, and made his teeth meet in the fleshy part of
+Curtis's thumb.
+
+"Hulloa! what are you up to?" Curtis savagely demanded, as Hamar
+thrust a cup at him.
+
+"Hold your hand over it!" Hamar said sharply. "Don't suck it! We want
+blood for this test and for the next."
+
+"I wish the brute had bitten you!" Curtis snarled; "then, perhaps, you
+wouldn't be so precious keen on economics. You did right to name it
+Satan! and if it doesn't attract devils nothing will. I'm not going to
+touch it again. See if you can hold the beast by yourself, Matt! It
+seems to be less afraid of you than of either of us."
+
+Kelson called out: "Puss!", and the cat at once came to him.
+
+As it was now striking twelve, Hamar carefully shook three drops of
+Curtis's blood from the cup on to Satan's back, while he instructed
+Kelson to rub the animal's coat with the palm of the hand. Kelson
+cautiously obeyed. There was a loud crackling and a shower of sparks,
+of the same lurid red colour as the reflection in the mirror on the
+previous night, flew out into the enveloping darkness.
+
+"That will do!" Hamar observed quietly. "Test two is satisfactorily
+accomplished. We must be riper for Hell than we imagined. There is no
+need for you fellows to stay any longer. I can manage the third test
+alone."
+
+As soon as his colleagues had gone and he felt assured they were no
+longer within hearing, Hamar took a saucer from the mantelshelf,
+filled it half full of milk, and poured into it some colourless liquid
+out of a tiny phial labelled poison.
+
+"Here pussy," he called out, softly. "Pretty pussy, come and have your
+supper! Pussy!"
+
+And Satan, unable to resist the tempting sight of the milk, crept out
+of his hiding-place and quite unsuspiciously dipped his tongue into
+the saucer and lapped. Hamar, in the meanwhile went to a box at the
+foot of the bed and produced a sack. Then he slipped on his boots and
+coat, and opening the door of a cupboard near the head of the bed
+fetched out a small spade.
+
+He was now ready; and--so was pussy.
+
+"That paves the way for test six," Hamar observed; "no one can say I
+am a waster--I make use of everything--and every one;" and so saying
+he tumbled the cat into the sack and hurried out.
+
+Some half-hour later he had returned to his room, and was busily
+engaged making preparations for test three. Letting a drop of Curtis's
+blood fall on the skull, he put the latter under his pillow, and
+retired to rest. He had slept for little over an hour, when he awoke
+with a start. The muffled sound of hammering--as of nails in a
+coffin--was going on all around him, and occasionally it seemed to him
+that something big and heavy stalked across the floor; but in spite of
+the fact that the room was illuminated with a red glow--the same lurid
+red as had appeared in tests one and two--nothing was to be seen. The
+phenomena lasted five or six minutes and then everything was again
+normal. Hamar was so terrified that he lay with his head under the
+bedclothes till morning, and vowed nothing on earth would persuade him
+to sleep in that room again. But sunlight soon restored his courage,
+and by the evening he was quite eager to go on with the next test. He
+had some difficulty in persuading any one to allow him the use of an
+oven for so pernicious a mixture as nightshade and hemlock; but at
+last he over-ruled the objections of some good-natured woman--the
+mother of one of the office boys at his former employer's--and test
+four proved as successful as the previous three. The preliminary part
+of test five was also successfully accomplished; but in carrying out
+the second part of it, Hamar all but met with disaster. He was walking
+along Kearney Street with the specially prepared hazel twig carefully
+concealed beneath his coat, when just opposite Saddler's jewelry
+store, he came across a child standing by itself. The nearest person
+being some fifty yards away, and no policeman within sight, Hamar
+concluded this was too good an opportunity to be lost. He whipped out
+the twig, and held it, in the manner prescribed, in front of the
+child. The effect was instantaneous. The child turned white as death,
+its eyes bulged with terror, and opening its mouth to its full extent
+it commenced to shriek and yell. Then it fell on the pavement; and
+clutching and clawing the air, and foaming at the mouth rolled over
+and over. People from every quarter flocked to the spot, and judging
+Hamar, from his proximity to the child, to be responsible for its
+condition, shouted for the police. The latter, however, arrived too
+late. Hamar, whose presence of mind had only left him for the moment
+seeing a bicycle leaning against a store door, jumped on it and soon
+put a respectable distance between himself and the crowd.
+
+That night the trio met once more in Hamar's room for test six. There
+was a wood fire in the grate, and on it a tin vessel containing the
+prescribed ingredients. Somewhat unpleasantly conspicuous amongst
+these ingredients were the death's-head moth, and the soil from
+Satan's grave. As soon as the mixture had been heated three hours, the
+vessel was removed, the fire extinguished, and the room made
+absolutely dark. Then the three sat close together and waited.
+
+On the stroke of two every article in the room began to rattle, whilst
+out of the tin vessel flew a blood red moth. After circling three
+times round each of the sitter's heads, the moth flew back again into
+the vessel, and the silence that ensued was followed by a soft tapping
+at the window, and the appearance of something, that resembled a big
+tube filled with a thick, pale blue fluid, made up of a mass of
+distinct veins. This tube floated into the room, and passing close to
+the three sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared
+in the wall, behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had
+broken, terminated the phenomena--the room again becoming pitch dark.
+But the three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
+manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
+huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+
+San Francisco possesses one great advantage--you can easily get out of
+it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
+turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair
+as any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to
+one side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs
+can be traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of
+vines and weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and
+climbing to its heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the
+Coast Range--like a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay,
+sparkling and dancing in the sunlight--steamers flashing their path on
+its bosom; and tiny white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the
+city, its houses, small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas
+boxes; whilst the slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here
+and there are thick clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is
+partly hidden from view by a peak, which rises directly to the west,
+and is separated from that on which one is standing by a deep and
+thickly wooded valley. Descending, by means of a narrow winding path,
+one passes through dense clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash,
+and walnut trees, whose strong lateral branches afford ample
+protection from the sun, and at the same time furnish playgrounds to
+innumerable bright-eyed squirrels. Further down one comes upon gentle
+elms, succeeded by sassafras and locust--these, in their turn,
+succeeded by the softer linden, red bud, catalpa, and maple; and at
+the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom of the valley, wild
+shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and white poplars. Still
+following the path down the vale, in a southerly direction, one, at
+length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by
+trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and there, a
+gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip tree of
+some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and profuse
+blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and splendour;
+there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall and
+slender silver birch. The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most
+part, grass--soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green. The silence
+is such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San
+Francisco can be little over six miles distant. Though one may strain
+one's ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional
+tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of
+birds. It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so
+impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot
+essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.
+
+The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen--and the
+conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be
+a new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in
+opposition to Jupiter,[16] Hamar and his confederates had to wait
+exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests,
+before they could proceed.
+
+Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis
+and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and
+bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in
+hiding, they commenced operations.
+
+On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was
+clearly defined. This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner
+circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next
+drawn. In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the
+first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the
+seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven
+most malignant diseases. Within the second circle, and using the same
+centre, was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each
+part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and
+third circles, were written the names of the seven types of spirits
+most antagonistic to man's moral progress.[17]
+
+Hamar had brought with him a sack--the same he had used to transport
+Satan's corpse--and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby,
+that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was
+tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.
+
+"It's a good thing there is no member of the Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near," Kelson exclaimed,
+eyeing Hamar resentfully. "Wouldn't a mouse or a rat have done as
+well?"
+
+"No!" Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the
+ground; "the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat.
+I got the poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just
+as much as you do."
+
+"How are you going to do it?" Kelson asked.
+
+Hamar pointed to a chopper. "The conditions say with steel," he said;
+"only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife. You must look the
+other way. Now help me with the fire."
+
+Besides the cat, the sack contained a dozen or so bundles of faggots,
+well steeped in paraffin, several blocks of wood, a tripod, and a big
+tin saucepan.
+
+With the wood, a fire was soon kindled in the centre of the circle;
+and the tripod placed over it. Two pints of spring water were then
+poured into the saucepan, and to this were added 1 ounce of oxalic
+acid, 1 ounce of verdigris, 1-1/2 ounces of hemlock leaves, 1/2 ounce
+of henbane, 3/4 ounce of saffron, 2 ounces of aloes, 3 drachms of
+opium, 1 ounce of mandrake-root, 5 drachms of salanum, 7 drachms of
+poppy-seed, 1/2 ounce of assafoetida, and 1/2 ounce of parsley. As
+soon as the saucepan containing these ingredients began to boil Hamar
+threw into it two adders' heads, three toads and a centipede.
+
+"Where on earth did you get all those horrors?" Curtis asked,
+shrinking away from the bag which had held them.
+
+"Here," Hamar said laconically. "It's extraordinary what a lot of
+nasty things there are amid so much apparent beauty. I say apparent,
+because Nature is a champion faker. You have only to rake about in
+these bushes and you'll find snakes galore, whilst under pretty nearly
+every stone are centipedes. Like both of you, who never by any chance
+poke your noses outside the city, I fancied snakes and centipedes were
+confined to the prairies. But I know better now. Besides, where do you
+think I found the toads? Why, in the cellars under Meidlers'!"
+
+"What, our late governor's?" Kelson cried.
+
+Hamar nodded. "Yes!" he said; "under the very spot where we used to
+sit. The water's a foot deep in that cellar, and if there are as many
+toads in the cellars of the other houses in the block, then Sacramento
+Street has a corner in them. I'm going to be executioner now, so look
+the other way, Matt!"
+
+Kelson needed no second bidding; and sticking his fingers in his ears,
+walked to some little distance. When Hamar called him back, the deed
+was accomplished--the conditions prescribed in the rites had been
+observed--the tabby was in the saucepan on the fire, and its blood had
+been besprinkled on each of the seven sectors of the circle.
+
+"We must now take our seats on the ground," Hamar said; "I'd better be
+in the centre--you, Matt, on the right, and you, Ed, on the
+left--allowing three clear feet between us."
+
+Hamar showed them how to sit--with legs crossed and arms folded.
+
+For some minutes no one spoke. The wind rustled through the bushes and
+an owl hooted. Kelson, feeling the night air cold, drew his overcoat
+tightly around and the others followed suit. Then Curtis said--
+
+"Do you really think there's anything in it, Leon? Aren't we fools to
+go on wasting our time like this?"
+
+To which Hamar replied: "Shut up! You were frightened enough doing the
+tests!"
+
+From afar off, away on the shimmering bosom of the bay came the faint
+hooting of a steamer.
+
+"That's the _Oleander_!" Kelson murmured.
+
+"Rot!" Curtis snapped. "How do you know? You can't tell from this
+distance. It might be the _Daisy_, or the _San Marie_, or any other
+ship."
+
+Kelson made no reply; Hamar blew his nose, and once again there was
+silence.
+
+The effect of the moonlight had now become weird. From the trees and
+bushes crept legions of tall, gaunt shadows, and whilst some of these
+were explicable, there were others that certainly had no apparent
+counterparts in any of the natural objects around them. Even Curtis,
+in spite of his scoffing, showed no inclination to examine them too
+closely; but kept his face resolutely turned to the more cheery light
+of the fire. The soft, cool, sweet-scented air gradually acted as an
+anaesthetic, and Kelson and Curtis were almost asleep, when Hamar's
+voice recalled them sharply to themselves.
+
+"It's just two!" he said. "Sit tight and listen while I repeat the
+incantation, and for goodness' sake keep cool if anything happens.
+Remember we are here with an object--namely--to get everything we can
+out of the Other World."
+
+"Trust you for that!" Curtis sneered; "but all the same nothing's
+going to happen."
+
+"I am not sure of that," Hamar said, and after a brief pause began to
+repeat these words[18]--
+
+    "Morbas from the mountains,
+    Where flow malignant fountains.
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vampires from the passes,
+    Where grow blood-sucking grasses,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Vice Elementals pretty
+    Give ear unto our ditty
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Planetians, forms so fearful,
+    We inform you, eager, tearful,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Clanogrians, things of sorrow.
+    Postpone not till to-morrow,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Barrowvians, shades seclusive,
+    Be not to us exclusive,
+      We are ready for you--Come!
+    Earthbound spirits of the Dead
+    Approach with grim and noiseless tread--
+      We are ready for you--Come!"
+
+He then got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six
+drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux
+vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former
+position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground,
+the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a
+long pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson
+and Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted
+to him.
+
+Hamar then cried: "Creastie havoonen balababoo!"; which Hamar
+explained was Atlantean for "devil of the damned appear!"
+
+"He won't!" Curtis muttered, "because he doesn't exist. There are
+devils--Meidler Brothers were devils--but there is no one devil! It's
+all----" He suddenly stopped and an intense hush fell upon them all.
+
+A cloud obscured the moon, the fire burned dim, and the gloom of the
+amphitheatre thickened till the men lost sight of each other. A cold
+air then rose from the ground and fanned their nostrils. Something
+flew past their heads with an ominous wail; whilst from the direction
+of the fire came a hollow groan.
+
+"The advent of the Unknown," Hamar murmured, "shall be heralded in by
+the shrieking of an owl, the groaning of the mandrake--there is
+mandrake in the saucepan--the croaking of a toad--we haven't had that
+yet!"
+
+"Yes, there it is!" Kelson whispered--and whilst he was speaking there
+came a dismal croak, croak, and the swaying and crying of an
+ash--"Hush!"
+
+They listened--and all three distinctly heard the swishing of a
+slender tree trunk as it hissed backwards and forwards. Then, a cry so
+horrid, harsh and piercing that even the sceptical, sneering Curtis
+gave vent to an expression of fear. Again a hush, and increasing
+darkness and cold. Kelson called out--
+
+"Don't do that, Leon."
+
+"I'm not doing anything," Hamar said testily. "Pull yourself
+together." A moment later he said to Curtis, "It's you, Curtis. Shut
+up. This is no time for monkeying."
+
+"You are both either mad or dreaming," Curtis replied. "I haven't
+stirred from my seat. Hulloa! What's that? What's that, Leon?
+There--over there! Look!"
+
+As Curtis spoke they all three became conscious of living things
+around them--things that moved about, silently and surreptitiously and
+conveyed the impression of mockery. The hills, the valley, the trees
+were full of it--the whole place teemed with it--teemed with silent,
+subtle, stealthy mockery. The senses of the three men were now keenly
+alive, but a dead weight hung upon their limbs and rendered them
+useless. And as they stared into the gloom, in sickly fear, the
+firelight flickered and they saw shadows, such as the moon, when low
+in the heaven, might fashion from the figure of a man; but yet they
+were shadows neither of man, nor God, nor of any familiar thing. They
+were dark, vague, formless and indefinite, and they quivered--quivered
+with a quivering that suggested mockery.
+
+Suddenly the shadows disappeared; the flickering of the flames ceased;
+and in the place of the fire appeared a seething, writhing mass of
+what looked like white luminous snakes. And in the midst of this mass
+sprang up a cylindrical form, which grew and grew until it attained a
+height of ten or twelve feet, when it remained stationary and threw
+out branches. And the three men now saw it was a tree--a tree with a
+sleek, pulpy, semi-transparent, perspiring trunk full of a thick,
+white, vibrating, luminous fluid; and that it was laden with a fruit,
+in shape resembling an apple, but of the same hue and material as the
+trunk. Spread out on the ground around it, were its roots, twitching
+and palpitating with repulsive life, and bare with a bareness that
+shocked the senses. It was so utterly and inconceivably unlike what
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson had imagined the Unknown--and yet, withal, so
+monstrous (not merely in its shape but in its suggestions), and so
+vividly real and livid, that they were not merely terrified--they were
+stricken with a terror that rendered them dumb and helpless. And as
+they looked at it, from out the trunk, shot an enormous thing--white
+and glistening, and fashioned like a human tongue. And after pointing
+derisively at them, it withdrew; whereupon all the fruit shook, as if
+convulsed with unseemly laughter. They then saw between the foremost
+branches of the tree a big eye. The white of it was thick and pasty,
+the iris spongy in texture, and the pupil bulging with a lurid light.
+It stared at them with a steady stare--insolent and quizzical. Hamar
+and his friends stared back at it in fascinated horror, and would have
+continued staring at it indefinitely, had not Hamar's mercenary
+instincts come to their rescue. He recollected that time was pressing,
+and that unless he got into communication with the strange thing at
+once, according to the book, it would vanish--and he might never be
+able to get in touch with it again. Thus egged on, he made a great
+effort to regain his courage, and at length succeeded in forcing
+himself to speak. Though his voice was weak and shaking he managed to
+pronounce the prescribed mode of address, viz.:--"Bara phonen etek
+mo," which being interpreted is, "Spirit from the Unknown, give ear to
+me." He then explained their earnest desire to pay homage to the
+Supernatural, and to be initiated into the mysteries of the Black Art.
+When Hamar had concluded his address, the anticipations of the three
+as to how it would be answered, or whether it would be answered at
+all--were such that they were forced to hold their breath almost to
+the point of suffocation. If the Thing _could_ speak what would its
+voice be like? The seconds passed, and they were beginning to prepare
+themselves for disappointment, when suddenly across the intervening
+space separating them from the Unknown, the reply came--came in soft,
+silky, lisping tones--human and yet not human, novel and yet in some
+way--a way that defied analysis--familiar. Strange to say, they all
+three felt that this familiarity belonged to a far back period of
+their existence, no less than to a more modern one--to a period, in
+fact, to which they could affix no date. And, although a perfect unity
+of expression suggested that the utterance of the Thing was the
+utterance of one being only, a certain variation in its tones, a
+rising and falling from syllable to syllable, led them to infer that
+the voice was not the voice of one but of many.
+
+"You are anxious to acquire knowledge of the Secrets associated with
+the Great Atlantean Magic?" the voice lisped.
+
+"We are!" Hamar stammered, "and we are willing to give our souls in
+exchange for them."
+
+"Souls!" the voice lisped, whilst trunk and branches swayed lightly,
+and the air was full of silent merriment. "Souls! you speak in terms
+you do not understand. To acquire the secrets of Black Magic, all you
+have to do is to agree that during a brief period--a period of a few
+months, you will live together in harmony; that you will make use of
+the powers you acquire to the detriment of all save yourselves; that
+you will never allow your minds to revert to anything spiritual;
+and--that you will abstain from--marrying."
+
+"And if we succeed in carrying out the conditions?" Hamar asked.
+
+[Illustration: THE INITIATION]
+
+"Then," the voice replied, "you will retain free, untrammelled
+possession of your knowledge."
+
+"For how long?" Curtis queried.
+
+"For the natural term of your lives--that is to say, for as long as
+you would have lived had you never been initiated into the secrets of
+magic."
+
+"And if we fail?"
+
+"You will pass into the permanent possession of the Unknown."
+
+"Does that mean we shall die the moment we fail?" Kelson inquired
+timidly.
+
+"Die!" the voice lisped. "Again you speak in terms you do not
+understand. You may be sent for."
+
+"You say--in perfect harmony." Hamar put in. "Does that mean without a
+quarrel, however slight?"
+
+"It means without a quarrel that would lead to separation. The moment
+you disunite the compact is broken."
+
+"What advantages will the secrets bring us?" Hamar inquired. "Can we
+gain unlimited wealth?"
+
+"Yes!" the voice replied. "Unlimited wealth and influence."
+
+"And health?"
+
+"So long as you fulfil the conditions of the compact you will enjoy
+perfect health. Will you, or will you not, pledge yourselves?"
+
+"I am ready if you fellows are," Hamar whispered.
+
+"I am!" Curtis cried. "Anything is better than the life we are living
+at present."
+
+"And I, too," Kelson said. "I agree with Ed."
+
+"Very well then," the voice once more lisped. "Each of you take a
+fruit and eat it, and the compact is irrevocably struck. You cannot
+back out of it without incurring the consequences already named. Don't
+be afraid, step up here and help yourselves--one apiece--mind, no
+more." And again it seemed to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson as if the tree
+and everything around it was convulsed with silent laughter.
+
+"Come on!" Hamar cried, somewhat imperatively. "Don't waste time.
+You've decided, and besides, remember this affair may turn out trumps.
+I'll go first," and walking up to the tree he plucked a fruit and
+began to eat it. Curtis and Kelson slowly followed suit.
+
+"I believe I'm eating a live slug, or a toad," Curtis muttered, with a
+retch.
+
+"And I, too," Kelson whispered. "It's filthy. I shall be sick. If I
+am, will it make any difference to the compact, I wonder?"
+
+What the fruit really tasted like they could never decide. It reminded
+them of many things and of nothing. It was sweet yet bitter; it
+repelled but at the same time pleased them; it was as perplexing as
+the voice--as enigmatical. When they had eaten it they resumed their
+former positions on the ground, and the voice once again addressed
+them.
+
+"The fruit you have consumed has created in you a fitness to make use
+of the powers about to be conferred. You have acquired the faculty of
+sorcery--you will be initiated by stages, into the knowledge and
+practice of it. These stages, seven in number, will cover the period
+of your compact, _i.e._ twenty-one months, and at the end of every
+three months--when a fresh stage is reached--you will receive fresh
+powers.
+
+"In the first stage, the stage you are now entering upon, you will
+receive the power of divination. You will be told how to detect the
+presence of water and all kinds of metals, and how to read people's
+thoughts.
+
+"In the second stage--exactly three months from to-day--you will
+receive the gift of second-sight; the power of separating your
+immaterial from your material body and projecting it, anywhere you
+will, on the physical plane; and, to a large extent, you will be
+enabled to circumvent gravity. Thus you will be able to perform all
+manner of jugglery tricks--tricks that will set the whole world
+gaping. Profit by them.
+
+"In the third stage you will possess the secrets of invisibility; of
+walking on the water; of breathing under the water; of taming wild
+beasts; and of understanding their language.
+
+"In the fourth stage you will understand how to inflict all manner of
+diseases, and work all sorts of spells; such, for instance, as
+bewitching milk, causing people to have fits, bad dreams, etc. You
+will also know how to create plagues--plagues of insects, or of any
+other noxious thing.
+
+"In the fifth stage you will possess absolute knowledge of the art of
+medicine and be able to cure every ailment.
+
+"In the sixth stage you will acquire the power of producing vampires
+and werwolves from the human being, and of transforming people from
+the human to any animal guise.
+
+"In the seventh and final stage you will be given the complete mastery
+of every art and science--including astrology, astronomy, necromancy,
+etc.; and for this stage is reserved the greatest power of
+all--namely, the complete dominion over woman's will and affections.
+The powers of creating life, and of extending life beyond the now
+natural limit, and of avoiding accidents, will never be conferred on
+you. Neither shall you learn, not at least during your physical
+existence--who or what we are, or the secrets of creation.
+
+"Each successive stage will cancel the preceding one--that is to say,
+the powers you have acquired in the first stage will be annulled on
+your arriving at the second stage, and so on. But if you carry out
+your compact faithfully--that is to say, if at the end of the
+twenty-one months you are still united--all the powers you have held
+hitherto, in the different stages, temporarily, will return to you and
+remain in your possession permanently. Have you anything to say?"
+
+"Yes!" Hamar answered; "I fully understand all you have explained to
+us and I like the idea of it immensely. The fear of our coming to any
+serious loggerheads and of dissolving partnership doesn't worry me
+much--but I must say, it seems very remote--the prospect of gaining
+such tremendous powers--powers that will give us practically
+everything we want--save youth--"
+
+"Youth you will never regain," lisped the voice. "And elixirs of life,
+surely you must know, are no longer sought after, by beings of the
+planet Earth. They are quite out of date. You will, of course, learn
+the most efficacious means of making yourselves and other people
+youthful in appearance."
+
+"Yes, but how shall we learn these secrets?" Kelson nerved himself to
+ask.
+
+"They will be revealed to you in various ways--sometimes when asleep.
+You will receive preliminary instructions as to divination before this
+time to-morrow."
+
+"And meanwhile, we shall be in want of money," Curtis remarked.
+
+"No!" the voice replied, "you will not be in want of money. Have you
+anything more to ask?"
+
+No one spoke, and the silence that followed was interrupted by a loud
+rustling of the wind. The darkness then lifted; but nothing was to be
+seen--nothing save the trees and bushes, moon and stars.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 16: This is a very sinister sign in astrology, denoting
+  the presence of evil influences of all kinds.--(_Author's note._)]
+
+  [Footnote 17: According to Atlantean ideas these spirits were:--Vice
+  Elementals; Morbas (or Disease Elementals); Clanogrians (or
+  malicious family ghosts, such as Banshees, etc.); Vampires;
+  Barrowvians, _i.e._ a grotesque kind of phantasm that frequents
+  places where prehistoric man or beast has been interred; Planetians,
+  _i.e._ spirits inimical to dwellers on this earth that inhabit
+  various of the other planets; and earthbound spirits of such dead
+  human beings as were mad, imbecile, cruel and vicious, together with
+  the phantasms of vicious and mad beasts, and beasts of
+  prey.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+  [Footnote 18: They are a literal translation of the Atlantean by
+  Thos. Maitland, and are very nearly identified with forms of spirit
+  invocation used in Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and among the Red
+  Indians of North and South America.--(_Author's note_.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FIRST POWER
+
+
+After their rencontre with the Unknown, Hamar and his companions did
+not get back to their respective quarters till the sun was high in the
+heavens, and the streets of the city were beginning to vibrate with
+the rattle and clatter of traffic.
+
+"It's all very well--this wonderful compact of ours," Curtis grumbled,
+"but I'm deuced hungry, and Matt and I haven't a cent between us. As
+we went all that way last night to oblige you, Leon, I think it is
+only fair you should stand us treat. I'll bet you have some nickels
+stowed away, somewhere, in those pockets of yours--it wouldn't be you
+if you hadn't! What do you say, Matt?"
+
+"I think as you do," Kelson replied. "We've stood by Leon, he should
+stand by us. How much have you, Leon?"
+
+"How much have you?" Curtis echoed, "come, out with it--no jew-jewing
+pals for me."
+
+"I might manage a dollar," Hamar said ruefully, as the prospect of a
+good meal all to himself, at his favourite restaurant, faded away.
+"Where shall we go?"
+
+Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of
+prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.
+He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty
+woman, and something--a kind of intuition he had never had
+before--told him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented
+with her present situation; that she was engaged to be married to a
+pen driver at Hastings & Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she
+had a mother, of over seventy, whom she kept. All this came to Kelson
+like a flash of lightning.
+
+Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped
+Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm,
+and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.
+
+The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by
+two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas. It
+still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.
+
+"What's the good of coming to a place like this?" Hamar demanded, as
+soon as he had freed himself from Kelson's clutches. "We can't get
+breakfast here."
+
+"Matt's mad, that's what's the matter with him," Curtis added in
+disgust. "Let's get out."
+
+He turned to go--then, halted--and stood still. He appeared to be
+listening. "What's up with you?" Hamar asked. "Both you fellows are
+behaving like lunatics this morning--there's not a pin to choose
+between you."
+
+"They're playing cards, that's all," Curtis said. "Can't you hear
+them?"
+
+Hamar shook his head. "Not a sound," he said. "Just look at Matt!"
+
+While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the
+bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner
+that was peculiar to him--a manner seldom without effect upon girls of
+his class--"I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?
+Jerusalem! Haven't I met you somewhere before?"
+
+The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled. "As like as
+not," she said. "I go pretty near everywhere! What do you want?"
+
+"Well!" Kelson soliloquized; "breakfast is what we are particularly
+anxious for--but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!"
+
+"Then why did you come here?" the girl queried.
+
+"Because of you! Simply because of you," Kelson replied. "You
+hypnotized me!"
+
+"That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast," the girl
+laughed, "though we don't provide them as a rule before nine. Indeed,
+the management have only just decided--this morning--on providing them
+at all."
+
+"How odd!"
+
+"Why odd?" the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her
+curls before a mirror.
+
+"Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment! Had I
+come here yesterday it would have been useless. As I said, you
+hypnotized me. Evidently fate intended us to meet."
+
+"Do you believe in fate?" the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I
+believe in nothing--least of all in men!"
+
+"You say so!" Kelson observed, before he knew what he was saying. "And
+yet you have just got engaged to one. But you've got a bad attack of
+the pip this morning, you have had enough of it here--you want to get
+another post."
+
+The girl ceased doing her hair and eyed him in amazement. "Well!" she
+said. "Of all the queer men I've ever met you are the queerest. Are
+you a seer?"
+
+"No!" Hamar observed, suddenly joining in. "He's only very hungry,
+miss. Hungry body and soul! hungry all over. And so are we."
+
+"Well, then, go into the room over there," the girl cried, pointing in
+the direction of a half-open door, "and breakfast will be brought you
+in half a jiffy."
+
+"Who's that playing cards?" Curtis asked.
+
+"How do you know any one is playing cards?" the girl queried with an
+incredulous stare. "You can't see through walls, can you?"
+
+"No! and I'm hanged if I can explain," Curtis said, "I seem to hear
+them. There are two--one is called Arnold, and the other Lemon, or
+some such name, and they are rehearsing certain card tricks they mean
+to play to-night."
+
+"That's right," the girl said, "two men named Arnold and Lemon are
+here. They were playing all last night with two of the clerks in
+Willows Bank, in Sacramento Street, and they cleared them out of every
+cent. You knew it!"
+
+"No! I didn't," Curtis growled, "I don't lie for fun, and I'm just as
+much in a fog, as to how I know, as you are. Let's have breakfast now,
+and we'll look up these two gents afterwards, if they haven't gone."
+
+"Your friend's a brute, I don't like him," the girl whispered to
+Kelson. "Let him lose all he's got--you stay out here."
+
+"Nothing I should like better," Kelson said, "it's a bargain!"
+
+The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
+bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
+Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
+directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
+building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
+drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.
+
+"It's a funny thing," one of them exclaimed, "we can't be allowed to
+sit here in peace--when there's so much spare space in the house."
+
+"We beg your pardon for intruding," Curtis said, "but my friend and I
+came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri
+way, and don't often get the chance to run up to town."
+
+"Farmers, are you!" the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
+both closely. "You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were
+also wanting to have a game--would you care to join us?"
+
+"By all means," Curtis at once exclaimed. "What do you play?"
+
+"Poker!" the man said, "Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
+which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen
+before, though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute." He
+then proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick,
+the secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.
+
+"I wouldn't give you a cent for it!" Curtis snapped. "Any one can see
+how it is done."
+
+"You can't!" the man retorted, turning red. "I'll wager twenty dollars
+you can't." Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He
+had seen through it at a glance--there appeared no difficulty in it at
+all; and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the
+day before, he would have utterly failed.
+
+"Now," he said, "give me the money,"--and the man complied with an
+oath.
+
+"Any more tricks?" Curtis asked complacently.
+
+"I know heaps," the man rejoined. "There's one you won't guess--the
+seven card trick."
+
+He did it. And so did Curtis.
+
+"Well I'm----" the man called Lemon ejaculated.
+
+"He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
+Prince and Slipper, Arnold!"
+
+Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.
+
+"Why!" he said, "that's the simplest of all! See!" And it was done.
+"You two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not
+shine to-night. How about a game of Don?"
+
+Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
+out, "It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve.
+You've some up yours, too, Arnold--the deuce of clubs and the deuce of
+hearts. Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears
+on the backs. I'll show you how." He told the cards correctly--there
+was no gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.
+
+"What are you, anyway?" Lemon asked; "tecs?"
+
+"Never mind what we are!" Curtis said savagely. "We know what you
+are--and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay
+us to hold our tongues?"
+
+"Pay you!" Lemon hissed. "Why, damn you--nothing. We're not bankers.
+All we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else."
+
+"That might not be so easy as you imagine," Hamar interposed. "We
+would make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to
+terms? We'll not be over exorbitant--and consider the convenience of
+not having to shift your quarters."
+
+"Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,"
+Lemon said. "Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these.
+Farmers, indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do
+you want?"
+
+After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
+dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
+means dissatisfied with their bargain.
+
+They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
+engaged in a desperate _tete-a-tete_ with the young lady at the bar,
+who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the
+room her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
+o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
+such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
+rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
+allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.
+
+On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first
+of all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
+themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took
+rooms at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's
+boot store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob
+Hill dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde--of the
+bonanza and railroad set--and making eyes at all the pretty wives and
+daughters they met, cogitated fresh devices for making money. As they
+sauntered across Pacific Avenue, in the direction of Californian
+Street, Kelson suddenly gave vent to a whistle.
+
+"What the deuce is wrong with you?" Hamar exclaimed. "Seen your
+grandmother's ghost?"
+
+"No! but I've seen the inner readings of that lady yonder," Kelson
+replied, indicating with a jerk of his finger a fashionably dressed
+woman walking towards them on the other side of the road. "The deuce
+knows how it all comes to me, but I know everything about her, just
+the same as I did with the girl in the dive--though I've never seen
+her before. She is the wife of D.D. Belton, the cotton magnate, who
+lives in a big, white house at the corner of Powell Street--and a
+beauty, I can assure you. Supposed to be most devoted to her husband,
+she is now on her way to keep an appointment with the Rev. J.T.
+Calthorpe of Sancta Maria's Church in Appleyard Street, with whom she
+has been holding clandestine meetings for the past six months."
+
+"Whew!" Hamar ejaculated. "You speak as if it was all being pumped
+into you by some external agency--automatically."
+
+"That's just about what I feel!" Kelson said, "I feel as if it were
+some one else saying all this--some one else speaking through me. Yet
+I know all about that woman, just as much as if I had been acquainted
+with her all my life!"
+
+"It's the first power," Hamar said excitedly, "the power of
+divination. It takes that form with you, and the form of card tricks
+with Ed--with me nothing so far."
+
+"But what shall I do?" Kelson cried. "How can I benefit by it?"
+
+"How can't you?" Curtis growled. "Why, blackmail her! If it is true,
+she will pay you anything to keep your mouth shut. If once you can
+tell a woman's secret, your future's made. All San Francisco will be
+at your mercy--God knows who'll escape! After her at once, you idiot!"
+
+"Now?" Kelson gasped.
+
+"Yes! Now! Follow her to Calthorpe's and waylay her as she comes out.
+You can refer to us as witnesses."
+
+"I feel a bit of a blackguard," Kelson pleaded.
+
+"You look it, anyway," Curtis grinned. "But cheer up--it's the
+clothes. Clothes are responsible for everything!"
+
+After a little persuasion Kelson gave in, but he had to make haste as
+the lady was nearly out of sight. She took a taxi from the stand
+opposite Kitson's hotel, and Kelson took one, too. Two hours later,
+raising his hat, he accosted her as she stood tapping the pavement of
+Battery Street with a daintily shod foot, waiting to cross. "Mrs.
+Belton, I think," he said. The lady eyed him coldly.
+
+"Well!" she said, "what do you want? Who are you?"
+
+"My name can scarcely matter to you," Kelson responded, "though my
+business may. I have been engaged to watch you, and am fully posted as
+to your meetings and correspondence with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe."
+
+"I don't understand you," the lady said, her cheeks flaming. "You have
+made a mistake--a very serious mistake for you."
+
+For a moment Kelson's heart failed. He was still a clerk, with all the
+humility of an office stool and shining trousers' seat thick on him,
+whilst she was a _grande dame_ accustomed to the bows and scrapes of
+employers as well as employed.
+
+Several people passed by and stared at him--as he thought--suspiciously,
+and he felt that this was the most critical time in his life, and
+unless he pulled through, smartly in fact, he would be done once and
+for all. If he didn't make haste, too, the woman would undoubtedly
+call a policeman. It was this thought as well as--though, perhaps,
+hardly as much as--the look of her that stimulated Kelson to action.
+He hated behaving badly to women; but was this thing, dressed in a
+skirt that fitted like a glove and showed up every detail of her
+figure--this thing with the paint on her cheeks, and eyebrows, and
+lips--artistically done, perhaps, but done all the same--this thing
+all loaded with jewellery and buttons--this thing--a woman! No! She
+was not--she was only a millionaire's plaything--brainless,
+heartless--a hobby that cost thousands, whilst countless men such as
+he--starved. He detested--abominated such luxuries! And thus nerved he
+retorted, borrowing some of her imperiousness--
+
+"Do you deny, madam, that for the past two hours you've been sitting
+on the sofa of the end room of the third floor of No. 216, Market
+Street, flirting with the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe, whom you call
+'Mickey-moo'; that you gave him a photo you had taken at Bell's Studio
+in Clay Street, specially for him; that you gave him five greenbacks
+to the value of one hundred and fifty dollars, and that you've planned
+a moonlight promenade with him to-morrow, when your husband will be in
+Denver?"
+
+"Don't talk so loud," the lady said in a low voice. "Walk along with
+me a little and then we shan't be noticed. I see you do know a good
+deal--how, I can't imagine, unless you were hidden somewhere in the
+room. Who has employed you to watch me?"
+
+"That, madam, I can't say," Kelson truthfully responded.
+
+"And I can't think," the lady said, "unless it is some woman enemy.
+But, after all, you can't do much since you hold no proofs--your word
+alone will count for nothing."
+
+"Ah, but I have strong corroborative evidence," Kelson retorted. "I
+have the testimony of at least two other people who know quite as much
+as I do."
+
+"Adventurers like yourself," the lady sneered. "My husband would
+neither believe you nor your friends."
+
+"He would believe your letters, any way," said Kelson.
+
+"My letters!" the lady laughed, "You've no letters of mine."
+
+"No, but I know where the correspondence that has passed between you
+and the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is to be found. He has sixty-nine letters
+from you all tied up in pink ribbon, locked up in the bottom drawer of
+the bureau in his study at the Vicarage. Some of the letters begin
+with 'Dearest, duckiest, handsomest Herby'--short for Herbert; and
+others, 'Fondest, blondest, darlingest Micky-moo!' Some end with 'A
+thousand and one kisses from your loving and ever devoted Francesca,'
+and others with 'Love and kisses ad infinitum, ever your loving,
+thirsting, adoring one, Toosie!' Nice letters from the wife of a
+respectable Nob Hill magnate to a married clergyman!"
+
+The lady walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone.
+"I can't understand it," she panted; "somebody has played me false."
+
+"As the Rev. J.T. Calthorpe is on his way to Sacramento, where he has
+to remain till to-morrow," Kelson went on pitilessly, "it will be the
+easiest thing in the world to get those letters. I have merely to call
+at the house and tell his wife."
+
+"And what good will that do you?" the lady asked.
+
+"Revenge! I hate the rich," Kelson said. "I would do anything to
+injure them."
+
+"You are a Socialist?"
+
+"An Anarchist! But come, you see I know all about you and that I have
+you completely in my power. If once either your husband or Mrs.
+Calthorpe gets hold of those letters--you and your lover would have a
+very unpleasant time of it."
+
+"You're a devil!"
+
+"Maybe I am--at all events I'm talking to one. But that's neither here
+nor there. I want money. Give me a thousand dollars and you'll never
+hear from me again."
+
+"Blackmail! I could have you arrested!"
+
+"Yes, and I would tell the court the whole history of your intrigues!
+That wouldn't help you,"--and Kelson laughed.
+
+"Could I count on you not molesting me again if I were to pay you?"
+the lady said mockingly.
+
+"You could."
+
+"Do you ever speak the truth?"
+
+"You needn't judge every one by your own standard of morality--the
+standard set up by the millionaire's wife," Kelson said. "I swear that
+if you pay me a thousand dollars I will never trouble you again."
+
+The lady grew thoughtful, and for some minutes neither of them spoke.
+Then she suddenly jerked out: "I think, after all, I'll accept your
+proposal. Wait outside here and you shall have what you want within an
+hour."
+
+"Not good enough," Kelson said, "I prefer to come with you to your
+house and wait there."
+
+The lady protested, and Kelson consented to wait in the street outside
+her house, where, eventually, she delivered the money into his hands.
+
+"I've kept my word," she said, "and if you're half a man you'll keep
+yours."
+
+Kelson reassured her, and more than pleased with himself, made for the
+hotel, where the three of them were now stopping.
+
+This was merely a beginning. Before the day was out he had secured two
+more victims. No woman whose character was not without blemish was
+safe from him--his wonderful newly acquired gift enabling him to
+detect any vice, no matter how snugly hidden. And this wonderful power
+of discernment brought with it an expression of mystery and
+penetration which, by enhancing the effect of the power, made the
+application of it comparatively easy. Kelson had only to glide after
+his victim, and with his eyes fixed searchingly on her, to say,
+"Madam, may I have a word with you?"--and the battle was more than
+half won--the women were too fascinated to think of resistance.
+
+For example, shortly after his initial adventure, he saw a very
+smartly dressed woman in Van Ness Avenue peep about furtively, and
+then stop and speak to a little child, who was walking with its nurse.
+Divination at once told him everything--the lady was the mother of the
+child, but its father was not her legitimate husband, W.S. Hobson, the
+millionaire mine owner.
+
+When Kelson courteously informed her he was in possession of her
+secret--a secret she had felt positively certain only one other person
+knew, she went the colour of her pea-green sunshade and attempted to
+remonstrate. But Kelson's appearance, no less than his marvellous
+knowledge of her life, and character dumbfounded her--she was simply
+paralysed into admission; and before he left her, Kelson had added
+another thousand dollars to his hoard.
+
+That evening, close to the Academy of Science in Market Street, he saw
+a lady get out of a taxi and quickly enter a pawnbroker's. Her whole
+life at once rose up before him. She was Ella Crockford, the wife of
+the Californian Street Sugar King, and, unknown to her husband, she
+spent her afternoons at a gambling saloon in Kearney Street, where she
+ran through thousands.
+
+She was now about to pledge her husband's latest present to her--a
+diamond tiara, one of the most notable pieces of jewellery in the
+country--in the hope that she would soon win back sufficient money at
+cards to redeem it.
+
+Kelson stopped her as she came out, and in a marvellously few words,
+proved to her that he knew everything. Her amazement was beyond
+description.
+
+"You must be a magician," she said, "because I'm certain no one saw me
+take my jewel-case out of the drawer--no one was in the room! And as I
+put it in my muff immediately, no one could have seen it as I left the
+house. Besides, I never told a soul I intended pawning it, so how is
+it possible you could know--and be able to repeat the whole of the
+conversation I had with Walter Le-Grand, to whom I lost so heavily
+last night? Tell me, how do you know all this?"
+
+But Kelson would tell her nothing--nothing beyond her own sins and
+misfortunes.
+
+"I have nothing to give you," she told him. "I dare not ask my husband
+for more money."
+
+"What, nothing!" Kelson replied, "When the pawnbroker has just
+advanced you fifty thousand dollars. You call that nothing? Be pleased
+to give me one thousand, and congratulate yourself that I do not ask
+for all your 'nothing.'" And as neither tears nor prayers had any
+effect, she was obliged to pay him the sum he asked.
+
+Flushed and excited with victory, and thinking, perhaps, that he had
+done enough for one day, Kelson took his spoils to a bank near the
+Palace Hotel, and for the first time in his career opened a banking
+account. As he was leaving the building he ran into Hamar, bent on a
+similar errand. The two gleefully compared notes.
+
+"I thought," Hamar said, "my turn would never come, and that I must
+have done something to get out of favour with the Unknown; but as I
+was sitting in the Pig and Whistle Saloon in Corn Street drinking a
+lager, I suddenly felt a peculiar throbbing sensation run up my left
+leg into my left hand, and the floor seemed to open up, and I saw deep
+below me, in a black pit, a skeleton clutching hold of a linen bag,
+full of coins. I could see the gold quite distinctly--Spanish doubles,
+none newer than the eighteenth century. I knew then that the Unknown
+had not forgotten me. 'Look here, boss,' I said to old man Moss--the
+proprietor, you know--'You're a bit of a juggins to go on working with
+so much money under here,'--and I pointed to the floor.
+
+"'I'm surprised at you, Hamar,' Moss said, cocking an eye at me, 'and
+lager, too!'
+
+"'No, old man!' I said, 'I'm not drunk. I'm sober and serious. You've
+got a cellar below here, haven't you?'
+
+"'Well, and what if I have!' Moss retorted, drawing a step closer and
+running his eyes carefully over me. 'What if I have! There's no harm
+in that, is there?'
+
+"'You keep all your stock down there,' I went on, 'and more beside. I
+can see a hat-pin with a gold nob, that's not your wife's, and a pair
+of shoes with dandy silver buckles, that's not intended for your wife,
+nohow.'
+
+"At that Moss made a queer noise in his throat, and I thought he was
+going to have a fit. 'What--what the devil are you talking about?' he
+gurgled.
+
+"'I wish I had had you with me--then, Matt, for you could have
+doubtless summed up the woman to him--she was a blank to me--I only
+divined one had been there. 'Yes, Mr. Mossy,' I said, 'you're a gay
+deceiver and no mistake! I know all about it!'
+
+"'Do you,' he said, eyeing me excitedly. 'Do you know all about it?
+I'm not so sure, but in order to avoid running any risks, drop your
+voice a bit and have a cocktail with me!'
+
+"He poured me out one, and I went on softly, 'Well, boss Moss,' I
+said, 'we'll leave the female out of the question for the present.
+Underneath this cellar of yours, is a pit.'
+
+"'I'm damned if there is!' Moss snorted; 'leastways, it's the first
+I've ever heard of it.'
+
+"'And in this pit,' I said, 'is the skeleton of a Spanish buccaneer
+called Don Guzman, who landed in this port on August 10, 1699, and
+after robbing and slicing up a family of the name of Hervada, who
+lived on the site of what is now the Copthorne Hotel, was hurrying off
+with all their money and jewels, when he fell into a pit, covered with
+brambles and briars, and broke his neck.'
+
+"'And you expect me to believe this cock and bull story,' Moss
+growled. 'Being out of a job so long has made you balmy.'
+
+"'It hasn't made me too balmy not to see through the way you deceive
+your wife, Moss,' I said. 'I'll bet she would think me sane enough if
+I were to tell her all I know. But I'll spare you if you will take me
+into your cellar and help me to do a bit of excavation there. But
+promise, mind you, that we will go shares in what we find.'
+
+"'Oh, I'll promise right enough,' Moss replied. 'I'll promise
+anything--if only to keep you from talking such moonshine.'
+
+"Well, in the end I prevailed upon him to accompany me, and we went
+into the cellar--just as I had depicted it--armed with a pick-axe and
+crowbar. Moss growling and jeering every step he took, and I, deadly
+in earnest.
+
+"'It's under here,' I said, halting over a flagstone in the corner of
+the vault. 'But before we do anything you had better hide that hat-pin
+and these shoes, or your missis will find them. She'll hear us
+scraping and come to see what's up.'
+
+"Moss, who was in a vile temper all the time, made a grab at the
+things, pricking his finger and swearing horribly. In the meanwhile I
+had set to work, and, with his aid, raised the stone. We dug for
+pretty nearly an hour, Moss calling upon me all the time to 'chuck
+it,' when I suddenly struck something hard--it was the skeleton and
+close beside it, was the bag. You should have seen Moss then. He was
+simply overcome--called me a wizard, a magician, and heaven alone
+knows what, and fairly stood on his head with delight when we opened
+the bag, and hundreds of gold coins and precious stones rolled out on
+the floor. He wanted to go back on his word then, and only give me a
+handful; but I was too smart for him, and swore I would tell his wife
+about the girl unless he gave me half. When we were leaving the
+cellar, of course, he wanted me to go first, so that he could follow
+with the pickaxe, but here again I was too sharp for him--and I got
+safely out of the place with my pockets bulging. I went right away to
+Prescott's in Clay Street, and let the lot go for three thousand
+dollars. I wonder how Curtis has got on!"
+
+They walked together to the hotel, and found Curtis busily engaged
+eating. "I've worked hard," he said, "and now I'm in for enjoying
+myself. I've made them get out a special menu for me, and I'm going to
+eat till I can't hold another morsel. I've starved all my life and now
+I intend making up for it."
+
+"Been successful?" Hamar asked, winking at Kelson.
+
+"Pretty well! Nothing to grumble at," Curtis rejoined, pouring himself
+out a glass of champagne. "First of all I went to Simpson's Dive in
+Sacramento Street, and started doing the tricks we discovered
+yesterday. Not a soul in the place could see through them, and I made
+about two hundred dollars before I left. I then had lunch."
+
+"Why you had lunch with us!" Hamar laughed.
+
+"Well, can't I have as many lunches as I like?" Curtis replied. "I had
+lunch, I say, at a place in Market Street, and there I read in a paper
+that Peters & Pervis, the tin food people, were offering a prize of
+three thousand dollars for a solution to a puzzle contained on the
+inside cover of one of their tins. I immediately determined to enter
+for it. I bought a tin and saw through the puzzle at once. Bribing a
+policeman to go with me to see fair play, off I set to Peters &
+Pervis'.
+
+"'I want to see your boss,' I said to the first clerk I saw.
+
+"'Which of them?' the clerk grunted, his cheeks turning white at the
+sight of the policeman.
+
+"'Either will do,' I replied, 'Peters or Pervis. Trot 'em up, time is
+precious.'
+
+"Away he went, but in a couple of minutes was back again, looking
+scared, 'They're both engaged,' he says.
+
+"'Then they'll have to break it off,' I responded, 'and mighty quick.
+I'm here to talk with them, so get a move on you again and give that
+message.'
+
+"If it hadn't been for the policeman I don't think he would have gone,
+but the policeman backed me up, and the clerk hurried off again; and
+in the end the bosses decided they had better see me. They looked
+precious cross, I can assure you, but before I had done speaking they
+looked crosser still.
+
+"'You say you've done that puzzle,'--they shouted--'the puzzle that
+has stuck all the mathematical guns at Harvard and Yale--you--a
+nonentity like you--begone, sir, don't waste our time with such humbug
+as that.'
+
+"'All right,' I said, 'give me some paper and a pen, and I'll prove
+it.'
+
+"'That's very reasonable,' the policeman chipped in, 'do the thing
+fair and square--I'm here as a witness.'
+
+"Well, with much grunting and grumbling they handed me paper and ink,
+and in a trice the puzzle was done; and it appeared so easy that the
+policeman clapped his hands and broke out into a loud guffaw. My eyes!
+you should have seen how the faces of Pervis and Peters fell, and have
+heard what they said. But it was no use swearing and cursing, the
+thing was done, and there was the policeman to prove it.
+
+"'We'll give you five hundred dollars,' they said, 'to clear out and
+say no more about it.'
+
+"'Five hundred dollars when you've advertised three thousand,' I
+cried. 'What do you take me for? I'll have that three thousand or I'll
+show you both up.'
+
+"'A thousand, then?' they said.
+
+"'No!' I retorted; 'three! Three, and look sharp. And look here,' I
+added, as my glance rested on some of the samples of their pastes they
+had round them, 'I understand the secrets of all these so-called
+patents of yours--there isn't one of them I couldn't imitate. Take
+that "Rabsidab," for instance. What is it? Why, a compound of
+horseflesh, turnips and popcorn, flavoured with Lazenby's sauce--for
+the infringement of which patent you are liable to prosecution--and
+coloured with cochineal. Then there's the stuff you label
+"Ironcastor,"'--but they shut me up. 'There, take your three thousand
+dollars, write us out a receipt for it, and clear.'"
+
+"Nine thousand dollars in one day! We've done well," Kelson
+ejaculated. "What's the programme for to-morrow?"
+
+"Same as to-day and plenty of it," Curtis said, pouring himself out
+another glass of champagne and making a vigorous attack on a chicken.
+"I think I'll let you two fellows do all the work to-morrow, and
+content myself here. Waiter! What time's breakfast?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SAN FRANCISCO LADIES AND DIVINATION
+
+
+Curtis was as good as his word. The following day he remained indoors
+eating, and planning what he should eat, whilst Hamar and Kelson went
+out with the express purpose of adding to their banking accounts.
+
+In a garden in Bryant Street, Hamar saw a man resting on his spade and
+mopping the perspiration from his forehead. As he stopped mechanically
+to see what was being done, a cold sensation ran up his right leg into
+his right hand, the first and third fingers of which were drawn
+violently down. With a cry of horror he shrank back. Directly beneath
+where he had been standing, he saw, under a fifteen or sixteen feet
+layer of gravel soil--water; a huge caldron of water, black and
+silent; water, that gave him the impression of tremendous depth and
+coldness.
+
+"Hulloa! matey, what's the matter?" the man with the spade called out.
+"Are you looking for your skin, for I never saw any one so completely
+jump out of it?"
+
+"So would you," Hamar said with a shudder, "if you saw what I do!"
+
+"What's that, then?" the man said leering on the ground. "Snakes!
+That's what I always see when I've got them."
+
+"So long as you don't see yourself, there's some chance for you!"
+Hamar retorted. "What makes you so hot?"
+
+"Why, digging!" the man laughed; "any one would get hot digging at
+such hard ground as this. As for a little whippersnapper like you,
+you'd melt right away and only your nose would remain. Nothing would
+ever melt that--there's too much of it."
+
+Hamar scowled. "You needn't be insulting," he said, "I asked you a
+civil question, and I repeat it. What makes you so hot--when you
+should be cold--or at least cool?"
+
+"Oh, should I!" the man mimicked, "I thought first you was merely
+drunk; I can see quite clearly now that you're mad."
+
+"And yet you have such defective sight."
+
+"What makes you say that?" the man said testily.
+
+"Why," Hamar responded, "because you can't see what lies beneath your
+very nose. Shall I tell you what it is?"
+
+"Yes, tell away," the man replied, "tell me my old mother's got twins,
+and that Boss Croker is coming to lodge with us. I'd know you for a
+liar anywhere by those teeth of yours."
+
+"Look here," said Hamar drawing himself up angrily, "I have had enough
+of your abuse. If I have any more I'll tell your employers. It is
+evident you take me for a bummer, but see,"--and plunging his hand in
+his pocket he pulled it out full of gold. "Kindly understand I'm
+somebody," he went on, "and that I'm staying at one of the biggest
+hotels in the town."
+
+"I'm damned if I know what to make of you," the man muttered, "unless
+you're a hoptical delusion!"
+
+"Underneath where I was standing--just here,"--and Hamar indicated the
+spot--"is water. Any amount of it, you have only to sink a shaft
+fifteen feet and you would come to it."
+
+"Water!" the man laughed, "yes, there is any amount of it--on your
+brain, that's the only water near here."
+
+"Then you don't believe me?" Hamar demanded.
+
+"Not likely!" the man responded, "I only believe what I see! And when
+I see a face like yours holding out a potful of dollars, I know as how
+you've stolen them. Git!"--and Hamar flew.
+
+But Hamar was not so easily nonplussed; not at least when he saw a
+chance of making money. Entering the garden, and keeping well out of
+sight of the gardener, he arrived at the front door by a side path, and
+with much formality requested to see the owner of the establishment.
+The latter happening to be crossing the hall at the time, heard Hamar
+and asked what he wanted.
+
+Hamar at once informed him he was a dowser, and that, chancing to pass
+by the garden on his way to his hotel, he had divined the presence of
+water.
+
+"I only wish there were," the gentleman exclaimed, "but I fear you are
+mistaken. I have attempted several times to sink a well but never with
+the slightest degree of success. I have had all the ground carefully
+prospected by Figgins of Sacramento Street--he has a very big
+reputation--and he assures me there isn't a drop of water anywhere
+near here within two hundred feet of the surface."
+
+"I know better," Hamar said. "Will you get your gardener--who by the
+way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him--to dig where I
+tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination."
+
+The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. assented, and
+several gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were
+soon digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was
+found, and, indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few
+minutes it had risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.
+
+"I shall send an account of it to the local papers," Mr. B. remarked.
+"Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of
+my property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am"--and
+he, then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.
+
+After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque--rather in excess
+of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not
+have refrained from demanding much longer.
+
+In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the
+incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was
+so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel
+deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.
+
+At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but,
+nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed
+them with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to
+tell him to "dry up."
+
+"I began the morning," he commenced, "by accosting a very fashionably
+dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.
+Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater,
+the Biscuit King of Nob Hill, and that she was carrying in her big
+seal-skin muff a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald butterfly, a
+silver-backed hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a
+porcelain jar, all of which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was
+looking.
+
+"I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning,
+Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'
+
+"'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are
+you?'
+
+"'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would
+be otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a
+favour, Mrs. Bater.'
+
+"'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a
+very extraordinary individual.'
+
+"'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your
+muff? I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid
+for--and I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first
+time such a thing has happened.'
+
+"She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever
+do you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to
+me.'
+
+"'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a
+pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them
+each minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a
+silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad--if
+you prefer to call it so--from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a
+tortoiseshell manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the
+same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver buttons, a
+glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cushion--you likewise helped yourself
+to--from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them
+to you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with
+them. You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco
+storekeepers.'
+
+"'Good God, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the
+innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'
+
+"'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and
+almost failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I
+didn't kiss her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping
+mouth and--"
+
+"Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks," Curtis
+interrupted, "I've got a touch of indigestion."
+
+"As I was saying," Kelson went on complacently, "I could have kissed
+her and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.
+
+"'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing?
+Show me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.
+
+"'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will
+agreeto say nothing about either this or any of your other--ahem!--
+thefts--if you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for
+a thousand dollars!'
+
+"'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'
+
+"'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I assure you, Mrs.
+Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman
+and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other
+things about you.'
+
+"'What other things?' she stuttered.
+
+"'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate--er--for
+single men like me to mention, but I do know that--er--a lady--very
+like--remarkably like--you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle
+which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as,
+madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years--let me see--yes, two
+years yesterday--one can--!'
+
+"'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will
+give you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'
+
+"'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a
+taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'"
+
+"You got the money?" Hamar queried.
+
+"Yes," Kelson said with a smile, "I got the money--in fact, everything
+I asked for."
+
+There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, "What next?"
+
+"What next!" Kelson said, "why I thought I had done a very good day's
+work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm
+dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming
+out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a
+lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest
+fashion costumes--a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high
+plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so
+admirably suited to pretty girls--because it attracts attention to
+them--should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to
+continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the
+much-pampered and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate;
+that she was in love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas,
+the manager of the Columbian Bank--a young, good-looking fellow, whom
+she had been trying to set against his fiancee, Dora Roberts. Dora is
+only nineteen, very pretty and a trifle giddy--nothing more. But this
+failing of hers--if you can call it a failing, was just the very
+weapon Ella Barlow wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending
+Delmas a series of anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This
+resulted in a breach between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much
+elated, at once tried to step into her shoes. She has been going out a
+good deal with Delmas, who is in reality still very much in love with
+Dora, and consequently exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella,
+anxious to show off a magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her
+father, telephoned to Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where
+she has engaged a box for this evening--fondly hoping that the
+diamonds will bring him up to the scratch, and that he will propose to
+her. When I saw her she was on her way to a notorious quack doctor and
+beauty specialist in Californian Street. She suffers from some nasty
+skin disease, and is in mortal terror lest Delmas should get to know
+of it, and also of the fact that all her teeth are false, and that two
+of her toes are badly deformed."
+
+"By Jupiter!" Hamar ejaculated, "this divination of yours beats mine
+into fits--nothing escapes you!"
+
+"No!" Kelson laughed, "nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical
+was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her
+with his dissecting knife. I saw everything--and what is more I said
+to myself--here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I
+didn't stop her--I let her go."
+
+"Let her go!" Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.
+"You squirrel!"
+
+"Only for a time," Kelson said, "I went to see Delmas!"
+
+"Delmas!" Hamar interlocuted, "why the deuce Delmas?"
+
+"Impulse!" Kelson explained, "purely impulse."
+
+"Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!" Hamar said, "it is
+essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against
+impulse. What did you get out of Delmas?"
+
+"Nothing!" Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, "But the matter
+hasn't ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to
+eat. I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow."
+
+It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and
+Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the
+_Examiner_, when he joined them.
+
+"Well!" Hamar said, looking up at him, "what luck?"
+
+But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then
+lolled back in his seat and began:--
+
+"Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure
+rose to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not
+Herbert! Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'
+
+"'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is
+engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'
+
+"'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated--and by
+Jove the diamonds did shine--she was simply a mass of them, hair,
+neck, arms and fingers--and she had been so well faked up for the
+occasion that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew
+about her--and shuddered.
+
+"'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this
+afternoon, did he not?'
+
+"She nodded.
+
+"'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in
+time to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself,
+and he would join you as soon as possible.'
+
+"'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'
+
+"'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and
+asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he
+would be here by the end of the first act.'
+
+"'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow ejaculated, 'I don't know
+you--I've never seen you before!'
+
+"'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I
+can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest
+you. Have I your permission?'--and without waiting for her reply I sat
+next to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen
+people, and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not
+full up, as the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her
+attention fixed on my face so that she was unaware what was taking
+place, immediately behind her.
+
+"'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of
+any possible interest to me?'
+
+"'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your
+character!'
+
+"'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read
+hands?'
+
+"'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head,
+and feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in
+one!'
+
+"'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of
+all this?'
+
+"'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those
+anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'
+
+"'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous
+letters to do with me?'
+
+"'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their
+contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I
+recited every word in them and told her the hour, day and
+place--namely, when and where each was written, and I summed up by
+asking what she would pay me not to tell Delmas.
+
+"For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim
+and silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying
+with the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed--she did not know
+what course to pursue!
+
+"'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'
+
+"She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I
+don't deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through
+one of the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'
+
+"'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of
+consequence to you as much as to me--is the payment for hushing it
+up!'
+
+"'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her
+excitement, 'pay _you_--you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You--' but I
+can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go
+on till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow,
+why all this fuss--why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We
+must come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely
+I shall tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'
+
+"'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at
+all!'
+
+"'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two
+deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and
+that you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to
+be faked up. I must be brutal--it's no use being anything else to
+women of your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you
+flatter yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What
+have you got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted.
+When she came to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts
+and water--the effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to
+imagine--I again broached the subject.
+
+"'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.
+
+"'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your
+defects will--as far as I am concerned--always remain a secret.
+Refuse, and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be
+known at once.'
+
+"For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her
+hands--shivering. Then she looked up at me--and Jerusalem! it was like
+looking at an old woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall
+never wear them again, anyhow. Take them--and leave me.'
+
+"Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one
+that was on her into my pocket.
+
+"'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm,
+'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I
+answered--but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had
+been concealed within and had heard everything that passed.
+
+"'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low
+down, perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You
+thoroughly deserve those diamonds--will you accept an offer for them
+from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them
+to her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he
+'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with
+Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they
+are going to be married next month."
+
+"So out of evil good comes," Hamar said, "the maxim for us, remember,
+is--out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day,
+you two?"
+
+"Rest!" said Kelson, "I'm tired."
+
+"Eat!" said Curtis, "I'm hungry!"
+
+"Now look here, this won't do," Hamar remarked, "you've earned your
+rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally."
+
+"Can't I?" Curtis snapped, "I'm not so sure of that, I've years to
+make up for."
+
+"Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!" Hamar
+expostulated, "and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We
+have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank--that is to
+say, the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents
+that amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount--and to go on
+increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the
+world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live
+at the pace Ed is setting us--but there is no reason why we should
+remain here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme
+in my head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether
+impossible."
+
+"What is it?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Yes, out with it," Curtis grunted.
+
+"It is this," Hamar said, "I suggest that we go to London--London in
+England--I guess it's the richest town in the world--and there set up
+as sorcerers--The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination
+and juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of
+course sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt
+but that we should make an enormous pile, with which we would
+gradually buy up, not merely London, but the whole of England."
+
+"That's rather a tall order," Kelson murmured.
+
+"A small one, you mean," Curtis sneered, "you could put the whole of
+England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go
+much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco."
+
+"Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it," Hamar laughed."
+
+"No, perhaps not," Curtis said rather dubiously. "I guess we could buy
+the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always
+used to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high
+enough. They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?"
+
+"At the end of our week," Hamar said, "that is to say on Wednesday--in
+three days' time."
+
+"First class all the way, of course," Curtis said, "I'll see to the
+arrangements for the catering and berths."
+
+"All right!" Hamar laughed, as he filled three glasses with champagne.
+"Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity--to
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TWO DREAMS
+
+
+"Do you believe in dreams?" Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a
+stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the
+breakfast room at Pine Cottage.
+
+"I believe in fairies," Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently
+as she looked at the fair face beside her. "What was the dream,
+dearie?"
+
+Gladys laughed a little mischievously. "I don't quite know whether I
+ought to tell you," she said. "It might shock you."
+
+"Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine," Miss Templeton
+replied. "What was it?"
+
+"Well!" Gladys began, flinging both arms round her aunt's neck and
+playing with the pleats in her blouse, "I dreamed that I was walking
+in the little wood at the end of the garden, and that the trees and
+flowers walked and talked with me. And we danced together--and, first
+of all, I had for my partner, a red rose--and then, an ash. They both
+made love to me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands.
+A poppy piped, a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew
+desperately jealous of me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing
+ceased, and I found myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their
+bells at me with loud trills of laughter. And out from among them,
+came a buttercup, pointing its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it
+cried, 'what Gladys is carrying behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees
+and flowers--everything around me--shook with laughter. Then I grew
+hot and cold all over, and did not know which way to look for my
+confusion, till a willow, having compassion on me said, 'Take no
+notice of them! They don't know any better.'
+
+"I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew
+very embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered--oh! so funnily,
+'Well if you really wish to know--it's a bud, a baby white rose, and
+it's clinging to your dress.'
+
+"'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.
+
+"'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst
+its fellows, 'that your lover is coming--your lover with a
+troll-le-loll-la--and--well, if you want to know more ask the
+gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
+that grows in the bed,'--and at that all the flowers and trees
+shrieked with laughter--'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'--and with my ears full of
+the rude laughter of the wood I awoke. What do you think of it? Isn't
+it rather a quaint mixture of the--of the sacred--at least the
+artistic--and the profane?"
+
+"Quite so," said Miss Templeton with an amused chuckle, "but I
+shouldn't ask for an interpretation of it if I were you."
+
+"Not for an interpretation of the trees and flowers?" Gladys asked
+innocently. "I'm sure trees and flowers have a special significance in
+dreams."
+
+"Very well then, my dear, ask Mrs. Sprat."
+
+"What! ask the Vicar's wife!" Gladys ejaculated, "when I never go to
+church."
+
+"Certainly," Miss Templeton replied, laughing again, "Mrs. Sprat will
+quite understand. And I've always been told she is very interested in
+anything to do with the Occult. But hush! Here's your father. You'd
+better not tell him your dream. He's tired to death, he says, of
+hearing about your lovers, and agrees with me--there's no end to
+them."
+
+"Never mind what he says--his bark's worse then his bite," Gladys
+rejoined, "he doesn't really care how many I have so long as they keep
+within bounds, and I like them! Father!"
+
+John Martin, who entered the room at that moment, went straight to his
+daughter to be kissed.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't always select that bald spot," he said testily,
+"I don't want to be everlastingly reminded I'm losing my hair."
+
+"Where do you want me to kiss you, then?" Gladys argued, "on the tip
+of your nose? That's all very well for you, John Martin, but I prefer
+the top of your head. But the poor dear looks worried, what is it?"
+
+"I didn't have a very good night," her father replied, "I dreamed a
+lot!" Gladys looked at Miss Templeton and laughed.
+
+"Did you?" she said gently. "What a shame! I never dream. What was it
+all about?"
+
+"Flowers!" John Martin snapped, "idiotic flowers! Roses, lilac,
+tulips! Bah! I do wish you would have some other hobby."
+
+Gladys looked at her aunt again, this time with a half serious, half
+questioning expression.
+
+"Shall I be a politician?" she cooed, "and fill the house with
+suffragettes? You bad man, I believe you would revel in it. Don't you
+think so, Auntie?"
+
+"I think, instead of teasing your father so unmercifully, you had
+better pour him out a cup of tea," Miss Templeton replied. "Jack,
+there's a letter for you."
+
+"Where? Under my plate! what a place to put it. That's you," and John
+Martin frowned, or rather, attempted to frown, at Gladys. "Why it's
+about Davenport--Dick Davenport. He's very ill--had a stroke
+yesterday, and the doctor declares his condition critical. His nephew,
+Shiel, so Anne says, has been sent for, and arrived at Sydenham last
+night! If that's not bad news I don't know what is!" John Martin said,
+thrusting his plate away from him and leaning back in his chair. "It's
+true I can manage the business all right myself--and there's the
+possibility, of course, that this young Shiel may shape all right. I
+suppose if anything happens he will step into Dick's shoes. I've never
+heard Dick mention any one else. Poor old Dick!"
+
+"I am so sorry, father!" Gladys said, laying her hand on his. "But
+cheer up! It may not be as bad as you expect. Shall you go and see how
+he is?"
+
+"I think so, my dear! I think so," John Martin replied, "but don't
+worry me about it now. Talk to your aunt and leave me out of it, I'm a
+bit upset. My brain's in a regular whirl!"
+
+Undoubtedly the news was something in the nature of a blow: for Dick
+Davenport, apart from being John Martin's partner--partner in the firm
+of Martin and Davenport, the world-renowned conjurors, whose hall in
+the Kingsway was one of the chief amusement places in London, was John
+Martin's oldest friend. They had been chums at Cheltenham College, had
+entered the Army and gone to India together, had quitted the Service
+together, and, on returning together to England, had started their
+conjuring business, first of all in Sloane Street, and subsequently in
+the Kingsway. From the very start their enterprise had met with
+success, and, had it not been for Davenport's wild extravagance, they
+would have been little short of millionaires. But Davenport, though a
+most lovable character in every respect, could not keep money--he no
+sooner had it than it was gone. His house in Sydenham was little short
+of a palace; whilst, it was said, he almost rivalled royalty, in
+magnificent display, whenever he entertained. The result of all this
+reckless expenditure was no uncommon one--he ran through considerably
+more than he earned and--as there was no one else to help him--he
+invariably came down on John Martin. It was "Jack, old boy, I'm damned
+sorry, but I must have another thousand;" or, "Jack! these infernal
+scamps of creditors are worrying the life out of me, can you, will
+you, lend me a trifle--a couple of thousand will do it"--and so on--so
+on, ad infinitum. John Martin never refused, and at the time of
+Davenport's illness, the latter owed him something like a hundred
+thousand pounds.
+
+Fortunately John Martin, though far from parsimonious, was careful. He
+had an excellent business head, and, thanks to his sagacious share in
+the management, the business remained solvent. He knew Davenport's
+capacity--that nowhere could he have found another such a brilliant
+genius in conjuring--nor, apart from his thriftlessness, any one so
+thoroughly reliable. In Davenport's keeping all the great tricks they
+had invented--and great tricks they undoubtedly were--were absolutely
+safe.
+
+Despite the fact that they had repeatedly offered big sums of money to
+any one who could discover the secret of how they were done, every
+attempt to do so had utterly failed. The Mysteries of Martin and
+Davenport's Home of Wonder, in the Kingsway, baffled the world. Of
+course one thing had helped them enormously--namely, they had no
+rivals. So colossal was their reputation, that no one else had ever
+even thought of setting up in opposition.
+
+And now one of the two great master-minds, that had accomplished all
+these marvels and acquired such universal fame, was stricken down,
+checkmated by the still greater power of nature; and his
+colleague--the only other man in existence who shared his
+knowledge--was obliged to rack his brain as to what was now to be
+done--done for the continuance and prosperity of the firm.
+
+After finishing her breakfast Gladys joined her aunt in the garden.
+
+"To dream of flowers and trees evidently means bad news," she said.
+"But as I feel in a mood for a walk, I shall call at the Vicarage."
+
+"What, now! At this hour!" Miss Templeton cried aghast.
+
+"Why not?" Gladys said imperturbably. "I'm not going to pay a call.
+They haven't called on us. I shall say I've merely come to make an
+inquiry. Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with
+me!"
+
+But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.
+
+The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
+surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
+conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
+ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
+Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
+presence of his wife, who received her very affably.
+
+"Why, how very strange," she observed when Gladys had stated the
+object of her visit. "I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A
+Miss Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream
+about trees and flowers--only it took the form of a poem, which she
+awoke repeating. There were several verses--quite doggerel it is
+true--but nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them
+down, and asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden
+meaning in them. Here they are," and she handed Gladys two pages of
+sermon paper on which was written--
+
+    "In the greenest of green valleys,
+    Aglow with summer sun,
+    Lived a maiden fair and radiant,
+    More radiant there was none.
+
+    "The flowers gave her their friendship;
+    Her couch was on the ground.
+    A happier, gayer maiden,
+    Was nowhere to be found.
+
+    "The air was filled with music
+    Sung by the babbling brook.
+    Sweet lullabies with chorus clear
+    In which the flowers partook.
+
+    "This maiden knew not sorrow,
+    Until an evil day;
+    When riding lone across the moors,
+    A hunter lost his way.
+
+    "And chancing on this valley,
+    He met the maiden sweet.
+    Her beauty overwhelmed him;
+    He fell love-sick at her feet.
+
+    "Despite the fervent warnings
+    Of her friends the flowers and trees,
+    She listened to his courting;
+    And with him roamed the leas.
+
+    "The leas, far from the valley,
+    They rode the livelong night;
+    Till a heavy mist descending
+    Hid the roadway from their sight.
+
+    "Uprose, then, forms of evil.
+    From out the mocking gloom;
+    And seizing horse and hunter scared,
+    Left the maiden to her doom.
+
+    "Travellers now within those regions,
+    Through the nightly grey fog see
+    A woman's shade crawl slow along,
+    To a ghastly melody.
+
+    "And those who linger--follow
+    The phantom pale and wan.
+    O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale
+    It slowly leads them on.
+
+    "On till they reach the valley,
+    A valley grim and drear,
+    Where lurid things with fibrous arms
+    Their course through darkness steer.
+
+    "And on the travellers palsied
+    In frenzied crowd they pour.
+    And those who view their faces,
+    Are heard but seen no more."
+
+"Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?" Gladys exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," the Vicar's wife said. "She told me so and I have no reason to
+doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the
+least bit in the world poetical--on the contrary she is most practical
+and matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers."
+
+"Mine, too!" Gladys interrupted. "Were you able to explain the
+verses?"
+
+"No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I
+am in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie
+Besant last night! She--"
+
+"Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?" Gladys asked.
+
+"Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things--to
+tell dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water,
+and so on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice
+about them in this morning's paper. I will get it for you."
+
+She left the room and in a few moments returned.
+
+"Here it is," she said. And under the heading of "Sorcery Revived"
+Gladys read as follows:--
+
+"There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
+to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
+Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
+Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
+S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!
+
+"They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess
+to interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve
+all manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
+wonders what next!"
+
+"This paper evidently has its doubts," Gladys commented. "They are
+frauds, of course."
+
+"I dare say they are," the Vicar's wife replied, "though I believe in
+thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
+Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
+train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her."
+
+"Well, thanks awfully," Gladys said, "for telling me about these
+people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during the day and
+call at Cockspur Street. I must apologize again for calling at such an
+unearthly hour. Good-bye," and Gladys smilingly took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
+
+
+Shortly after Gladys reached home after her visit to the Vicarage, a
+young man with a serious expression somewhat out of keeping with his
+jaunty walk, entered the gate of Pine Cottage, and came to an abrupt
+halt.
+
+"Well," he ejaculated, "this is a pretty place, and what's more--for
+dozens of houses and gardens are pretty--it's artistic!" In front of
+him stretched a miniature avenue of chestnut trees, which was rendered
+striking, even to the most casual observer, probably, not only on
+account of the irregular mounds of moss-covered stones that occupied
+its intervening spaces, but also, by reason of the masses of wild
+flowers (great clumps of which were springing up in the crevices of
+this impromptu wall) that lent to it an appearance half negligent, but
+wholly and entrancingly picturesque. Here, undoubtedly, was art. That
+did not astonish the young man. All avenues, in the ordinary sense,
+are works of art; and the mere excess of art he saw manifested did not
+surprise him; it was the character of the art that had brought him to
+a standstill and held him spellbound. And the longer he looked the
+more he became convinced, that whoever had superintended the
+arrangement of this scenery was an artist--an artist with a scrupulous
+eye for form.
+
+The greatest care had been taken to keep the balance between neatness
+and gracefulness on the one hand and picturesqueness on the other.
+There were few straight lines, and no long uninterrupted ones; whilst
+at no one point of view did the same effect of curvature or colour
+appear twice. Variety in uniformity was the keynote.
+
+At last tearing himself away from this one spot--where he felt he
+could have spent centuries--he turned to the right and then again to
+the left--for the path had now become serpentine, and at no moment
+could be traced for more than two or three paces in advance. Presently
+the sound of water fell gently on his ear, and in the shadiest of
+diminutive forests, amidst the interlacing branches of elm and beech,
+he caught the glimpse of a fountain. For an instant the wild thought
+of forcing his way through it, of plunging his burning forehead in its
+cooling spray, well-nigh mastered him. But his better sense conquered,
+and he kept to the path. Another turn, and he caught his first glimpse
+of a chimney; another--and the summit of a gable showed above the
+trees. The sun, which had been hitherto obscured, now came out, and
+suddenly--as if by the hand of magic--the whole scene was a brilliant
+blaze of colour. He had arrived at the end of the avenue, where the
+path forked; one branch turning sharply round in the direction of a
+side entrance to the house, whilst the other led with a gentle
+curvature to the front.
+
+Facing the building was a broad expanse of velvety turf, relieved
+occasionally, here and there, by such showy shrubs as the hydrangea,
+rhododendron, or lilac; but more frequently, and at closer intervals,
+by clumps of geraniums, or roses--roses of every variety. There was
+nothing pretentious in the garden, any more than there was in the
+adjoining edifice. Its unusually pleasing effect lay altogether in its
+artistic arrangement; and one could hardly help imagining that the
+whole scene had, in reality, been called into existence by the brush
+of some eminent landscape painter.
+
+The cottage itself was constructed of old-fashioned Dutch
+shingles--broad and with rounded corners--and painted a dull grey; a
+tint which, when contrasted with the vivid green of the tulip trees
+that overshadowed the entrance to the house, and reared themselves
+high above it on either side, afforded an artistic happiness perfectly
+intoxicating to its present visitor. The architecture of the cottage
+was--if not Early Tudor--something equally pleasing. Its roofs were
+divided into many gables; its windows were diamond paned and
+projecting, whilst oaken beams ran latitudinally and vertically over
+its grey shingle front. Encompassing the whole base of the exterior
+were masses of flowers--pinks, carnations, heliotrope, pansies,
+poppies, lilies, wallflowers, roses and jasmines; and besides the
+latter several other creepers had been planted beneath the walls, but
+had not yet attained to any height.
+
+Shiel Davenport, for it was he, could not resist the temptation of
+peeping in at the windows; and he saw that the interior of the cottage
+was artistry and simplicity itself. At the windows, curtains of heavy
+white jaconet muslin, not too full, hung in sharp parallel plaits to
+the floor--just to the floor. The walls were papered with French
+papers of rare delicacy--to match the seasons; (spring, summer, autumn
+and winter were all most effectively depicted), and the furniture
+though light, was at the same time costly. And here again was the same
+effect of arrangement--an arrangement obviously designed by the same
+brain that had planned the building and grounds. Shiel could not
+conceive anything more graceful. Flowers--flowers of every hue and
+odour were the chief decoration of the cottage. On almost every table
+were vases--in themselves beautiful enough--yet filled to overflowing
+with the finest roses. Ox-eye daisies, hollyhocks and forget-me-nots
+clustered about the open windows. And every puff of wind, every breath
+of air transmitted scent--the most delicious medley of scent
+imaginable.
+
+The young man drew in deep draughts of it; he threw back his head,
+and, opening his mouth, revelled in the joy of feeling it steal softly
+down his throat and permeate his lungs. He was thus engaged when the
+sound of a voice brought him sharply back to earth.
+
+In the open doorway of the house, an amused expression in her violet
+eyes, stood a girl--so wondrously pretty, that at the sight of her
+Shiel was again overcome, and could only gaze in helpless admiration.
+
+"Do you want to see my father?" she inquired. "He is getting ready to
+go out, but I daresay he will see you first."
+
+"I--I am sure he will," the young man replied, "I'm Shiel Davenport.
+I've come to tell him my uncle died at four o'clock this morning."
+
+"Oh, dear!" the girl exclaimed, "I am so sorry--sorry for you, and for
+my father. I'm sure he will be terribly upset. I'm Gladys Martin,
+perhaps you've heard of me--I knew your uncle."
+
+"Often," Shiel said, "And I think my uncle's description of you an
+excellent one."
+
+"His description of me!"
+
+"Yes! he always spoke of you as the Queen of Flowers, and said you had
+a mania for all things beautiful, which was not surprising, seeing how
+beautiful you were yourself."
+
+"That was very nice of him," Gladys said, looking amused again. "Won't
+you come in? If you will wait here"--she led him to the
+drawing-room--"I'll tell my father."
+
+She disappeared, and Shiel heard her run lightly up the stairs.
+
+"By Jove," he said to himself, "she's the loveliest girl I've ever
+seen. From being so much among flowers, she has become one herself.
+Violets, roses, and heliotrope have all had a share in her creation!
+What eyes, what a mouth! what teeth! what hands! Surely I have found
+here, not only the perfection of all things beautiful, but the
+perfection of all things natural, the perfection of natural grace in
+contradistinction from artificial grace. Moreover, she is a
+romanticist. There is an expression of romance, of unworldliness, in
+those deep-set eyes of hers, that sinks into my heart of hearts.
+'Romance' and 'womanliness,' and the two terms appear to me to be
+convertible, are her distinguishing features. She is an artist, an
+idealist, and, over and above all--a woman! Hang it! I'm in love with
+her!"
+
+More he could not evolve, for his meditations were abruptly cut short
+by the entrance of a servant, who ushered him, straightway, into the
+presence of John Martin.
+
+The latter, though visibly affected by the news of his friend's death,
+was a man of the world, and, consequently, came to business at once.
+Much had to be discussed--arrangements for the funeral, the
+examination of correspondence relative to the firm, and plans for the
+immediate future.
+
+"You don't know how my uncle's affairs stand, I suppose?" Shiel asked
+somewhat nervously.
+
+"Yes," John Martin said, "I do. May I ask if you have any private
+means at all--or are you solely dependent on what you earn? By the
+way, what is your calling?"
+
+"I am an artist," Shiel said. "No, I've nothing beyond what my uncle
+was good enough to allow me."
+
+"An artist!" John Martin murmured, "how like Dick! Have you
+entertained the idea of inheriting a fortune? Have you any reason to
+suppose that your uncle was well off and had made you his heir!"
+
+"I gathered so, sir, from the manner in which he lived and his
+attitude towards me."
+
+"Well! we won't talk it over now--leave it till after the funeral. Are
+you bent on continuing painting? There is very little remuneration in
+it, is there?"
+
+"Not much," Shiel answered gloomily, "but I shouldn't care to give it
+up--unless of course it is absolutely necessary for me to do so."
+
+"Being an artist you wouldn't be much good in business."
+
+"None!"
+
+"At all events, you are candid. Well! I don't see any good in our
+dallying here--I had best go back with you to Sydenham. I've got a
+letter to write first, but I shan't be long."
+
+He was long enough, however, for Shiel to have another chat with
+Gladys. "Do you believe in dreams?" she asked him. "I had such a queer
+one last night, about trees and flowers; and, oddly enough, my father
+also dreamed of trees and flowers, and of the very same ones too. I am
+going into Town to-day to consult a firm that has just set up, called
+the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. They profess to interpret dreams, and
+I am anxious to see whether they can."
+
+"In Cockspur Street, aren't they?" Shiel asked. "I saw their
+advertisement in one of the papers. I presume you are not going there
+alone?"
+
+"No!" Gladys laughed, "I shall go with a friend, though I often do go
+into Town alone. I can assure you I am quite capable of looking after
+myself. In that respect, at least, I am quite up to date. Probably you
+are more accustomed to French girls?"
+
+"Yes! I have spent most of my life in Paris," Shiel said. "But how
+could you tell that?"
+
+"Oh! I guessed you were an artist--and had probably spent some time in
+Paris"--Gladys rejoined, "by the way you looked at the house and
+garden. I could read appreciation in your eyes and gesture; such
+appreciation, as I knew, could only come from an artist. G.W. Barnett
+helped me in planning this cottage and the garden."
+
+"What! Barnett the landscape painter! I am a great admirer of his
+work. Were you a pupil of his?"
+
+"Yes, he was one of the visiting R.A.'s at the Beechcroft Studio in St.
+John's Wood, where I worked for three years. We were then living in
+Blackheath--St. John's Park--a hateful place. Mr. Barnett was awfully
+good, when I told him we were moving, and that I wanted to live in
+really artistic surroundings--he suggested that I should be my own
+architect, and promised to do everything he could to assist me,"
+
+"And your father hadn't a say in the matter," Shiel commented, with an
+amused smile.
+
+"Not in that," Gladys said complacently, "though there are one or two
+things in which he has a very decided say. Father can be very
+self-willed and obstinate, when he likes. But as I was remarking when
+you interrupted me--"
+
+"I beg pardon!" Shiel murmured.
+
+"Mr. Barnett promised to assist me. He came over here with me, and we
+chose this site."
+
+"Is he an old man?" Shiel inquired, a trifle anxiously.
+
+"Not much more than middle aged--fifty perhaps!" Gladys said, "though
+he looks much younger. He is still very good-looking. Well! he came
+over here--we chose this site, and--"
+
+"Is he married?"
+
+"No! Really you seem very interested in him. Perhaps you will meet him
+some day: he comes here a good deal. As I was saying, we chose the
+site together, and he supervized the plans I drew up for the garden
+and cottage; I don't think, perhaps, I should have thought of that
+avenue if it hadn't been for him!"
+
+"At all events it does you both credit," Shiel remarked, "for a more
+charming house and garden I have never seen. I should like to live
+here all my life. I should like--" but he was interrupted by John
+Martin. "Come, it's time we were off," the latter called out
+brusquely, "time and trains wait for no man!"
+
+"A young ass!" John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio
+passed through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform,
+"not a bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!"
+
+"Encourage him!" Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who
+had his ticket to get, was out of hearing. "Do I encourage any one?
+All the same," she added defiantly, "I rather like him. It isn't every
+one's good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick--hurry
+up! That's your train--and the guard's about to blow his whistle."
+
+With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
+they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
+the station.
+
+An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
+with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
+lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.
+
+"Have you an appointment, madam?" the commissionaire, in a bright blue
+uniform, asked.
+
+"No," Gladys replied. "Is it necessary?
+
+"The firm are unusually busy," the man explained, "and unless you have
+made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
+whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into
+the waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I
+will take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to
+consult?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," Gladys said. "I want to have a dream
+interpreted."
+
+"Then, that will be Mr. Kelson," the man observed "he does all that
+kind of thing--tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts.
+Mr. Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar
+divines the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the
+waiting-room now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there
+nearly an hour. This way, madam!"--and he escorted, rather than
+ushered, Gladys into a large, elaborately furnished room, in which a
+dozen or so well dressed people--of both sexes--were waiting, looking
+over the leaves of magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide
+their only too obvious excitement.
+
+Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the
+commissionaire, Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next
+to a strikingly handsome girl, she at once appropriated it.
+
+There was something about this showy girl that had attracted Gladys.
+She was one of those rare people that have a personality, and although
+this was a personality that Gladys was not at all sure she liked,
+nevertheless she felt anxious to become more closely acquainted with
+it. Both girls suddenly realized that they were staring hard at one
+another. The girl with the personality was the first to speak. With a
+smile that, while revealing a perfect set of white teeth, at the some
+time revealed exceedingly thin lips, she remarked, "It's most
+wearisome work waiting. I've been here nearly an hour. I shouldn't
+stay any longer, only I've come from a distance. London is so hot and
+stuffy, I detest it."
+
+"Do you?" Gladys observed. "I don't. I find it so full of human
+interest--indeed, of every kind of interest. Not that I should care to
+live in it, but I like being near enough to come up several times a
+week. I live at Kew."
+
+"Then you're lucky!" the girl said, "I'd live at Kew if I could. But I
+can't--I'm one of those unfortunate creatures who have to earn their
+living."
+
+"I sometimes wish I had to," Gladys remarked.
+
+"Do you! Then you don't know much about it. It isn't all jam by a long
+way. I loathe work. I've been spending my holiday at Kew. I've just
+come from there."
+
+"Are you by any chance Miss Rosenberg?" Gladys asked.
+
+"That's my name," the girl replied with a look of astonishment. "How
+do you know?"
+
+Gladys explained. "I've just been to the Vicarage," she said, "and
+Mrs. Sprat has told me about the verses. Did you really dream them?"
+
+"Of course! I shouldn't have said so if I hadn't," Miss Rosenberg
+replied angrily. "I don't tell crams. Besides, I've never composed a
+line of poetry in my life. The verses were repeated to me in my sleep
+by some occult agency--of that I am quite certain. They were so
+vividly impressed on my mind that I had no difficulty at all in
+remembering them--every one of them, and I got up and wrote them down.
+Of course they must mean something."
+
+Gladys was about to make some observation, when the commissionaire,
+opening the door of the room, called out, "Miss Rosenberg;" whereupon,
+with a sigh of relief, Miss Rosenberg took her departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE DREAMS WERE INTERPRETED
+
+
+"Tell Miss Rosenberg I'll see her now," Matt Kelson said; and as he
+leaned back in his luxurious chair with that dignity of self-assurance
+only the man who is rich can maintain, it was hard to realise that he
+and the Matt Kelson of a year ago were the same. A year ago he had
+been a poor, underpaid, ill nourished pen-driver, with all the odious
+marks of a pen-driver's servility thick upon him. It was true he had
+been fastidious as to his appearance--that is to say, as fastidious as
+any one can be, who has to buy clothes ready made and can only afford
+to pay a few dollars for them; that he had sacrificed meals to wear
+white shirts--boiled shirts as one called them in San Francisco--and
+to get his things got up decently at a respectable laundry; but his
+teeth in those days did not receive the attention they ought to have
+received (he could not afford a dentist), the tobacco he smoked was
+often offensive; and there were to be found in him sundry other
+details that one usually finds in clerks, and in most other people who
+literally have to fight for a living.
+
+But now, all that was changed. Kelson was rich. He bought his suits at
+Poole's, his hats at Christie's, his boots in Regent Street. He
+patronized a dentist in Cavendish Square, and a manicurist in Bond
+Street. He belonged to a crack club in Pall Mall, and never smoked
+anything but the most expensive cigars. His ambition had been speedily
+realized. He had passionately longed to be a fop--he was one. The only
+thing that troubled him, was that he could not be an aristocrat at the
+same time. But, after all, what did that matter? The girls looked at
+him all the same, and that was all he wanted. He worshipped, he
+adored, pretty girls; and he was most anxious that they should adore
+him.
+
+Consequently, his first thought, when he saw Lilian Rosenberg's name
+on the form the commissionaire presented him, was "Is she pretty?" And
+the first thing he said to himself directly the door opened to admit
+her was, "By Jove! she is."
+
+Then he assumed an air more suited to a partner in a big London firm,
+and flourishing a richly bejewelled hand, said "Pray take a seat,
+madam. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I want you to tell me the meaning of these verses," Lilian Rosenberg
+said, handing him two sheets of foolscap and then sitting down. "They
+were suggested to me in my sleep--in other words, I dreamed them."
+
+"You dreamed them, did you!" Kelson said, noticing with approval that
+the girl had well-kept white hands, and that her clothes, though not
+particularly expensive, were _chic_, and up-to-date. "Do you want me
+only to interpret this poem, or shall I tell you something about
+yourself first?"
+
+"By all means tell me something about myself first--if you can,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said. "I want to get as much as I can out of you.
+Your fees are exorbitant."
+
+"Very well, then," Kelson rejoined with a smile. "Don't blame me if I
+tell you too much. You were born at sea. Being a troublesome girl at
+home, you were sent to a boarding-school, where you distinguished
+yourself in various ways, and last but not least, by making the
+headmistress--a married woman--desperately jealous. This led to your
+being removed. Removed is a more delicate term than 'expelled.' Am I
+right?"
+
+"Yes! I believe you are inspired by the devil."
+
+"Shall I go on?"
+
+"Yes--I think so. Yes, go on, please."
+
+"You came home. Your mother died. Your father married again. You
+disliked your stepmother--you considered she ill treated you."
+
+"She did!"
+
+"I won't dispute it. At all events you had your revenge. You pretended
+to commit suicide, and wrote several letters--to the police amongst
+others--declaring that you were about to drown yourself owing to the
+cruelty of your stepmother. And so cleverly did you manage it, that
+every one believed you were drowned, and blamed your stepmother
+accordingly. Changing your name to Lilian Rosenberg you came direct to
+London. For some time you worked in a milliner's shop in Beauchamp
+Gardens, and then you set up as a manicurist in Woodstock Street.
+Among your clients was the wife of the Vicar of St. Katherine's, Kew,
+who took a great liking to you--you have extraordinary personal
+magnetism. Unable, however, to do more than pay your way at legitimate
+manicuring you--"
+
+"That will do," Lilian Rosenberg cried, a faint flow of colour
+pervading her cheeks. "That will do! Explain the verses."
+
+"As you will!" Kelson said, "but mind, I don't insist on the necessity
+of your paying the slightest heed to my explanation. According to the
+usual method of interpreting dreams, the valley of flowers is
+symbolical of innocence and self-restraint--of that path in life with
+which the goody-goodies say every young lady should be satisfied.
+
+"The hunter is representative of the love of change and excitement;
+the horse--of self-indulgence. The misty moon means ruin, the
+metamorphosis into the crawling phantasm--death. Leave the path of
+virtue, and give way to self-indulgence and a craving for everlasting
+change and excitement, and a miserable ending will be your mead--and
+has been the mead of all others who have done the same thing."
+
+"Then the dream is a warning?"
+
+Kelson was about to reply, when the door opened, and Hamar, with an
+apology for intruding, beckoned to him.
+
+He spoke with him for several moments relative to a matter of some
+consequence, and then, glancing at Miss Rosenberg, and drawing Kelson
+still further aside, whispered, "Let me caution you again, Matt. On no
+account let your soft feelings with regard to the other sex get the
+better of you. Remember it is imperative for us to do evil not
+good--to lead our clients into temptation, not out of it. I am doing
+my best to follow the injunctions of the Unknown, but we must all work
+in harmony--that is the most vital point in our compact, and you know
+if we do not keep the compact something frightful will happen to us. I
+can't impress this fact on you too much. Only yesterday I had to pull
+you up for giving good advice to a lady. Damn your good advice, give
+bad--bad advice, I say; anything that will do people harm--no matter
+whether they are ugly or pretty--and if you are not jolly well
+careful, pretty girls will be your--and our--undoing. I see you have a
+pretty girl here now--and from what I can read in her face, she is not
+a saint. Rub it in to her--rub it into her well--persuade her to be a
+bigger sinner still. Now I can't wait to say more, I must go."
+
+"I asked you," Lilian Rosenberg said, as Kelson resumed his seat, "if
+the dream was a warning?"
+
+"No," Kelson said, "I shouldn't take it as such. Despite the rather
+peculiar form it took, I am inclined to think it isn't a dream with
+any real significance--but merely a chance dream--a dream compounded
+of sayings and actions of the past that have come back to you all
+higgledy-piggledy, as they so often do in dreams. You learned a lot of
+poetry I suppose when you were at school?"
+
+"Yes, but none like this."
+
+"No, I didn't suppose so, but the mere fact that your mind was at one
+time used to verses--acquainted with metre and rhythm, would account
+for the form adopted by your dream. I assure you it was purely
+chance--and that there is no significance in it! You are on the look
+out for work, is it not so?"
+
+"I am," Lilian Rosenberg said. "Can you tell me where to go to get
+it?"
+
+"I am just thinking," Kelson replied, "I believe my partner, Mr.
+Hamar, wants a secretary. I can't, of course, say whether you would
+suit him. Do you type?"
+
+"I can type and do shorthand," Lilian Rosenberg replied eagerly, "and
+I can correspond in German and French."
+
+"And the salary? Would two hundred a year do?"
+
+"Yes," after a slight pause, "I could make it do. I should want one
+half-day holiday--from one o'clock--every week; and Sundays--and three
+weeks' holiday in the summer, and one at Christmas, and of course, the
+usual Bank Holidays."
+
+"I see!" Kelson said thoughtfully; "you want plenty of time for
+amusement. Well! I will speak about it to Mr. Hamar, and if you leave
+me your address I will give it him. How nicely you keep your hands."
+
+"I manicure them every day," Lilian Rosenberg said; then looking up at
+him from under the long lashes which swept her cheeks, she added, "You
+won't forget to tell Mr. Hamar about me, will you? I am very anxious
+to get a post. You don't know what it is to be hard up, do you?"
+
+The earnest, pleading expression in her long, dark eyes appealed to
+Kelson as nothing else had ever appealed to him. Since his arrival in
+London, he had seen many pretty faces, many beautiful eyes, but
+assuredly none so lovely as these. And what features! what teeth! what
+lips! what a chin! what a figure! It seemed to him that she was not
+like an ordinary girl, that she was not of the same composition as any
+of the girls he had ever met; that she was something hardly
+human--something elfish, something generated by the beautiful English
+woods and glades, filled with the soft glamour of the moon and stars.
+And all the while he was thinking thus, his heart rising in rebellion
+against the words of Hamar, the girl continued gazing up at him, and
+toying with the rings on her slender, milk-white fingers.
+
+At last he dare look at her no longer, but stammering out his promise
+to do all he could to get her the vacant post, he pressed her hand
+gently, and bade her good morning.
+
+Then he returned to his chair, and, leaning back in it, was seeing
+once again in his mind's eye the fair face of the girl who had just
+left him, when there was a rap at the door, and the commissionaire
+announced Miss Martin.
+
+"Another of them," Kelson said to himself. "And about as pretty in her
+way as the last. Now I wonder what she wants." He looked closely at
+her, but no past rose up before him--as far as this client was
+concerned his power of divination in that direction was nil--she was a
+blank.
+
+"I've come to ask you the meaning of a dream I had last night," she
+began, inwardly shuddering at the sight of so much pomade and
+jewellery.
+
+"Yes," he said with an encouraging smile, "what was it?"
+
+Of course she did not tell him all, but merely that she had dreamed of
+certain flowers and trees as, curiously enough, so had her father.
+
+Kelson looked at her thoughtfully. Once he opened his mouth to speak
+and then checked himself; and it was some seconds before he actually
+broke silence.
+
+"Taken separately," he said at last, "the ash tree portends an
+unexpected visit; a poppy, a visit from a man; red roses, falling in
+love; lilac, a present; a willow, kisses--heaps of them; bluebells, a
+proposal; brambles, difficulties in the way--for example, tiresome
+relatives; buttercups, a marriage; an ash tree, a son and heir--a dear
+little----"
+
+"Thank you!" Gladys remarked, rising frigidly. Thank you! I will go
+now. What is your fee?"
+
+"I trust, madam, you are pleased," Kelson said in great distress.
+
+"Will you kindly take your fee and let me out," Gladys demanded, as he
+nervously placed himself in her way. "Thank you. Good morning!"
+
+And as she swept regally past him and down the stone passage, Hamar
+came out of his room and passed by her on his way to Kelson's office.
+
+"Ye gods!" he exclaimed, eyeing the discomfited Kelson wrathfully.
+"What in the world have you done to offend the lady? I never saw any
+one look so angry in my life. D--n it all! I hope you didn't insult
+her!"
+
+"It was all your fault!" Kelson wailed. "She asked me to tell her the
+meaning of a dream which was brimful of warnings against us."
+
+"Against us!"
+
+"Yes, against us! I have never listened to such admonitions in a dream
+before. She must have some very friendly spirits watching over her.
+Well! what was I to do? I did my best. Mindful of what you said to me
+a short time ago, I put her entirely off the track; gave her an
+entirely misleading--and as I thought very pleasant--interpretation of
+the dream."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+Kelson told him.
+
+"Jackass!" Hamar exclaimed. "Jackass! You were far too broad. What
+pleases a San Francisco girl shocks a London lady. For goodness sake
+have more tact another time, we don't want to get into hot water. I
+feel quite convinced that if any harm befalls us--if that compact is
+in any way broken--it will be through you. I wish to heaven the
+Unknown had given you some other power."
+
+"So do I," Kelson groaned.
+
+"At all events," Hamar went on, "the first three months is nearly at
+an end. Who was she?"
+
+"Miss Gladys Martin!"
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"I don't know. I could divine nothing about her. She can't have any
+vices."
+
+"I don't suppose she has," Hamar remarked dryly, "Not from the look of
+her anyway. But there is time yet. Matt! I've taken a fancy to that
+girl and I mean to get hold of her somehow. I wonder if she is related
+to Martin--Davenport's partner! Jerusalem! What sport if she is!"
+
+"Why? Why sport?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Dolt! Don't you see! Martin is at our mercy. We are more than his
+rivals. We can drive him out of London any moment we like. His tricks
+indeed! Pshaw! Curtis can do them all right off the reel! And Curtis
+shall--we will show Martin up--make a laughing stock of him--ruin him!
+Unless--unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Great Scott! Don't look so alarmed! Unless--supposing that girl is
+his daughter--unless he gives me permission to pay my addresses to
+her!"--and Hamar laughed coarsely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LEON HAMAR CALLS ON THE MARTINS
+
+
+"Where's Gladys?" John Martin asked as he rose with an effort, stiff
+and tired, from the remains of a meat tea.
+
+In reply Miss Templeton merely pointed a finger--and went on
+crocheting.
+
+Following the direction indicated, John Martin stepped out on to the
+lawn, and glancing round the garden, called "Gladys!" Then he
+listened, and there came to him snatches of a song, the words of
+which, full of arch sentiment, allied with (and to a large extent
+dependent on), a unique knowledge of and love of nature--would not
+have disgraced a Herrick or a Raleigh--the music--a Schubert, or a
+Sullivan. John Martin had spared no money in educating Gladys, and she
+did him credit. He thought so now, as exhausted from a hard day's
+poring over letters, he paused and leaned his back against a tree. A
+gentle breeze blew her notes to him, full of melody and mirth; fresh
+and young and tender--as tender as the rosebuds and violets that
+nestled at her bosom.
+
+"By Jove!" John Martin murmured. "Fancy my having a daughter like
+Gladys! I ought to be jolly well pleased. And so I am. The only thing
+I fear, is, that she'll marry some one who isn't half good enough for
+her! But who would be good enough for her! God alone knows! And God
+alone knows whether she or I ought to decide! Gladys!"
+
+"Hulloa!", and the next moment a vision in pink emerged from the
+bushes.
+
+"Gladys, I want to confide in you!"
+
+"What's wrong, Daddy, dear?" Gladys said, thrusting an arm through his
+and walking him gently along with her through the glade. "You weren't
+at all nice to me when we parted this morning, but you look so wearied
+that I'll be magnanimous and forgive you. What is it?"
+
+"Why it's like this!'" John Martin said, putting his arm round her and
+holding her close to him, as he used to do when, a little girl, she
+came sidling up to him for sugar-plums. "Poor Dick's affairs are in a
+terrible muddle. Unknown to me he speculated right and left, and he
+has not only muddled through everything he had, but he has left a
+number of debts, and unfortunately I have to meet them."
+
+"You, Father! But why you?" Gladys cried.
+
+"Because they were incurred in the name of the Firm. I can meet them
+all right, but it will be a big drain on my resources. That's worry
+number one. Worry number two is about young Davenport--Shiel. I don't
+know what to do about him. He was entirely dependent on Dick. His work
+as an artist doesn't bring him in enough to keep him in tobacco, and
+the worst of it is he doesn't seem capable of turning his hand to
+anything else; I can't see him starve, so I shall have to allow him
+something."
+
+"He seemed to me very intelligent," Gladys observed, "couldn't you
+take him into the Firm? Who are you going to have in his uncle's
+place?"
+
+"That's the trouble!" John Martin replied. "I do feel I want some one.
+I am getting on in years, my brain is not so vigorous as it used to
+be, and I can't go on inventing fresh tricks _ad infinitum_. Moreover,
+I need assistance in the purely business side of the concern. I want
+some one who is both business-like and inventive--some one young,
+brilliant and reliable."
+
+"You couldn't sell out I suppose?"
+
+"No, not just at present. Thanks to poor old Dick the Firm is in
+rather a precarious condition! Another six months over, and we may be
+perfectly all right. No! I must stick on, and get another partner. And
+look here, Gladys, you know I let you do pretty nearly everything you
+like. But let me beg of you not to be too friendly with that young
+Davenport. I caught him looking very impressibly at you this morning,
+and I am quite sure, if he sees anything more of you, he will be
+falling head over ears in love. Which is the very last thing in the
+world I want!"
+
+"That's making me out to be very attractive, Daddy," Gladys said,
+looking round at him mischievously.
+
+"And so you are, dear!" John Martin said. "Wonderfully attractive! and
+none knows it better than yourself. But in this case you must think of
+consequences--consequences that might be disastrous to us all!
+Confound it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?"
+
+Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
+advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
+height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right
+ear standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest;
+his nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting
+and yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
+saturnine.
+
+Gladys shivered. "What a horrible person!" she whispered, "there is
+something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how
+he stares!"
+
+"Yes--what is it?" John Martin demanded. "Do you want to see me?"
+
+"You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!" the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
+characteristic of California. "I've come to have a little talk with
+you on business."
+
+"With me--on business!" John Martin cried. "I don't know you! I've
+never seen you before!"
+
+"You see me now anyway!" the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes
+at Gladys. "My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show
+of yours."
+
+"D--n your impudence!" John Martin said, raising his stick
+threateningly. "How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext."
+
+"Calmly, calmly, sir!" Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. "I've come here
+with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
+programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
+rivals."
+
+"I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry," Gladys broke in,
+meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.
+
+Hamar bowed.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what
+we profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per--"
+
+"You have no permission from me, sir," John Martin cried fiercely.
+"Go!"
+
+Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. "You ought not to get so heated,"
+he said, "considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
+standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink
+a well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water.
+As you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer
+and purer. Also," he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin
+again raised his stick, "in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a
+hollow about eight feet from the ground, and if you look inside it,
+you will discover an iron box full of curios and jewellery. Shall I--"
+
+"No!" retorted John Martin. "If you don't go instantly I'll send for
+the police,"--and Hamar, coming to the conclusion that upon this
+occasion discretion was better than valour, hurriedly beat a retreat.
+
+"You'll be sorry, John Martin!" he shouted from a safe distance, "and
+so will Miss Gladys, charming Miss Gladys. But remember you have only
+yourselves to blame. Ta-ta!", and the next moment he was lost to
+sight.
+
+"Well!" Gladys ejaculated, "of all the beastly cads I have ever seen
+he fairly takes the biscuit. What colossal cheek! The idea of his
+coming here and speaking to us like that! Can't we prosecute him,
+Father?"
+
+"Hardly!" John Martin replied, "best leave him alone. I wish he hadn't
+come! He's upset me! My nerves are anyhow! Which was the tree he spoke
+about?"
+
+"This one," Gladys exclaimed, walking up to an elm, and patting it
+with her hand, "but you surely don't believe what he said, do you? It
+was all rubbish from start to finish. Daddy, my dear old Daddy, I do
+believe you are worrying about it."
+
+"Hold my hat and stick a moment," John Martin said, and making a
+spring, which for one of his age and weight showed surprising agility,
+he succeeded in catching hold of one of the nearest lateral branches.
+The elm being old, the bark had become very gnarled and uneven, and
+thus the difficulty of ascension lay more in semblance, perhaps, than
+in reality. Embracing the huge trunk, as closely as possible, with his
+arms and knees, much to the detriment of his clothes, seizing with his
+hands some projections, and resting his feet upon others, John Martin,
+after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled
+himself into the first great fork, and paused to wipe his forehead.
+
+"Oh, do take care, Father!" Gladys pleaded, "you'll fall and break
+your neck. Do be sensible and come down now."
+
+But John Martin paid no attention, he went on groping.
+
+"I've found it," he suddenly shouted. "That bounder was right, the
+trunk is hollow." He was silent then, for some minutes, and Gladys
+could only see his boots. Then there was a muffled oath, a sound of
+choking and gasping, which made Gladys's blood run cold, and then--a
+great cry. "There's something here, something hard and heavy. It's a
+box, an iron box! Take it from me." And leaning as far down as he
+dared, he placed in Gladys's outstretched hands, a rusty iron box.
+Then there was the sound of scraping and tearing, and John Martin
+gradually lowered himself to the ground--his coat covered with green,
+and the knees of his trousers ripped to pieces.
+
+Gladys ran indoors for a hammer and chisel, and, the hinges of the box
+being worn with age and exposure, it was but the work of a few seconds
+to break it open. It was full of gold and silver coins and jewellery;
+there were only a few gold pieces, the greater number of the coins
+were silver--the bulk Georgian--and their dates ranged from 1697 to
+1750. The jewellery consisted of several massive gold bracelets, (two
+or three of very fine workmanship); some dozen or so plain gold rings;
+two silver watches, and a varied assortment of silver trinkets. All
+were more or less antique, but none--apart from the gold bracelets--of
+any great value.
+
+"Well!" John Martin exclaimed, as they concluded their examination of
+the articles, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"Why that man put them there, of course," Gladys said, "can't you see
+the whole thing is nothing but a dodge to intimidate you into forming
+a friendship with him. I daresay he has heard that Mr. Davenport is
+dead, and thinks he sees an opportunity to be taken into partnership.
+He had a horrid face--sly and cunning, and his way of looking at me
+was positively disgusting. It makes me feel sick and horrid even to
+think of it."
+
+"What shall we do with these things?" John Martin asked, picking up
+one of the watches and eyeing it with curiosity.
+
+"Are they ours?" Gladys replied.
+
+"I certainly consider we've a right to keep them," her father said,
+"since we've found them ourselves on our own property, but I suppose,
+legally, they are treasure trove and ought to be given up."
+
+"Then surely the Government would pay us something for them, wouldn't
+it?"
+
+"I should think so, at least a decent Government would. Anyhow, I
+think to give them up will be our best course. I doubt if the whole
+lot is worth fifty pounds. Where was it he said there was water?"
+
+"Good gracious!" Gladys exclaimed, "you don't mean to say you are
+going to bother about that now!"
+
+"It was here, I think," John Martin went on, thrusting his stick in
+the ground, "to the best of my knowledge--and I had experts'
+advice--there is no water any where near here. Had there been, I
+should not have gone to the expense of having pipes laid down to feed
+the pond."
+
+"Oh, Father, how can you be so silly," Gladys cried, "of course there
+isn't any water here. It's only a trick, a trick to frighten you--and
+I'm beginning to think it has succeeded."
+
+"I shall try here anyway to-morrow," John Martin said grimly. "Let us
+go in now."
+
+When Gladys went into the garden on the following morning she beheld
+an extraordinary sight. Her father, the gardener, and a man whom she
+did not recognize at first, as his back was turned towards her, but
+who, to her utter astonishment, proved to be Shiel Davenport, were
+hard at work, digging a pit.
+
+Her father paused every now and then, and rested; but he did not allow
+the others a moment's respite. Every time they were about to slack, he
+urged them on. It was all very well for the gardener who was
+accustomed to it, but it was obviously killing work for Shiel
+Davenport, and Gladys--as soon as she had overcome a preliminary
+outburst of laughter--gave vent to her sympathies.
+
+"What a shame," she exclaimed, "Father how can you? Poor Mr. Davenport
+looks ready to drop. Take a rest, Mr. Davenport! Do--you have my
+permission."
+
+Looking very hot and exhausted, Shiel Davenport threw down his spade
+and attempted to make himself presentable.
+
+"His clothes will be ruined, Father," Gladys said, indignantly.
+
+"They're not his clothes--he's wearing an old suit of mine," John
+Martin explained, trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+Shiel forced a laugh. "I'm rather out of form, Miss Martin, I haven't
+had much exercise lately."
+
+"You're getting it now anyway," John Martin chuckled.
+
+"And it's blistered your hands horribly!" Gladys cried, pointing to
+several raw places. "I will fetch you a pair of father's gloves--he's
+a brute!"
+
+"Please don't trouble," Shiel exclaimed, "I'll use my handkerchief
+instead. Digging is even harder work than painting--in one way."
+
+"It's not fit work for you," Gladys replied with another reproachful
+glance at her father. "When did you arrive, I never heard you?"
+
+"I 'phoned to him last night," John Martin said, looking rather
+sheepish. "I thought a day out here would do him good. He thought so
+too, and came on by the seven o'clock train. We've been digging ever
+since breakfast--but a bit of exercise won't hurt him, and I'll give
+him plenty of vaseline presently."
+
+They resumed work again; and Gladys retired indoors. At eleven o'clock
+John Martin let Shiel go. "You can amuse yourself till luncheon with
+books and papers," he said, "you'll find plenty of them in my study.
+I'll join you later."
+
+But Shiel had other ideas of amusing himself, and as soon as he had
+washed and changed back into his own clothes, he followed the sounds
+of music until he reached the drawing-room.
+
+"I'm sure you must feel dreadfully tired," Gladys said, leaving off
+playing. "It was too bad of Father to make you work like that."
+
+"I'm afraid your father thinks me a very useless article," Shiel
+replied, seating himself in an easy chair, and trying his hardest not
+to look too ardently. "And an artist is not much good outside his
+profession."
+
+"Who is?" Gladys smiled. "Shall you still go on painting?"
+
+"Now that my uncle has died? It all depends--depends on whether he has
+been able to leave me anything in his will. From one or two things
+your father has said I fear he has not--in which case I don't quite
+know what I shall do. I could hardly expect Mr. Martin to take me into
+his firm."
+
+"Aren't you any good at invention?" Gladys asked, "I know he wants
+some one who is--some one who can help him devise fresh tricks. This
+everlasting racking of the brains to think of something new is
+beginning to be too much for him."
+
+"I wish I could be of some use," Shiel said, "both for his sake and
+mine, and may I add yours. Anyhow I'll try. I have a certain amount of
+imagination--I suppose most artists have, and henceforth I'll devote
+it to trickery."
+
+"No, not to trickery!" Gladys said, "to conjuring!"
+
+"Well, to conjuring then--to planning something novel and startling in
+the way of a trick. And as they say, two heads are better than one,
+perhaps, you will help me."
+
+"I," Gladys laughed, "why I've never invented anything in my life,
+barring a song."
+
+"Nevertheless I'm sure you would be of great help to me," Shiel said;
+"you would at least criticize my efforts, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh! I should certainly do that," Gladys laughingly rejoined, "and
+probably do more harm than good."
+
+"You could never do any harm!" Shiel said, with so much eagerness that
+Gladys got up and began searching for a piece of music. "I would give
+anything to paint you."
+
+"I have been painted--twice," Gladys observed.
+
+"For the R.A.?"
+
+"Yes! I didn't much care about it, and I grew desperately tired of
+sitting."
+
+"Who painted you?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me once, and Darker painted me once."
+
+"Then it's useless for me even to think of it. How did they treat you
+in their pictures?"
+
+"Heniblow painted me in evening dress, and Darker painted me in the
+character of Enid--you know, the Enid in the 'Idylls of the King.'"
+
+"Yes. But I should like to paint you as 'Melody in Flower Land.'"
+
+"I'm afraid I can't grasp it," Gladys said.
+
+"Can't you!" Shiel exclaimed, "I can. The idea came to me when I heard
+you singing just now, and saw you sitting here, in the midst of
+flowers, and dressed like a rose. I should paint you clad as you are
+now--all in pink--seated in the garden singing; and all the flowers
+leaning towards you listening. I would give anything to paint it," and
+he spoke with such enthusiasm that Gladys, remembering her dream,
+flushed.
+
+"I think," she said, "we might go into the garden and see how the work
+is progressing."
+
+"I fear I can't do any more digging," Shiel put in hastily, "I
+willingly would if I could, but I really can't use my hands."
+
+"And you've not had any vaseline," Gladys cried. "I'll get you some,"
+and before he could prevent her she had gone.
+
+She was back again, however, in a few moments with a tiny white jar
+and some linen bandages. "I couldn't find my aunt," she began, "or she
+would bandage your hands for you."
+
+"Won't you?" Shiel asked. "Do!"
+
+He thrust his hands towards her as he spoke, and Gladys uttered an
+exclamation of horror--the palms and fingers were raw and swollen.
+
+"I feel heartily ashamed of myself for being so thin-skinned," Shiel
+said. But Gladys had disappeared. She returned almost immediately with
+a bowl of water.
+
+"I'm sure they must hurt you dreadfully," she exclaimed, as she gently
+bathed the hands. "It makes me feel quite ill to see them."
+
+For the next few moments Shiel was in Paradise. The touch of her cool,
+white fingers on his hot and burning skin was far nicer than anything
+he had ever imagined. Her sweet-scented breath stealing gently up his
+nostrils soothed away all his care--even the remembrance of his recent
+loss.
+
+With his whole heart and soul concentrated in his gaze, he watched her
+every movement--watched the waving and tossing of the stray wisps of
+hair over her temples and ears, as the breeze rustled through the open
+windows; and the gentle tightening and relaxation of her delicately
+moulded lips each time she breathed.
+
+Shiel had always led a very solitary existence. Apart from his uncle
+he had no near relatives, and with the exception of the five or six
+weeks in the year he had spent at Dick Davenport's house at Sydenham,
+he had always been in rooms. He had often felt lonely, but never quite
+so lonely as now--now that the only person he had known intimately and
+for whom he had entertained any real affection, was suddenly taken
+away. He was now absolutely alone in the world, and the poignancy of
+his position came home to him acutely.
+
+It is a terrible thing to be lonely. Lonely men do all sorts of
+dreadful things--things they would certainly never dream of doing if
+they had companionship. And Shiel was doing a dreadful thing now.
+Every moment he was falling more and more desperately in love, despite
+the fact that he had no money, and worse still--no prospects of ever
+making any. And loneliness was in the main responsible for it.
+
+Had he not been so lonely--had he not spent days and days, alone in
+lodgings, with no one to talk to--no one to care whether he were ill
+or dying; had this not been his experience--the experience he was even
+then undergoing, reason would have outweighed folly, and even though
+he might have realized that in Gladys Martin he had found his ideal of
+beauty--of womanliness, he would have been content only to admire.
+
+As it was, he was in that very dangerous mood when the heart yearns
+for sympathy; when a plain woman's sympathy means much--and a pretty
+woman's more than much. It is no exaggeration to say that Shiel would
+have lain down and died for Gladys ten times over. For her sake--if
+only to see her smile, no mere physical pain would have been too
+excruciating for him to bear. And when she put the finishing touches
+to the bandages, and quite by chance, of course, their eyes met, he
+looked at her as if he never meant to leave off looking at her, as if
+he never meant to do anything else but look at her for all eternity.
+
+Whether she understood as much or not, is impossible to say. Shiel
+asked himself the question over and over again before the day was out,
+and in his sleep, and during the next day, and for many days
+afterwards. Could she tell how much he admired her? How much he
+worshipped her? All that he was prepared to do for her sweet sake? All
+this he asked himself repeatedly, and went on thinking of her when he
+knew he ought never to have thought of her at all.
+
+"I'm sure your hands are more comfortable now. Won't you go into the
+garden and see how the work is progressing?" she said. "Or if you are
+afraid Father will want you to dig again, perhaps you would like to go
+into his study and read the papers."
+
+"I should like to stay here and listen to you singing," he said.
+"Mayn't I do that?"
+
+"You might," she said, "but I have to go out."
+
+"Then I'll stay here till you return," he said, "I've never been in
+such a delightful room."
+
+"What do you think of Shiel Davenport?" Gladys remarked to her aunt a
+few minutes later. "I don't think I've ever met such an extraordinary
+young man. He does nothing but stare at me, and when I ask him to do
+one thing he suggests doing another. He's the most difficult person to
+manage. In fact, I can't manage him at all."
+
+"Never mind about managing him, my dear," Miss Templeton replied, "so
+long as you don't let him manage you. Young men who do nothing but
+stare are not merely difficult--they are dangerous."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GREAT CHALLENGE
+
+
+When John Martin came into tea that afternoon, he gave Gladys a shock.
+Despite the fact that he had been in the sun all day and was much
+tanned in consequence he had never looked--so Gladys thought--so old
+and haggard.
+
+"You dear old Daddie!" she said, hastening to pour him out some tea,
+"you shouldn't work so hard--this silly digging has quite knocked you
+up! Haven't you finished?"
+
+"Yes, I've finished!" John Martin said, catching his breath. "I've
+found water!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"It's true all the same. We struck it at exactly the distance he
+said--twenty feet."
+
+"Then of course he knew."
+
+"How? How the deuce could he have known?"
+
+"I can't say," Gladys replied. "All I know is, that he's not straight,
+and that there's some underhand trickery going on. But do have your
+tea now, and dismiss it from your mind. Anyhow, he can do you no
+harm."
+
+"Here's a letter for you, John," Mrs. Templeton exclaimed, entering
+the room at that moment.
+
+John Martin took it from her, and tore open the envelope curiously. It
+was a handwriting he did not know, and did not like--its
+characteristics were sinister.
+
+"I knew it!" he cried; "I knew the fellow was a scoundrel. What the
+deuce do you think he has the impertinence to do now?"
+
+"He!" Gladys said, looking anxiously at her father. "Whoever do you
+mean?"
+
+"Why, that confounded young bounder who came here last night--Leon
+Hamar he signs himself. In this letter he declares that he can perform
+any of our tricks, and will accept the wager I offered for their
+solution some little time ago. He also says that unless I consent to
+see him, and to listen courteously to what he has to say, he will
+publicly announce his intention of taking up the wager, at our Hall,
+in Kingsway, to-night."
+
+"Do you think there is any possibility of his having discovered the
+secrets of your tricks?" Gladys asked. "Could he have bribed any one
+to tell him?"
+
+"I don't think so," John Martin said. "The only people who have any
+clue as to how they are done are my two attendants--both as you know
+natives of Cashmere, and men who, I feel pretty certain, could not be
+'got at.'"
+
+"In that case," Gladys remarked, "I fail to see what there is to worry
+about. Your course is perfectly clear--take no notice of it."
+
+John Martin was silent--dazed. He did not know what to think or do!
+There was something painfully ominous to him in the discovery of the
+money and the water--something that accentuated the impression Hamar's
+sinister appearance had made on him. The man did not look
+ordinary--his manner, gestures, walk and expression were decidedly
+abnormal--in fact they put him in mind of the superphysical. The
+superphysical! Might not that account for his knowledge? Bah! There
+was no such thing as the superphysical. The man was extraordinary--but,
+after all, only a man--his knowledge only that of a man. And it must
+be as the shrewd Gladys conjectured--he had put the money in the tree
+himself and had learned of the presence of water through some subtle
+artifice--perhaps only guessed at it. He would defy him--let him do
+what he would!
+
+This was John Martin's decision as he finished tea. An hour later he
+had changed his mind, and was speaking to Hamar on the telephone,
+expressing his willingness to grant him a brief interview if he came
+at once.
+
+In rather less than an hour a motor drew up at the Martins' door and
+Hamar stepped out of it.
+
+"Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin," he exclaimed
+on being ushered into the latter's presence. "I reckoned you would
+sing to a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me
+to give you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to
+business?"
+
+"Name your business at once," John Martin replied gruffly; "I haven't
+many minutes to spare."
+
+"No!" Hamar said, "that's a pity; because part of what I have at the
+back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The
+situation in a nutshell is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.
+Martin?"
+
+"How dare you, sir?" John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.
+
+"Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!" Hamar observed, backing towards the
+door. "Gently--you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no
+offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely--she takes the shine
+out of our American girls."
+
+"The deuce she does!" John Martin foamed.
+
+"She does, you bet!" Hamar went on. "And I see no reason if she likes
+me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as
+far as money goes. What do you say?"
+
+"I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and
+kick you."
+
+"I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership," Hamar
+went on complacently, "and I would introduce a number of new tricks
+that would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry--the
+length of the engagement would be for you to decide."
+
+"Then it would be _ad infinitum_," John Martin said grimly, "for
+you'll never get my consent to a marriage."
+
+"Never is a long day--and even a John Martin may change. You want new
+blood and new capital in your Firm--you would have both in me. I
+assure you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!"
+
+"And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my
+daughter?"
+
+"You have said it--that is the one and only condition. Your
+daughter--my brains, my dollars."
+
+"I have decided!" John Martin said.
+
+"Good!" Hamar exclaimed; "I guessed you would! There's nothing like
+the almighty dollar, is there?"
+
+"Yes!" John Martin rejoined; "the almighty fist--and that's what
+you'll get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you
+ever come skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll
+set my. solicitor on to you."
+
+"Then it's war--war to the knife!" Hamar sneered. "How melodramatic!
+But it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner--and I shall yet
+have Miss Gladys! Au revoir--I won't say good-bye!" and with a mock
+bow he hurriedly took his departure.
+
+That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed
+as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop.
+A man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the
+audience in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen!"
+
+In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts
+of "Silence!"
+
+But Curtis--for it was he--was not easily daunted. "Do you call this
+fair play!" he demanded; "I am here to-night to make a sporting offer,
+and one which will afford you vast entertainment."
+
+Cries of "Shut up!" "Silence!" "He's drunk!" "Turn him out!" merging
+into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials
+now invaded the box, but Hamar--who, as well as Kelson, was with
+Curtis--fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the
+half-lowered lights of the house--for the stage only at that moment
+was fully illuminated--held them in check, and they hung back not
+knowing what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of
+the audience--some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts,
+whilst others were merely curious--and the somewhat premature cries of
+"Turn him out!" etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: "Let
+them alone!" "Let them speak!" "Let us hear what they have to say." It
+was in the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of
+nervous agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the
+cause of the commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who
+had come to the performance anticipating something of the sort, called
+to her father, from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to
+speak.
+
+"You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father," she added; "and
+besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on
+their part."
+
+Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in;
+and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of
+clapping.
+
+"I wish I were spokesman," Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the
+sight of so many pretty upturned faces. "Go on, old man!" he added,
+giving Curtis a nudge. "Fire away, and show them you know a bit about
+elocution, for the credit of the Firm."
+
+Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once
+possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned
+over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.
+
+"I am Edward Curtis," he said, "one of the directors of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often
+boasted that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I
+have come here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only
+accept their offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their
+tricks, but I agree to pay them double that amount--cash down--if I do
+not do everything they do--from 'The Brass Coffin' to their
+world-famed 'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's
+permission I will explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night,
+and the only thing I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that
+I get fair play."
+
+A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon
+as it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to
+speak, said: "I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this
+challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here,
+in this hall to-night, of displaying their skill--or their ignorance,
+as the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be
+performed by any outsider--the Firm in accepting this challenge will
+merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer--and if--as is hardly
+likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure
+they themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their
+successful rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee."
+
+"I too!" shouted a dozen other voices. "Be a sport and accept his
+bet!"
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," John Martin replied with dignity, "you have
+given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who
+have so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is
+maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of
+which Mr. Curtis--I think that is the name of my rival--will be quite
+at liberty to try his exposition of my tricks."
+
+The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar
+and Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had
+volunteered to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were
+provided for the referees--three on the one side of the stage and
+three on the other; and having seen that everything was fair and
+square John Martin retired to the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was
+concealed.
+
+A brief description of "The Brass Coffin" trick, which was the first
+Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
+suffice.
+
+A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
+audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
+anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.
+
+The operator then summons an assistant, jokingly refers to him as "the
+corpse"--puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet,
+securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the
+audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the
+coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet
+over the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on
+removing it and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A
+shout from the front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to
+their amazement, "the corpse" is seen standing up at the back of "the
+Pit," holding the sack with the rope and seal--intact--in his hand.
+Such was the marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and
+Davenport's Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of
+which no one as yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the tremendous excitement of the audience at the
+prospect of seeing this notorious puzzle tackled--and tackled by a
+member of a Firm which was already reputed to be doing all kinds of
+weird and extraordinary things. But, whereas it was quite obvious that
+John Martin was greatly perturbed (his eyebrows were working
+nervously, and his lips and fingers twitching), Curtis, on the other
+hand, was as cool as possible--he literally did not turn a hair.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning to the referees, "keep your eyes
+well skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen," he
+went on, raising his voice, "I am now about to show you how the coffin
+trick is done. Observe me--I'm 'the corpse'--Mr. Kelson, here, is the
+operator--" and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced,
+down the stage to take part in the proceedings.
+
+"Watch me get into the sack!" He stepped into it as he spoke. "Look at
+what I have in my hand," he went on, holding up his right hand in full
+view of the audience. "I have a plug of wood covered with the same
+material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
+over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
+will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
+think you know this coffin but you don't. See!"--and stepping out of
+the sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and
+deep. "Come closer!" and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers
+were now augmented by three newspaper reporters--representatives of
+the _Daily Snapper_, the _Planet_ and the _Hooter_ respectively. "Here
+is a secret panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press
+too."
+
+And amidst a breathless silence--the nine members of the audience on
+the stage following every movement--Curtis put his hand inside the
+head of the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In
+an instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid
+back, leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to
+squeeze through.
+
+Everyone now looked at John Martin--he was leaning back in his chair,
+breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.
+Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died
+out of his face when he glanced at Gladys--the scorn in the girl's
+eyes made his blood boil.
+
+"All right, Miss Martin," he muttered between his teeth; "you adopt
+that attitude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on!
+I'll win you body and soul, or my name is not what it is."
+
+He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. "I'm too
+stout to play the role of the corpse, and so is Matt," Curtis said to
+him; "you must undertake that part. Now!" he went on, "take this plug
+and get into the sack," and he whispered a few instructions in his
+ear. Then he tied the top of the sack--in reality tying it round the
+plug Hamar was holding--and one of the audience sealed the knot.
+Curtis and Kelson then lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and
+corded it. Then Curtis, turning to the audience, said:
+
+"What is now happening inside the coffin is this--'the corpse' pulls
+the plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus
+becomes loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once
+touches the spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and
+the panel slides back--So!"
+
+And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first
+of all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture
+thus made.
+
+"The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is
+this," Curtis explained; "the head of the coffin is always turned away
+from you and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to
+you appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly
+opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this
+'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it
+you. Here it is"--and beckoning to the referees to come quite close,
+he pointed to a glass screen, in the centre of the base of which was a
+glass trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the
+coffin. "Here, corpse!" Curtis said, "crawl through"--and Hamar,
+looking as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of
+wriggling on his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight
+together as he could, and squirmed through.
+
+"Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"Perfectly!" the referees answered. "Nothing could be plainer. We see
+exactly, now, how the trick is done."
+
+At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the
+elegant manner in which he had been patiently and assiduously coached
+by Kelson.
+
+He then proceeded to the second trick--"Eve at the Window," a trick
+almost, if not quite, as famous as "The Brass Coffin," and for the
+solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge
+sums of money.
+
+A large pane of glass some nine by six feet in area, and set in
+a frame, made to represent that of a window, is placed on the
+stage, about eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches
+from the ground a wooden shelf is placed against the window. An
+assistant--usually a woman--then mounts on the shelf and, looking out
+of the glass, proceeds to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a
+shocked voice asks her to desist. She refuses and, to the amusement of
+the audience, carries on her pantomimic flirtation more desperately
+than before. The operator pretends to lose his temper, and snatching
+up a screen places it at the back of her. He then fires a pistol,
+pulls aside the screen, and she has vanished. As the top, bottom and
+sides of the window, all in fact except the very middle, have been in
+full view of the audience, and as the window has been tightly closed
+all the time, the disappearance of the girl completely mystifies the
+audience.
+
+Curtis explained it all. He pointed out that the keynote to the
+illusion lay behind the wooden shelf, which was so placed as to
+conceal the fact that the lower part of the window was made double,
+the bottom of the upper part being concealed from view by a second
+sheet of silvered glass placed in front of it. The shelf covers the
+line of junction and enables the window frame to be scrutinized by the
+audience.
+
+As soon as the screen is put in front of the lady on the shelf--the
+glass pane slides up about a foot and a half into the top of the
+frame, purposely made very deep. The bottom of the window is cut away
+in the middle, leaving an aperture about two feet square, which was
+previously hidden from view by the double glass at the base. Eve makes
+her exit through this hole, and slides on to a board placed behind the
+window in readiness for her. The pane of glass then slides down again,
+the screen is removed, and the window appears just as solid as before.
+
+When Curtis concluded his verbal explanation he gave the audience a
+practical illustration of how the thing was done; he manipulated the
+screen and pistol, whilst Hamar posed as Eve, and directly he had
+finished there was another outburst of applause. Kelson dared not look
+at John Martin or Gladys. The brief glance he had taken of them at the
+conclusion of the giving away of the first trick had shocked him--and
+he purposely stood with his back to them. With Hamar it was
+otherwise--the joy of triumph was strong within him, and the picture
+of John Martin, leaning forward in his chair, with his mouth half open
+and a dazed, glassy expression in his eyes, only thrilled him with
+pleasure; he laughed at the old man, and still more at Gladys.
+
+"That's the way to treat a girl of that sort," he whispered to Kelson;
+"scoff at her--scoff at her well. Let her see you don't care a snap
+for her--and in the end she'll run after you and haunt you to death."
+
+"I'm not so sure," Kelson said. "It might act in some cases, perhaps,
+but I don't think you can quite depend on it."
+
+"Pooh! You are no judge of women, in spite of all your experience,"
+Hamar retorted. "I'll bet you anything you like she'll come round and
+make a tremendous fuss of me."
+
+"Supposing you fall in love with her, how about the compact?" Kelson
+asked. "You've warned me often enough."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not like you," Hamar replied. "There's nothing soft in my
+nature. I fall in love! Not much! Why, you might as well have
+apprehensions of my joining the Salvation Army, or wanting to become a
+Militant Suffragette--either would be just about as possible. No--! I
+shall make the girl love me--and we shall be engaged for just as long
+as I please. If I find some one that attracts me more, I shall throw
+her aside--if not, maybe, I shall marry her--but in either case there
+will be no question of love--at least not on my part. She shall do as
+I want--that is all! Hulloa! Curtis is beginning again."
+
+There were five other tricks on the programme--all of which were world
+renowned. They were "The Floating Head"; "The Mango Seed"; "The
+Haunted Bathing-machine," "The Girl with the Five Eyes," and "The
+Vanishing Bicycle" illusion. As with the first two tricks, so Curtis
+did with the following five--he explained them, and then, aided by
+Hamar and Kelson, gave practical demonstrations of their solutions;
+and so thoroughly and clearly were these solutions demonstrated that
+the referees asked no questions--they were absolutely satisfied.
+Turning to the audience--at a sign from Curtis--they announced that
+the whole of Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks had been solved to
+their entire satisfaction, and that Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. had, without doubt, won the wager.
+
+"Have you anything to say?" Curtis asked, addressing John Martin.
+
+"I acknowledge my defeat, though I do not understand it!" John Martin
+said with very white lips. "I shall pay you the ten thousand pounds
+to-night."
+
+"Don't worry about that," Hamar interposed; "we don't want to take
+your money, all we wanted to do was to prove to you we could perform
+the tricks you believed to be insoluble.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen!" he went on, raising his voice, "the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd. has given you some proof to-night of their
+capabilities in the conjuring line, and if you will give us the
+pleasure of your company to-morrow night--we invite you all free of
+charge for the occasion--we will give you a still further
+demonstration of our powers. May we count upon your patronage?"
+
+A terrific storm of clapping was the reply, and as the audience slowly
+filed from the hall, John Martin staggered into the wing, reeled past
+Gladys ere she could catch him, and sank helplessly on to the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD. GIVE A GRATIS PERFORMANCE
+
+
+The days that followed were dark days for Gladys. Her father, whom she
+loved--and, until now, had never realized how much she loved--lay
+seriously ill. He had had a stroke which, although fortunately slight,
+must, as the doctor said, be regarded as a prelude to what would
+happen, unless he was kept very quiet. And to keep him quiet was not
+an easy thing to do. His mind continually reverted to what had just
+taken place, and he was for ever asking Gladys to tell him whether
+anything further had occurred in connection with it, whether there was
+anything about it in the papers.
+
+Gladys, of course, was obliged to dissemble. She hated anything
+approaching dissimulation, but on this occasion there was no help for
+it, and what she told John Martin was the reverse of what she knew to
+be actually happening. The papers were full to overflowing with
+accounts of that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous
+gratis exhibition given on the succeeding evening by the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd.
+
+The _Hooter_, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
+in large type--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT MARTIN AND DAVENPORT'S
+    THE GREATEST CONJURING TRICKS IN THE WORLD SOLVED!
+
+Whilst the _Daily Snapper_, determined to be none the less sensational,
+began thus:
+
+    MYSTERIES NO LONGER!
+    "THE BRASS COFFIN TRICK" AND "EVE AT THE WINDOW" DONE AT LAST!
+    MARTIN AND DAVENPORT LOSE THEIR PRESTIGE
+
+This was bad enough, but the _Planet_ published a paragraph that was
+even more galling, viz.--
+
+    "Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
+    explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home
+    of Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
+    surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should
+    turn elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is
+    above all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort
+    to the Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids
+    fair to become the future home of everything uncanny. Their
+    programme--to the uninitiated--presents possibilities--and
+    impossibilities."
+
+So said the _Planet_, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
+Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
+succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled
+to overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being
+verified. The solution of Martin and Davenports' tricks had taken
+place (Hamar had so planned it) on the last night the trio possessed
+the property of divination, and, consequently, on the night that
+terminated the first stage of their compact. The following night they
+would be in possession of new powers, such powers as would warrant
+them giving a gratis exhibition--an exhibition of jugglery absolutely
+new and unprecedented. That the exhibition was successful may be
+gathered from the following article in the _Daily Cyclone_--
+
+    "MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+
+    "The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., in their new premises in
+    Cockspur Street, gave the most remarkable display of Phenomena it
+    has ever yet fallen to our lot to report. Indeed, the performances
+    were of such an extraordinary nature that the huge audience, _en
+    masse_, was scared; not a few people fainted, whilst every now and
+    again were heard screams of terror intermingled with long
+    protracted 'Ohs!'"
+
+A brief _resume_ of the entertainment ran as follows:--The first part
+of the Modern Sorcery Company's programme was carried out by Mr. Leon
+Hamar, solus, who, stepping to the front of the stage, announced that
+he was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further
+prelude he pointed to various members of the audience, and described
+spiritual presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he
+could see a spirit, answering to the name of James or George--or some
+such equally familiar name--and then proceed to give a description of
+it, so elastic, that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly
+have fitted nine out of every ten people one meets with every day, but
+unlike any other clairvoyants we have known, he described the
+individual physical and moral traits of the people he professed to
+see. For example: To a lady sitting in the third row of the stalls, he
+said: "There is the phantasm of an elderly gentleman standing behind
+you. He has a vivid scar on his right cheek that looks as if it might
+have been caused by a sabre cut. He has a grey military moustache, a
+very marked chin; wears his hair parted in the middle, and has
+light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously on the gentleman seated on
+your left. Do you recognize the person I am describing?"
+
+"I think so," the lady answered in a faint voice.
+
+"I will spare you a description of his person," Hamar went on, "but I
+should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
+He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
+pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
+revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
+right?"
+
+There was no reply--but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
+words.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. "I can see behind
+you," he said, "an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large
+emerald drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of
+which she appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She
+died of pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of--Ahem!--of
+her relatives--for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
+however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square--a Society
+for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to
+whom I refer."
+
+Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.
+
+"Only too well!" came the indignant and spontaneous reply.
+
+Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. "Hulloa!" he
+exclaimed. "What have we here--an Irish terrier answering to the name
+of 'Peg.' It is standing upright with its two front paws resting on
+your knees. It is looking up into your face, and its mouth is open as
+if anticipating a lump of sugar. From the marks on its body I should
+say it has been killed by being run over?"
+
+Again Mr. Hamar was correct. "What you say is absolutely true," the
+gentleman replied; "I had a dog named Peg. I was greatly attached to
+it, and it was run over in Piccadilly by a motor cyclist. I hate the
+very sight of a motor bicycle."
+
+After a brief interval of awestruck silence a voice from the gallery
+called out--
+
+"You are in league with him!"
+
+Then the man in the stalls stood up, and essayed to speak; but his
+voice was drowned in a perfect tornado of applause. He had no need--he
+was instantly recognized--he was J---- B----. With a few more examples
+of clairvoyance Mr. Hamar continued to entertain his audience for half
+an hour or so, by the end of which time, we have no hesitation in
+saying that every one was convinced that he actually saw what, he
+said, he saw.
+
+The second part of the programme was entirely in the hands of Mr.
+Curtis, who now came forward with a bow. "Ladies and gentlemen," he
+said; "you all know that man is complex--that he is composed of mind
+and matter, the material and immaterial. I now propose to give you a
+physical demonstration of this fact. Will twelve of the audience
+kindly come up on the stage and sit around me, so that you may feel
+quite certain that I have here no mechanical devices to assist
+me?"--And amongst other well-known people who responded to Mr.
+Curtis's request, were Lord Bayle, Sir Charles Tenningham and the
+Right Hon. John Blaine, M.P. Having arranged these twelve volunteers
+in a semi-circle at the back of the stage, Mr. Curtis, standing in the
+centre of the stage, again addressed his audience. "Ladies and
+gentlemen," he said; "the secret of separating the mind--or what
+Spiritualists, who love to bolster up their pretended knowledge of the
+other world by the invention of pretentious nomenclature, call the
+'ethical ego'--from the body, lies in intense concentration. If you
+wish to acquire the power, practise concentration--concentrate on
+being in a certain place. If nothing happens at first, don't be
+discouraged, but keep on trying, and a time will come when you will
+suddenly leave your body, in a form, which is the exact counterpart of
+the body you have left. You will visit the place whereon you are
+concentrating. Perhaps the best method of practising projection is to
+put your forehead against a door or wall, and concentrate very hard on
+being on the other side. It may take weeks before you get a result,
+but if you persevere, you will eventually succeed in leaving your
+physical form and passing through the door, or wall, into the space
+beyond. Now watch me! I shall concentrate on projecting my immaterial
+body, and of walking in it, three times round my material body."
+
+Mr. Curtis closed his eyes, and for some seconds appeared to be
+thinking very hard. Then the audience witnessed a remarkable
+phenomenon--a figure, the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, stepped
+out, as it were, from his body, and slowly walking round it three
+times, deliberately glided into it, and apparently amalgamated with
+it. The twelve members from the audience who were within a few feet of
+the alleged ethereal body, as it walked past them, declared they saw
+it most vividly, and that feature for feature, detail for detail, it
+was the exact counterpart of Mr. Curtis, whose material body remained
+standing, upright and motionless, with its eyes tightly closed. Our
+representative questioned several of these eye-witnesses very closely,
+and they were all most emphatic in their belief that what they had
+seen was a _bona-fide_ case of spiritual projection. At the request of
+a large part of the audience, Mr. Curtis repeated his demonstration, a
+further complement of men from the stalls joining those already on the
+stage to witness the operation.
+
+Several tests were now applied to the ethereal body of Mr. Curtis, as
+it walked round his material body. One man, clutching at its sleeve,
+tried to detain it, but his hand passed through the sleeve, and
+held--nothing. Another man put out an arm to act as a barrier, and the
+projection, without swerving from its course, passed right through it;
+and, on the completion of the third round, disappeared as before.
+
+In answer to inquiries, Mr. Curtis stated that the phenomenon might be
+taken as a good illustration of projections; and that he was prepared
+to project himself once again, in order to prove that it was erroneous
+to suppose that phantasms could not do all manner of physical actions.
+A deal table (upon which stood a tumbler and jug of water), a
+grandfather clock, and a piano were brought on to the stage, and Mr.
+Curtis once again projected his spirit form. The latter at once walked
+to the table, and, taking up the tumbler, filled it with water from
+the jug; after which it wound up the clock, and, sitting down on a
+seat in front of the piano, played "Killarney" and "The Star-spangled
+Banner." And then, amidst the wildest applause--the first time
+assuredly "a ghost" has ever received public plaudits in recognition
+of its services--it modestly re-entered its physical home.
+
+Mr. Curtis then announced that not only could he project his ethereal
+body from his material body in the manner he had already demonstrated,
+but that with his ethereal body he could amalgamate with inorganic
+matter. He bade those on the stage approach the table in convenient
+numbers, _i.e._ two or three at a time, and listen attentively. He
+then took his stand on one side of the stage, about fourteen feet from
+the table; and the audience approaching the table and listening
+attentively, first of all heard it pulsate as with the throbbings of a
+heart, and then breathe with the deep and heavy respirations of some
+one in a sound sleep. The table then raised itself some three or four
+inches from the ground and moved round the stage; at the conclusion of
+which feat Mr. Curtis informed the audience that "table-turning"--when
+not accomplished through the trickery of one of the sitters--was
+frequently performed by the work of some earth-bound spirit--usually
+an Elemental--that could amalgamate with any piece of furniture, in
+precisely the same way as his own projection had amalgamated with the
+table in front of them. "Elementals," Mr. Curtis continued, "are
+responsible for many of the foolish and purposeless tricks performed
+at seances; and for the unintelligible and useless kind of answers the
+table so often raps out. The best you can hope for, from an Elemental,
+is amusement--it will never give you any reliable information; nor
+will it ever do you any good."
+
+With these words Mr. Curtis's share in the entertainment concluded. He
+retired to the wings, whilst Mr. Kelson stepping forward--begged those
+several gentlemen who, on Mr. Curtis's exit, had reseated themselves
+among the audience, once again to step up on to the stage.
+
+"Be good enough," he said addressing them in his most polite manner,
+"to observe me very closely. I am about to give you a few further
+examples of what intense mental concentration can do, thus proving to
+you to what an unlimited extent mind can gain dominion over matter.
+You all know that will-power can overcome any of the internal physical
+forces; for instance, when you have tooth or ear ache--you have only
+to say to yourselves: 'I shan't suffer'--and the suffering ceases. But
+what you may not know--what you may not have realized, is that
+will-power can over-rule external forces and principles--as for
+example--gravity. As a matter of fact, airships and aeroplanes are
+absolutely superfluous--and the time, money and labour they involve is
+a prodigious waste. Any man with strong mental capacity can fly
+without the aid of mechanism. He has only to will himself to be in the
+air--and he is there. Look!" And to the amazement--the indescribable,
+unparalleled amazement--of all present, Mr. Kelson knit his brows, as
+if engaged in intense thought, and, jumping off his feet, remained in
+the air, at a height of some four feet from the floor.
+
+At his request members of the audience came up to him, and passed
+their hands under, over and all around him, to make sure there were no
+wires. He then struck out with his hands and legs after the manner of
+a swimmer, and moving first of all round the stage, and then over the
+stalls and pit, gradually ascended higher and higher, till he reached
+the level of the boxes, to the occupants of which he spoke.
+
+Such an extraordinary spectacle--which apparently gives the lie to all
+our preconceived notions of gravity--has certainly never before been
+witnessed, and the effect it had on those who saw it, baffles
+description. When Mr. Kelson returned to the stage, and the terrific
+applause that greeted his arrival there had subsided, he gave the
+audience a few valuable hints as to how they, too, might accomplish
+this feat.
+
+"Practise concentration," he said, "and develop your will power, if
+only by a very little, every day. Jump off a stool to begin with,
+saying to yourself as you do so: 'I will remain in the air. I won't
+touch the ground,'--and though you may fail for the hundredth time, if
+only you keep on trying you will eventually succeed. To keep your
+equilibrium on a bicycle is a feat which would have been pronounced
+utterly impossible by your ancestors of two hundred years ago; but
+just as that power came to you--after many futile efforts, all at
+once--so, in the end, will flying come to you. See, I am now going to
+rise to the highest point in the building. Gravity pulls me back, but
+I say to myself: 'I will rise--I will fly there'--and fly there I
+do!"--and, springing off the ground, he struck out with his arms and
+legs, flew swiftly and easily to the dome of the hall, which he
+touched--and then flew back again to the stage.
+
+This completed the evening's entertainment. If only on the strength of
+its first performance, the Modern Sorcery Company, in our opinion, has
+more than justified its name; and although we understand they will
+give no more performances gratis, we feel confident in prophesying
+that, for many a long night, there will be no falling off in the
+attendance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SHIEL TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+Gladys did not feel too happy when she read notices such as these; she
+could not do other than see in them destruction to her father, and the
+worst of it all was she could do nothing to help him. Who could? Who
+could possibly invent anything as wonderful as the marvels of the
+Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.? And yet unless John Martin gave up
+altogether, that is what he must do. Nay, he must do more--he must not
+only equal the Modern Sorcery Company's marvels, he must eclipse them.
+But after the affair of the challenge, it seemed to Gladys that there
+was no help for it--the Hall would have to be closed for a time. Now
+that Dick Davenport was dead, there was no one to take her father's
+place. On the night succeeding the catastrophe, she had persuaded one
+of the Indian attendants to undertake the role of operator, but his
+skill was not equal to the tax upon it, and the audience--a poor
+one--was very lukewarm in its applause. The following day she talked
+the matter over with her father. The latter was in favour of keeping
+the show on at any cost; Gladys, for closing it temporarily.
+
+"A bad performance is worse than no performance," she said, "much
+better to close till you have invented some new tricks."
+
+John Martin groaned. "I fear my days of invention are over," he
+muttered. "If I can read the papers and write letters, that will be
+about as much as I shall be able to do."
+
+"Couldn't you retire?"
+
+"I would if I were not a Britisher," John Martin replied, "but being a
+Britisher I'd sooner shoot myself than give in to a d----d Yank!"
+
+And Gladys, in terror lest her father should over-excite himself,
+promised she would see that the entertainment was carried on as usual,
+and that the Indian continued in the role of operator.
+
+But when out of her father's presence, Gladys gave way to despair. How
+could she--a woman--hope to cope with such a difficult situation? And
+she was racking her brains to know how to act for the best, when Shiel
+was announced.
+
+A wave of relief swept over her. She could explain her difficulties to
+Shiel, in a way that she could not to any one who had no knowledge at
+all of her father's affairs--and she told him just how matters stood.
+
+"Look here!" he exclaimed, when she had finished, "why not let me take
+your father's place at the Kingsway? I have done a little amateur
+acting, and am not nervous at the thought of appearing in public. Your
+father confided in you so much--you must know all his tricks by
+heart--couldn't you coach me!"
+
+Gladys looked at him critically.
+
+"It wouldn't be half a bad idea," she said. "Supposing you come with
+me to the Hall, I can explain the tricks better if I show you the
+apparatus at the same time."
+
+Shiel thoroughly enjoyed that journey up to town. He knew it was wrong
+of him to think of his own pleasure, when the affairs of his companion
+were in such a critical condition. He knew he ought not to look at her
+in the way he did--as if she was the most precious thing in the world,
+and he would give her his soul if she wanted it--he knew that he--a
+penniless artist without any prospects--had no right to behave thus.
+But her beauty appealed to him with a force he was entirely incapable
+of resisting, and he went on looking at her in the way he knew he
+ought not to look at her, simply because he couldn't help it.
+
+He lunched with her at her club in Dover Street, and then they taxied
+to the Kingsway.
+
+The door-keeper, the only living creature in the building, saving
+themselves, seemed to share in the general depression hanging over
+everything--the great, empty front of the house with its gloomy,
+cavernous boxes and grim, grey gallery--the dark, dismal flies--the
+chilly wings--all hushed and still, and impregnated with the sense of
+desertion. But with this man beside her, who, she knew, would do
+anything he could to help, the place did not look quite so bad to
+Gladys as it had done the day before. There was a ray of light now
+where, before, ebon blackness had prevailed.
+
+Without delay Gladys rang up the Indian attendants on the telephone,
+and occupied the time prior to their arrival by describing to Shiel
+how each of the tricks was done.
+
+Her pupil proved far more able than she had anticipated. After several
+rehearsals he was able to go through the whole performance without a
+hitch.
+
+When they had finished, Gladys stretched out her hand impulsively. "I
+don't know how to thank you enough," she said. "You are a brick, and
+if only you do half as well this evening as you have done now, we
+shall get on swimmingly--that is to say, as well as we can expect,
+until we can arrange a fresh programme. If only you were an inventor!"
+
+"If only I were. If only I had money!"
+
+"Why, what would you do?" Gladys asked curiously.
+
+"Give it to you! Give you every halfpenny of it!--But as I haven't
+any, I mean to give you all the energy I possess instead."
+
+"Why me? My father you mean!"
+
+"No, you!" Shiel said impulsively, "both of you if you prefer it, but
+you first."
+
+"Me first! That doesn't seem very lucid--but I can't stay to hear an
+explanation now, for if I miss the four-thirty train I shall miss my
+dinner, which would indeed be a calamity!" And slipping on her gloves,
+she hurried off, forbidding Shiel to escort her further.
+
+Left to himself, Shiel strolled along the Strand into the Victoria
+Gardens, where he bought an evening paper, and sat down to read it.
+The first thing that caught his eye was--
+
+    "MAGIC IN LONDON"
+
+    "This morning the West End received a shock. About twelve o'clock,
+    a gentleman, fashionably dressed, turned into Bond Street from
+    Piccadilly, and when opposite Messrs. Truefitt's prepared to cross
+    over. The street happened just then to be blocked by a long line
+    of taxis. The gentleman, however, had no intention of waiting till
+    they had passed. Measuring the distance from one pavement to the
+    other with his eyes, he jumped about fifteen feet into the air and
+    cleared the intervening space without the slightest apparent
+    effort--a feat that literally paralysed with astonishment all who
+    beheld it. On being remonstrated with by a policeman, who was
+    highly perplexed as to whether such extraordinary conduct
+    constituted a breach of the peace or not, the gentleman calmly
+    leaped over the policeman's head, and striking out with arms and
+    legs swam through the air.
+
+    "Continuing in this fashion, the cynosure of all eyes--even the
+    traffic being suspended to watch him--he passed along Bond Street
+    into Oxford Street, where he once more alighted on his feet. On
+    being questioned by a representative of the Press, it transpired
+    he was Mr. Kelson, one of the partners in the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., whose wonderful performances at their Hall, in
+    Cockspur Street, have already been reported in these columns."
+
+"I should well like to know how that flying trick is done," Shiel said
+to himself. "According to Kelson it is entirely a question of will
+power. I'll see if I can't develop my concentrative faculty and
+introduce a few of the same performances in our show. I'll go to the
+Hall and try them now."
+
+But his preliminary efforts were certainly far from successful. He
+jumped off chairs saying to himself, "I'll fly! I will fly," and he
+struck out heroically each time, but the result was always the
+same--gravity conquered--he fell.
+
+Had he not been so much in love with Gladys, he would have desisted;
+as it was, the more he bumped and bruised himself, the more determined
+he was to go on trying. In fact, flying with him became a mania; and
+according to the daily journals, his was by no means the only case.
+All over England people were trying to fly. An old lady, in Gipsy
+Hill, appeared in the Police Court to answer a charge of causing
+annoyance to her neighbours by practising flying, from off her bed, at
+night. Her bulk being large and her will power apparently small, she
+yielded to gravity and landed on the ground with prodigious bumps,
+which set everything in the room vibrating, and which could be plainly
+heard in the adjoining houses, through the thin brick walls on either
+side of her room.
+
+An old gentleman in Guilsborough had an extremely narrow escape. Being
+warned on no account to practise flying in the house or garden, lest
+his grandchildren should see him and want to do the same, he retired
+to the seclusion of an old, disused and dilapidated coach house. Here,
+in the upper storey, he practised by the hour together. He climbed on
+to a stool which he had taken there for the purpose, and when he
+fancied he had acquired the right amount of concentration, he sprang
+into the air, arriving, presumably through want of will power, on the
+floor. For two whole days he practised--bump--bump--bump--and the more
+he bumped, the more he persevered. At last, however, the floor gave
+way, and with loud cries of "I will! I will!" he fell on the ground
+floor, ten feet below! He was unable to go on experimenting, owing to
+a broken leg and a fractured collar-bone.
+
+In Aylsham, Norfolk, there had been a perfect epidemic among the
+children for trying aeronic gravity. Rudolph Crabbe, aged five, after
+listening to an account of the performances at the Modern Sorcery
+Company's Hall, which his father had read aloud, sprang off the
+dining-room table crying out "I will fly! I will stay in the air."
+Fortunately, he fell on the tabby cat, which somewhat broke the shock
+of concussion, and he escaped unhurt.
+
+In College Road, Clifton, Bristol, an octogenarian thinking he would
+add novelty to the Jubilee celebrations at the College, leaped off the
+roof of his house, crying, "I'll fly over the Close! I will fly over
+the Close!"--and broke his neck.
+
+In St. Ives, Cornwall, where the treatment of animals is none too
+humane, a fisher-boy threw a visitor's Pomeranian over the Malakoff
+saying, "You shall fly! You shall remain in the air;" whilst at Bath a
+girl of ten, snatching her baby brother from the perambulator, leaped
+over Beechen Cliff, calling out, "We will fly together! We will fly
+together!"
+
+These are only a few of the many similar cases Shiel read in the
+paper, and which he narrated afterwards to Gladys Martin.
+
+"I am quite convinced," Gladys said, "that Kelson does his flying
+through supernatural agency. His assertion that it can be done through
+mere will power, is sheer humbug. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consult
+a clairvoyant. What do you think?"
+
+Shiel thought it was an excellent suggestion. He saw in it an
+opportunity of spending yet another afternoon in Gladys's company, and
+asked her to go with him to an occultist the very next day. When she
+assented, the pleasure of it tingled through every pore of his skin.
+Of course, Gladys assured herself there was no harm in her acceptance
+of Shiel's escort--that neither he nor she meant anything by it--that
+it was on her part merely a sort of an acknowledgment that he had been
+awfully good to her in her present predicament. Besides, if she needed
+further excuse, she had no reason for supposing Shiel to be in love
+with her--and had her father not spoken to her about it, she would not
+have remarked anything different in his glances, from the glances--for
+the time being, perhaps, earnest enough--bestowed upon her by other
+young men; which excuse, was, certainly, in Gladys's case, a more or
+less honest one.
+
+They had some difficulty in selecting a psychometrist--so numerous
+were those who advertised, in an equally alluring manner--but they at
+length decided in favour of Madame Elvita, whose consulting rooms were
+in New Bond Street. When they arrived there, Madame Elvita was, of
+course, engaged. Shiel was delighted--it gave him an extra half-hour
+with Gladys. When Madame was free, she had much to tell them. First of
+all she spoke to them of Karmas, Kamadevas, Rupadevas, vitalized
+shells, etheric doubles, the Nermanakaya, and afterwards solemnly
+announced that she must relapse into a state of clairvoyance, in order
+to get in touch with Tillie Toot, a certain spirit from whom she could
+learn all that Gladys and Shiel wanted to know. Accordingly, in the
+manner of most other two-guinea clairvoyants, she composed herself in
+a graceful and recumbent attitude, made a lot of queer grimaces and
+still queerer noises, and spoke in a falsetto voice, which purposed to
+be that of Tillie Toot, once a barmaid in Edinburgh, now one of
+Madame's familiar spirits. And the gist of what "Tillie" told them was
+that Hamar & Co. derived their powers from Black Magic; and that the
+secrets thereof could only be learned from Madame, after a series of
+sittings with her--sittings for which Madame would only require a fee
+of fifty guineas: a most moderate, in fact quite trifling, sum,
+considering the wonderful instruction they would receive.
+
+But Madame's magnanimous offer tempted neither Gladys nor Shiel; and
+they abruptly took their departure.
+
+Kateroski (_nee_ Jones) in Regent Street, whom Gladys and Shiel had
+agreed to consult in the event of a non-successful visit to Madame
+Elvita in Bond Street, also told them that Black Magic was the key to
+Hamar, Curtis & Kelson's performances. She advised them to get on the
+Astral Plane, where they would meet spirits who would give them all
+the information they desired.
+
+Madame Kateroski's instructions were simple. "It is really a matter of
+faith," she said. "All you have to do is to go to some secluded
+spot--the privacy of your bedroom will do admirably--sit down, close
+your eyes, look into your lids and concentrate hard. After a while you
+will no longer see your eyelids--your lids will fade away and you will
+be on the Astral Plane, and see strange creatures, which, although
+terrifying, won't harm you. When you get used to them, you will
+communicate with them, and learn from them all you want to know."
+
+"Shall we try?" Gladys remarked laughingly to Shiel, as they stepped
+into the street. "But if faith is essential to success, I fear
+failure, as far as I am concerned, is a foregone conclusion. I know I
+shouldn't have sufficient faith."
+
+"Nor I either," Shiel said. "But, perhaps, we could acquire a
+necessary amount of it, if we were to experiment together. Supposing
+we try in that delightfully secluded copse in your garden."
+
+Gladys shook her head. "I'm afraid it would be useless. Besides, if my
+father were to hear of it, he would fear worry had turned my brain,
+and most likely have another fit. No, we must think of something more
+practical. In the meanwhile, if you will keep on with the part, you
+have so generously undertaken, you will be doing me an inestimable
+service."
+
+"Then I'll keep on with it for ever," Shiel replied, and before she
+could stop him, he had kissed her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW HAMAR, CURTIS AND KELSON ENTERED THE ASTRAL PLANE
+
+
+In order to explain the manner in which Hamar, Kelson and Curtis were
+initiated into their new properties, I must now go back to the day
+preceding the gratis performance of the Modern Sorcery Company, that
+is to say the last day of stage one of the compact.
+
+To Kelson the day had been one of surprises throughout. When he
+arrived at the building in Cockspur Street (he preferred living alone,
+and, consequently, rented a handsome suite of rooms in John Street,
+Mayfair), he was not a little astonished to meet Lilian Rosenberg on
+the staircase.
+
+"I thank you so much!" she exclaimed, shaking hands with him most
+effusively. "It is all owing to you I got the post."
+
+"Then Hamar has engaged you," Kelson ejaculated.
+
+"Why, yes! didn't you know!" Lilian said with a smile. "I had a letter
+from him the very evening of the day I called here."
+
+"Did you! He never told me anything about it! How do you think you
+will get on?"
+
+"Oh, splendidly! The work is interesting and full of variety.
+Moreover, I like the atmosphere of the place, it is so weird. I
+believe the three of you really are magicians!"
+
+"If that be so," Kelson said, "then we have only acted in accordance
+with our character in engaging the services of a witch--a witch who
+has already bewitched one member of the trio. Now please don't go to
+the expense of lunching out: lunch with me instead. Lunch with me
+every day."
+
+"It is very kind of you," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and I will gladly
+do so when I am not lunching with Mr. Hamar. But he has invited me to
+have all my meals with him."
+
+"That doesn't mean you are obliged to have them with him every day!"
+Kelson cried. "Lunch with me this morning."
+
+"I am very sorry," Lilian Rosenberg replied, looking at Kelson with
+mock pleading eyes, "please don't scold me, but I've really promised
+Mr. Hamar."
+
+"Have tea with me, then," Kelson said.
+
+"I've promised him that, too."
+
+"Supper then!" Kelson said, savagely.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, but I'm engaged all this evening, and practically
+every evening."
+
+"With Mr. Hamar?" Kelson asked suspiciously.
+
+"Oh no! my own private business," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Do
+forgive me. I should so like to have been able to accept your
+invitation. Now I must hurry back to my work," and she gave him her
+hand, which Kelson held, and would have gone on holding all the
+morning, had he not heard Hamar's well-known tread ascending the
+stairs.
+
+"Look here!" he said, as they entered his room together, "I want Miss
+Rosenberg to have luncheon with me one day this week, and she tells me
+you have already invited her. Let her come with me to-morrow."
+
+"It is impossible," Hamar said. "Now I'll tell you what it is, Matt, I
+anticipated this the moment I saw you two together, and its got to
+stop. You would genuinely fall in love with that girl--or as a matter
+of fact any other pretty girl--if you saw much of her--and love, I
+tell you, would be absolutely disastrous to our interests. You must
+let her alone--absolutely alone, I tell you. I have given her strict
+orders she is to confine herself to her work, and to me."
+
+"I think you take a great deal too much on yourself. I shall see just
+as much of Miss Rosenberg, when she is disengaged, as I please."
+
+"Then she never shall be disengaged. But come, do be sane and put some
+restraint on this mad infatuation of yours for pretty faces. Can't you
+keep it in check anyhow for two years--till after the term of the
+compact has expired! Then you will be free to indulge in it, to your
+heart's content. For Heaven's sake, be guided by me. Harmony between
+us must be kept at all costs. Don't you understand?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I understand all right," Kelson said, "and I'll try. But
+it's very hard--and I really don't see there would be any danger in my
+taking her out occasionally."
+
+"Well, I do," Hamar replied, "and there's an end. To turn to something
+that may spell business. Just before I got up this morning I saw a
+striped figure bending over me!"
+
+"A striped figure?"
+
+"Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
+limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs--of a sort--if it
+cared to show them."
+
+"You were frightened?"
+
+"Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
+indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit.
+To-night, at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu,
+called Karaver, in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into
+the second stage of our compact."
+
+"I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
+figures--I've had enough of them," Kelson said.
+
+"Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking
+of the compact," Hamar retorted, "otherwise you'll see something far
+worse."
+
+Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
+injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
+had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house.
+
+To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them.
+
+"How did you know we were coming," Curtis asked.
+
+"A gentleman called here early this morning and told me," Karaver
+explained. "He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
+the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
+each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there.
+I demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations
+of my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few--those born
+under the sign of Dejellum Brava.
+
+"The stranger showing me the sign--written plainer than I have ever
+seen it--in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no
+sooner done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking
+to an Elemental--a spirit of my native mountains."
+
+"My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything
+very alarming in this astral business?" Kelson asked.
+
+"It depends on what you call alarming," the Indian said coldly. "I
+shouldn't be alarmed."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Matt," Hamar interposed. "I never saw such a
+frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
+Think of what there is at stake."
+
+"Think of Lilian Rosenberg," Curtis whispered, "and be comforted."
+
+Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre
+of the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told
+to sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
+composed of: 1/2 oz. of hemlock, 3/4 oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
+oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, 1/2 oz. of assafoetida,
+and 1/4 oz. of saffron.
+
+"Are these preparations absolutely necessary?" Kelson asked.
+
+"Absolutely," Karaver said. "English clairvoyants will, doubtless,
+tell you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few
+slipshod instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the
+Astral Plane is mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely
+difficult and can only be done, in the first place, through the
+guidance of a skilled Oriental occultist."
+
+He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
+air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
+chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
+mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
+from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, "Great Spirits of the
+mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
+seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge
+to the realms of thy eternal phantoms."
+
+Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
+fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying "Give me
+authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;" and then kneeling down in front
+of the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:
+
+    "Green phantom figures of the air,
+    A ready welcome see that you prepare.
+    Black phantom figures from the earth,
+    Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth.
+    Red phantom figures of the furious fire,
+    For kindly greeting change your usual ire.
+    Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,
+    To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells.
+    Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,[19] hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,
+    And to these three poor fools, explain, explain
+    The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!"
+
+The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
+Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The
+dark, lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth
+receded farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice
+appeared to grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that
+he sprayed them all over with some sweet-smelling scent,[20] and that
+he whispered (in reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
+"Darkona--droomer--doober--parlar--poohmer--perler. A--ta-rama--
+skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomig--viartikorsa."[21] Then there came a
+temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of light. The
+light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily closed their
+eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been accustomed
+to--it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of vibration.
+When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect to keep
+their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing, apparently
+on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such as they
+knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
+breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground,
+no scenery, but only--space!
+
+They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
+glided across their vision, forms--of every conceivable shape, _i.e._,
+those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
+faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs--some apparently just dead and
+others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
+propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
+people--misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio
+and tried to peer into their faces.
+
+"For heaven's sake keep off!" Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form
+of an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks,
+came up to him, and thrust its face into his.
+
+"This is a bit thick," Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
+phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
+putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.
+
+"Curse you! d--n you!" Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a
+vain endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were
+trying to bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. "A little more
+of this, and I shall go mad!"
+
+Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
+up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence
+of mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm. "If you
+leave us, Matt," he said, "we are lost. I feel our safety depends on
+our keeping together. If I'm not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on
+the part of the Unknown to separate us. If that happens, I feel we may
+never get back to our bodies--and the compact will then be broken. We
+must hang on to each other at all costs." So saying, he slipped his
+free arm through that of Curtis, and the three stood linked together.
+
+Hamar clung on to the other two, until his hands grew numb, and
+the sweat stood on his chest and forehead in great beads. As figure
+after figure stealthily and noiselessly approached them, Kelson and
+Curtis writhed and shrieked; and, at times, it seemed as if the
+chain must be broken. But alarming as were these harrowing types of
+Vice-Elementals--_i.e._, nude things with heads of beasts and bodies of
+men and women; grotesque heads; malevolent eyes; mal-shaped hands;
+headless beasts, etc.; none had so dangerous an effect on the unity of
+the trio as the alluring types of Vice-Elementals, _i.e._, shapes of
+beautiful women that smiled seductively at Kelson, and resorted to
+every device to entice him away with them. It was then that Hamar was
+taxed to the utmost, that he exhausted voice, strength, and patience,
+in holding Kelson back.
+
+He was about to give in, when to his astonishment these Vice-Elementals
+vanished, and a phantasm, the exact counterpart of Karaver, only much
+taller, appeared before them, and commenced giving them instructions
+as to Stage Two.
+
+"You," he said, addressing Hamar, "will possess the property of second
+sight, _i.e._, the power to see, at will, earthbound spirits,
+conditionally, that you fumigate your room, for ten minutes every
+night, before retiring to rest, with a mixture composed of 2 drachms
+of henbane, 3 drachms of saffron, 1/2 oz. of aloes, 1/4 oz. of
+mandrake, 3 drachms of salanum, 2 oz. of assafoetida; that you abstain
+from animal food and wine, and give up smoking; that, three times
+every day, you bathe your face in distilled water, to which has been
+added three drops of the juice of the whortleberry, one drop of the
+juice of the mountain ash berry, 1 oz. of lavender water, 1 oz. of
+nitre, and 1/2 oz. of tincture of arnica; and that, just before going
+to sleep, you look for three minutes, without blinking, at an
+equilateral triangle, transcribed in blood, on white paper, and
+composed of these letters and figures." And he handed Hamar a piece of
+paper, on which were written these symbols:
+
+K.T.O.P.I.6.X.7.4.H.I.P.3.S.4.W.V.2.8.
+
+"So long as you observe these conditions the power will remain with
+you. To-morrow, only, it will be awarded you without any
+preparations."
+
+"You," he went on, turning to Kelson, "will possess the property of
+projection, _i.e._, the power of leaving your body, and of visiting,
+where you will, on the material plane. You will continue to possess
+the same, conditionally, that you carry out the same rules as Leon
+Hamar, with the exception that, instead of looking at a triangle
+before going to sleep, you will repeat these words. See, I have
+written them down for you." And he handed Kelson a slip of paper, on
+which were transcribed "Darkona, droomer, doober, parlar, poohmer,
+perler. A--ta--rama--skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomeg--viartikorsa."
+
+"You," he said, turning to Curtis, "will be endowed with the property
+of overcoming gravity, _i.e._, you will be able to fly, to jump great
+heights, and to lift and move prodigious weights; and this property
+will remain in your possession during the prescribed period, provided
+you abstain from all animal food, from smoking and from drinking
+alcohol; and observe the same rules with regard to fumigating your
+sleeping apartment, and bathing your face, as Hamar and Kelson. But,
+always, before you attempt to fly or to jump, it will be necessary for
+you to set in motion certain vibrations, in the ether, that counteract
+the attraction of gravity. You must repeat the words 'Karjako
+Mandarbsa Guahseela,' which I have written on this blue paper; and
+when you want to move or lift objects, you must first repeat the words
+'Perabibo Henlilee Oko-kokotse,' which I have written on this green
+paper. Gravity, as you will see, is entirely dependent on sound--sound
+can move mountains. It did so in Atlantis, it did so in Egypt."
+
+Making the sign of a triangle, an eye, and a tree in the air, with the
+forefinger of his left hand, he slowly repeated the words
+"Barjakva--ookpoota--trylisa." and the concluding syllable was no
+sooner uttered, than the trio found themselves standing in Berners
+Street. But of Karaver's house--the house they had just quitted--there
+was no trace.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 19: According to Brahminical teaching there are seven
+  main   classes of spirits; some having innumerable sub-divisions.
+  They are--
+
+    1. Arrippa Devas, with forms.
+
+    2. Arrippa Devas, without forms. (Both Classes 1 and 2 are
+    intelligent, sixth principles of certain planets. I style them
+    Planetians, and classify them with all other spirits hailing from
+    Jupiter Neptune, etc.)
+
+    3. Mara rupas (identical with Vice-Elementals).
+
+    4. Pisachas, _i.e._ male and female elementaries. (I have termed
+    them Impersonating Elementals, since they consist of the astral
+    forms of the dead, that may be utilized by Elementals.)
+
+    5. Asuras, _i.e._ gnomes, pixies, etc. (Corresponding to those
+    I have designated Vagrarian Elementals.)
+
+    6. Monstrosities. (These I include among Vice-Elementals and
+    Vagrarians.)
+
+    7. Kaksasas, viz. souls of wizards, witches, and of clever people
+    with evil tendencies, scientists with cruel or harsh
+    tendencies--such as vivisectionists and sophists. All these come
+    under my division of "earthbound phantasms of the dead"--spirits
+    tied to this earth by passions or vices; and I should add to the
+    list--militant suffragettes, strike agitators, hooligans, apaches,
+    pseudo-humanitarians, religious bigots, misers, all people
+    obsessed with manias, idiots, epileptic imbeciles and criminal
+    lunatics. All such may at times be encountered on the lowest
+    spiritual plane.]
+
+  [Footnote 20: Composed of 2 drachms of myrrh, 1/2 oz. of sweet oil,
+  2 oz. of attar of roses, 1/2 oz. heliotrope and 1/4 oz. of musk.]
+
+  [Footnote 21: These words are so arranged as to set in vibration and
+  loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the
+  physical body, and so set the latter free.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HAMAR MAKES ADVANCES
+
+
+The doctors had stated that the tenth day would see the crisis of John
+Martin's illness; if he could tide over that period, he might go on
+for years without another attack. When the momentous day arrived,
+Gladys was simply eating her heart out with suspense. Not a sound was
+permitted in the house. The servants, tiptoeing about, hardly ventured
+even to exchange glances; the errand boys were waylaid and sent to the
+right-about, with a vague notion that if they opened their mouths
+their heads would be off; and some one was posted at the garden gate
+to deal, in a scarcely less summary manner, with visitors. Indeed, so
+fearful was Gladys lest her father should hear Shiel, who had managed
+to elude her outpost, that without meaning it, she greeted him curtly,
+and, more plainly than politely, gave him to understand that she
+wished him elsewhere.
+
+"What have you been saying to Shiel Davenport?" Miss Templeton asked
+Gladys, when they met at lunch. "I passed him in the road just now,
+and he looked so wretched that, despite his ineligibility, I felt
+quite sorry for him. I am sure he is very much in love with you."
+
+"Nonsense," Gladys said, "he is only a boy." But boy though it pleased
+her to call him, she knew that he had played a man's part during her
+father's illness. Every night he had faithfully performed the role,
+she had allotted to him, at the Kingsway Hall, and upon him she was
+forced to admit the success of the entertainment, in a large measure,
+depended. Without pushing himself, or being the least bit officious,
+he had been equally helpful behind the scenes. He had held in check
+all those who, taking advantage of her father's absence, were disposed
+to dispute her authority and shirk their work--and he had also, on her
+behalf, successfully resisted their demand for higher wages. And, over
+and above all this, he had always considered her personal comfort. Her
+meals--which she could never bother about for herself, when engaged
+all day at the hall--were, thanks to him, brought to her as
+punctually, and served as daintily, as they would have been for her
+father; he had taken every care that she should not be disturbed when
+resting; and there was, in short, nothing he had not thought of doing
+to lighten the load, so unexpectedly laid upon her shoulders. The only
+fault she could find with him, was that he had not gained the good
+graces of her father.
+
+The day slowly waned. Gladys had stolen into her father's room
+repeatedly to see how he fared, and to her his condition had seemed
+much about the same--he was as usual tired and peevish. But when, at
+six o'clock, she again stole in to peep at him, and found him lying
+back on his pillow absolutely still and motionless, and without
+apparently breathing, she was immeasurably shocked. Had he had another
+fit, or was he dead? Wild with grief and terror, she rushed from the
+room to telephone to the doctor, and met him on the landing.
+
+"You need have no fear," he said to her the moment he had looked at
+John Martin, "he is sound asleep, and, when he awakes, the crisis will
+be past. To-morrow, he may go out for a bit, and, in a week, he will
+be himself again. Only you must take care that he does not use his
+brain too much."
+
+Gladys could hardly restrain her delight. She felt pleased with
+everything and everybody; and her greeting of Shiel, some two hours
+later, at the theatre, almost turned his brain. In fact it was owing
+to this pleasant surprise, that he made one or two stupid mistakes in
+his performance, and was sharply pulled back to earth by the ironic
+laughter of the audience. When the entertainment was over, and he was
+preparing to accompany Gladys as usual to her motor, the thought of
+her sparkling eyes and animated features again overcame him.
+
+"What shall you advise your father to do?" he asked.
+
+"I think he ought to lose no time in getting a partner," Gladys
+replied, "some one who can attend to the business side of the concern
+for him. It is essential he should not be worried with figures."
+
+"I suppose my services won't be required much longer?" Shiel said,
+speaking with rather an effort.
+
+"Of course I can't answer for my father," Gladys replied, "but I
+should imagine he would be only too glad to employ you. The only thing
+is the salary. You can't live on air, you know, and with the poor
+attendances he gets now, I don't see how he can afford to pay much."
+
+"I would work for very little," Shiel said. "I should be awfully sorry
+to give up now. I wonder if you would miss me at all?"
+
+"Of course I should!" Gladys retorted. "You have behaved admirably,
+and I am most grateful to you."
+
+"You needn't be grateful to me. I have never enjoyed anything half so
+much as I have trying to help you. I am poor, penniless in fact, since
+my uncle left me nothing, but supposing--supposing I were to get some
+lucrative post, do you think--do you think there would ever be any
+possibility of--"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of your caring for me! I am terribly in love with you."
+
+"I fear I must have given you encouragement," Gladys said. "I'm
+awfully sorry. You see I never thought of this, and I don't know what
+to say to you."
+
+"Won't you give me a chance, just a chance?"
+
+"But my father would never hear of it. Unfortunately he seems to be
+prejudiced against you. Won't you wait a while, and then, if you are
+still in the same mind, speak to me again in--say--a year. By that
+time you will, no doubt, have made some sort of a position for
+yourself."
+
+"And in the meanwhile you will get engaged to some one else," Shiel
+exclaimed.
+
+"I don't think I shall," Gladys said. "Of course, I meet crowds of
+men, but you see I am not the marrying sort."
+
+"Do you think you would care for me just a bit?" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps," Gladys said, "but I'm not at all sure. I
+can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
+opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for
+the time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows--it may lie in your
+power to do him some service."
+
+"I don't see how," Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. "But no
+matter--after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
+first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?"
+
+"Sometimes," Gladys laughed. "Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
+to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual." And,
+with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor,
+and drove off.
+
+Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
+utterly unenviable as penury and love--to be next door to starving,
+and at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus
+afflicted, had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated
+himself with her beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure
+there would, later on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only
+in romance, he told himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds
+himself in a position to marry--in reality, his love suit is rejected
+with scorn; his adored one marries some one who has, or pretends he
+has, limitless wealth; and the despised swain ends his days a
+miserable and dejected bachelor.
+
+All the same, Shiel determined that he would for once fare like the
+hero in romance--that he would either win the object of his affections
+or perish in the attempt; and no sooner did the fit of the blues,
+consequent on the conversation just related, wear off, than he set to
+work in grim earnest to discover some means of breaking up the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., and of restoring to the firm of Martin and
+Davenport their former prestige.
+
+In the meanwhile, affairs were by no means stationary, as far as Hamar
+and his colleagues were concerned. The appearance of their paper
+_To-morrow_, a morning journal, that chronicled faithfully every event
+of the following day, caused a tremendous sensation; and the sale of
+every other paper sank to nil--no one, naturally, wanting to buy the
+news that had happened yesterday, when, for the same money, they could
+obtain news of what would happen that very day. The stupid method of
+chronicling past events, Hamar announced in the first issue of his
+organ, was now obsolete. It was, perhaps, good enough for the
+Victorian era, but it was utterly out of keeping with the present age
+of hourly progress. Who, for instance, wanted to know that at 6 p.m.,
+on the preceding evening, there had been a big fire in New York? Was
+it not far more to the point for them to learn, for example, that at 2
+p.m., on that very day, Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by
+an earthquake; that the Post Office in King's Road, Chelsea, would be
+broken into by thieves; that Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square
+would be blown up by Suffragettes; or something equally fresh and
+exciting? One cannot get thrills--at least not the right kind of
+thrills in reading of what has already taken place. To say to
+ourselves, or to a friend, "Just fancy, we might have been in that
+railway accident," or, in reading of a shipwreck "What a mercy we did
+not embark after all, is it not?" is not half as enthralling as to be
+wondering if, at eleven o'clock that night, when the terrific storm in
+which twenty-six people will be killed by lightning in various parts
+of England, we shall be among the fatal number. One is not much moved
+to find oneself alive when a danger is passed, but one does get
+terribly excited in contemplating the risk we are bound to run of
+being killed. Within a week, the circulation of _To-morrow_ had gone
+up from fifty thousand to ten million, and Hamar, inflated with
+success, said to himself, "Now I will go and have another look at John
+Martin."
+
+When he arrived, Gladys was in the garden. His stealthy approach had
+given her no chance to escape.
+
+"What is your business?" she asked, glancing nervously in the
+direction of the house, and dreading lest her father should see Hamar
+from his window.
+
+"I've come to see your father," Hamar said, his eyes resting
+admiringly on her face and then running leisurely over her figure.
+"How is the old gentleman?"
+
+"He is not well enough to see visitors," Gladys said, with absolute
+hauteur. "Perhaps you will state your business to me."
+
+"Well! I don't mind if I do!" Hamar replied. "Let us sit down. It's
+more comfortable than standing." And he dropped into a seat as he
+spoke. "Now I've been noticing," he went on, "that your Show in the
+Kingsway is not getting on very well--that there are fewer and fewer
+people there every night, and I've no doubt it will soon have to dry
+up altogether. We, on the other hand, are doing better and better
+every night, and we shall go on doing better--there is no limit to our
+possibilities. We are worth half a million now--next year, we shall be
+worth ten times that amount!"
+
+"You are optimistical, at all events," Gladys said.
+
+"I can afford to be," Hamar grinned. "Now, do you know what we intend
+doing before very long?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea, and I am not in the slightest degree
+curious."
+
+"Aren't you? Well, you should be, since it concerns you. We mean to
+buy up the whole of Kingsway!"
+
+"And later on, of course, the whole of Regent Street!"
+
+"You are satirical. You are not alarmed at the prospect of having me
+for a landlord!"
+
+"I don't understand you! The Hall in Kingsway is my father's own
+property."
+
+"If that is so then you have nothing to fear," Hamar laughed, "but I
+think it just possible you are mistaken. At any rate, I've been in
+communication with some one styling himself the landlord."
+
+"My father would have an agreement, anyhow!" Gladys said.
+
+"Of course," Hamar replied, "and I've a pretty shrewd idea of the
+terms of it. But enough of this--let me come to the point. I intend
+buying the property, and I shall refuse to renew your father's lease,
+unless he agrees to give me what I want!"
+
+"Of course a preposterous price?"
+
+"No, you--only you!"
+
+"Me!"
+
+"Yes! I've never seen a girl I like more. I've limitless wealth and
+I'll give you everything you want--a steam yacht, motors, diamonds,
+anything, everything, and all I ask in return is that you should
+consent to be engaged to me on trial--say for fifteen months--just to
+see how we get on! What pretty hands you have."
+
+And before Gladys could draw them away, he had caught hold of them in
+an iron grasp, and, turning them over, cast admiring glances at the
+slim, white fingers with the long, almond-shaped and carefully
+manicured nails.
+
+"I reckon," he said, "I shall never find any one prettier all through.
+What do you say?"
+
+"Your proposition is impossible--monstrous! I detest you," Gladys
+retorted, her cheeks white with anger. "Leave go my hands at once, and
+never let me see you again!"
+
+"I can't promise not to see you again," Hamar said, "but I'll let go
+your hands now, for I'm no more a lover of scenes than you. I
+anticipated a little fuss at first--it's the way all you women
+have--you are so modest, you don't like to appear too eager to snap up
+a good offer. You'll close with it right enough in the end. I'll call
+again in a few days. By that time you may have changed your mind."
+And, before she could prevent him, he had again seized her hand and
+was kissing it over and over again.
+
+With an ejaculation of the utmost indignation, she sprang away from
+him, and with all the dignity she could assume, walked to the house.
+What became of him she did not know. Some few seconds later she told
+the gardener to see him safely off the premises, but he was nowhere to
+be found.
+
+A week later, Hamar turned up again at the Cottage, and, despite the
+vigilance of Gladys and the servants, caught John Martin alone.
+
+When the latter, at last, came to the end of what had, at first,
+seemed an inexhaustible stock of invectives, Hamar stated his
+proposals with mathematical exactitude.
+
+"I don't believe for one moment my landlord would be such a blackguard
+as to play into your hands," John Martin spluttered.
+
+"Oh, yes, he would!" Hamar replied. "An Englishman will do anything
+for money, and I am prepared to offer him just twice as much as any
+one else for your Hall. Do you think he will refuse--not he!"
+
+"But what on earth's your object! You've ruined me already."
+
+"Your daughter!" Hamar cried. "Miss Gladys! I am prepared to go any
+lengths to get her. Refuse to give her to me and I'll turn you out of
+your Hall, I'll torment you with every kind of insect, I'll plague you
+with disease, I'll make your life hell. But give her to me--and
+I'll--"
+
+"But I won't! And I defy you to do your worst, you--you--" and there
+is no knowing what would have happened, had not Gladys suddenly come
+in and dragged her father out of the room.
+
+"How dare you?" she exclaimed, returning to the study to find Hamar
+still there. "I've telephoned to the police, and unless you go
+instantly and promise not to come again, I shall give you in charge,
+for annoyance."
+
+"Foolish of you--very foolish!" Hamar said, "when I want to be
+friendly. Sooner or later you must give in, so why not end all this
+needless unpleasantness now, and receive me--if not with open arms--at
+least amicably. You are so awfully pretty! I must have just one----"
+but before he could kiss Gladys the police arrived, and Hamar once
+more retired--with somewhat undignified haste, and more than a little
+discomfited.
+
+On arriving in Cockspur Street, Hamar's temper underwent a still
+further trial. Kelson, taking advantage of his absence, had gone off
+to tea with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+In ill-suppressed fury, he waited till they returned.
+
+"A word with you, Matt," he said, as Kelson tried to shuffle past him.
+"So this is the way you behave when my back is turned. I suppose
+you've had a good time!"
+
+"Delightful!"
+
+"And you know the consequences!"
+
+"Only that I'm looking forward to the same thing another day."
+
+"She'll go!"
+
+"She won't," Kelson chuckled. "She is far too valuable. So there, old
+man! A month ago your threat might have held good. It won't now. You
+daren't--you positively daren't part with her--because, if you did so,
+you'd not only part with a good few of your secrets, but you'd part
+with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE
+
+
+"What's to be done with Matt?" Hamar asked Curtis, soon after the
+interview just recorded. "He's as sweet on Rosensberg as he can be,
+and says if I dismiss her he'll go too!"
+
+"Then don't dismiss her," Curtis replied. "Leave them both alone,
+that's my tip. I don't believe Matt's such a fool as to fall in love,
+and I'm quite sure the girl isn't. Why, she went to the Tivoli with me
+two nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before
+that. It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who
+would treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How
+about Leon and Gladys Martin.'"
+
+"So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
+pretty--splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
+and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for
+love! Well! it's not in my programme."
+
+"Still, stranger things have happened," Curtis said. "Anyhow, I guess
+you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
+dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London--I don't
+go a cent on them."
+
+To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
+he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
+her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had
+never missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on
+the elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling
+her how much he admired her.
+
+"You really mustn't," she said. "Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders
+to attend to nothing but my work."
+
+"Oh, damn Hamar!" Kelson replied, "if I choose to talk to you it's no
+business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and
+it is I you should go out with, not Hamar."
+
+And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with
+one eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told
+her his history--all about himself from the day of his birth--told her
+about his parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and
+cranks, his indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts,
+flirtations, with just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even
+went so far as to speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of
+hereditary gout, and of a slightly hectic cough with which, he
+suddenly remembered, he had at one time, been troubled.
+
+"Don't you think," Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, "you
+are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
+secret--and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
+fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
+should never forgive myself."
+
+"Would it distress you so much?"
+
+"Of course it would. I should be miserable," she laughed. And Kelson,
+unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them with
+kisses.
+
+"Your fingers would look well covered with rings," he said. "I will
+give you some, and you shall come with me and choose. Only on no
+account tell Hamar." And he kissed her--not on the hands this
+time--but the lips.
+
+Hamar saw him. He watched him from behind the angle of the passage
+wall, but he said nothing--at least, nothing to Kelson. It was to
+Lilian Rosenberg he spoke.
+
+"It is really not my fault," she said. "I don't encourage him, and if
+you take my advice, you will not interfere, for I am sure at present
+he means nothing serious. He is the sort of man who imagines himself
+in love with every one he meets. If you prevent him seeing me, you may
+actually bring about the result you are most anxious to avoid."
+
+"I'll risk that," Hamar said, "and I absolutely forbid you doing more
+than merely saying good morning to him. It is either that, or you must
+go."
+
+"Well, of course I will do as you wish," Lilian said. "I don't care a
+snap for him; and, after all, you ought to know your own business
+best! It is only natural that you should want him to marry some one
+who can bring money into the Firm."
+
+"I don't want him to marry at all, or anyhow, not yet. However, there
+is no necessity to discuss that point. We have definitely settled the
+line you are to adopt, and that is all I wanted to speak to you about.
+When next you feel inclined to flirt, come to me, and you shall have
+kisses as well as--rings."
+
+It was shortly after this _tete-a-tete_ that Lilian Rosenberg was
+interrupted in her work, by a rap at the door.
+
+"Come in," she called, and a young man entered.
+
+"I believe a clerk is wanted here," he explained. "I've come to apply
+for the situation. Can I see Mr. Hamar?"
+
+"I'm afraid he's out. There's no one in at present," Lilian Rosenberg
+replied, eyeing the stranger critically "If you like to wait awhile,
+you may do so. Sit down." She signalled to him to take a chair and
+went on typing.
+
+For some minutes the silence was unbroken, save for the tapping of
+fingers and the clicking of the machine. Then she looked up, and their
+eyes met.
+
+"It's not pleasant to be out of work," he said. "Have you ever
+experienced it?"
+
+"Once or twice," she said. "And I never wish to again. You don't look
+as if you were much used to office work."
+
+"No! I'm an artist; but times are hard with us. The present Government
+has driven all the money out of the country and no one buys pictures
+now; so I'm forced to turn my hand to something else."
+
+"I love pictures. My father was an artist."
+
+"Then we have something in common," the young man said. "Would you
+like to see my work? I love showing it to people who understand
+something about painting, and are not afraid to criticize."
+
+"I should like to see it, immensely--though I won't presume to
+criticize."
+
+"May I inquire your name?" the young man asked eagerly. "Mine is Shiel
+Davenport."
+
+"And mine--Lilian Rosenberg," the girl said, with a smile.
+
+"If I don't get the post, may I write to you sometimes, Miss
+Rosenberg, and ask you to my studio. I call it a studio, though it's
+really only an attic."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg nodded. "I shall be delighted to come," she said. "I
+am afraid I am very unconventional."
+
+There was no time for further conversation, as Hamar entered the room
+at that moment.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked curtly.
+
+Shiel told him.
+
+"You're too late," Hamar said. "I've engaged some one. If you'd called
+earlier, there might have been some chance for you, as you look
+tolerably intelligent. But it's no use now, so be off."
+
+As Shiel left the room he caught Lilian Rosenberg looking at him; and
+he saw that her eyes were full of sympathy.
+
+The acquaintance, thus begun, ripened. She went to see his pictures,
+they had tea together, and they spent many subsequent hours in each
+other's company. And although Shiel saw in Lilian Rosenberg only a
+rather prepossessing girl from whom, after cultivating her
+acquaintance, he was hoping to learn the inner working of the Modern
+Sorcery Company Ltd., with her it was different.
+
+In Shiel, Lilian Rosenberg saw the qualities she had always been
+seeking--the qualities she had almost despaired of ever finding--and
+which she had so often declared existed only in fiction. He only
+interested her, she argued; but she forgot that interest as well as
+pity is akin to love--and that where the former leads, the latter
+almost invariably follows.
+
+"I don't believe you have enough to eat," she said to him one day.
+"You are a perfect shadow. How do you exist if you have no private
+means?"
+
+"I just manage to exist, and that is all," Shiel laughed, and he spoke
+the truth, his present state of semi-starvation having resulted from
+the untoward events, which had happened prior to his application for
+the post of clerk to the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., and his
+subsequent acquaintance with Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+Whilst John Martin had been ill, and he had helped at the Hall in
+Kings way, he had lived well. Gladys had taken care he was paid--not a
+big sum to be sure--but enough to keep him. But directly John Martin,
+in spite of Gladys's remonstrances, had resumed work, Shiel had been
+dismissed.
+
+"I wish I could help you," John Martin said to him, "for I really feel
+grateful to you for all you have done, but to tell you the candid
+truth, I can't afford to pay any salaries. As you know, the receipts
+of the Hall are next to nothing; but the expenses continue just the
+same--rent, gas, and staff--all heavy items. Moreover, at your uncle's
+death, many of his creditors put in claims on the Firm for
+debts--debts he had incurred without either my sanction or
+knowledge--and it has been a serious drain on me to pay them off. In
+fact, my finances are now at such a low ebb that I cannot possibly do
+anything for you. If only the Modern Sorcery Company could be cleared
+off the scenes."
+
+"You would, I suppose, feel extremely grateful to whoever cleared them
+off?"
+
+"I would," John Martin replied, with a significant chuckle.
+
+"Even though it were some one who had not stood very high in your
+estimation?"
+
+"Even though it were the devil."
+
+"Now, look here, Mr. Martin," Shiel said, trying to appear calm. "I
+will devote all my energies and all my time to your cause--the
+overthrow of the Modern Sorcery Company, if only--if only, in the
+event of my being successful, you will give me some hope of being
+permitted to win your daughter."
+
+"I promise you that hope, and any other you may see fit to aspire to,"
+John Martin said, with a grim smile, "since there isn't the remotest
+chance of your succeeding in the task you have set yourself. Believe
+me, it will take both money and wits to get the better of Hamar,
+Curtis and Kelson."
+
+"Anyhow, I have your permission to try. I shall do my best."
+
+"You may do what you like," John Martin rejoined, "so long as you
+don't talk to me again about Gladys till you've redeemed your pledge,
+that is to say, till you've overthrown the Modern Sorcery Company. In
+the meanwhile, I must ask you to abstain from seeing her."
+
+"I am afraid I can't promise that."
+
+"Can't promise that," John Martin cried, his eyes suffusing with
+sudden passion. "Can't you! Then damn it, you must. I'm not going to
+have my daughter throw herself away on a penniless puppy. There, curse
+it all, you know what I think of you now--you're a bumptious puppy,
+and I swear you shall not come within a mile of her."
+
+"I shall," Shiel retorted, drawing himself up to his full height. "I
+shall see her whenever she will permit me--and since she is not at
+home at the present moment, I shall now await her return outside the
+house, and defy the savage old bull-dog inside it." Leaving John
+Martin too taken aback with astonishment to articulate a syllable,
+Shiel withdrew.
+
+True to his word, he waited to see Gladys. He paced up and down the
+road in front of the house from eleven o'clock in the morning, when
+his interview with John Martin had terminated, till eight o'clock in
+the evening, and was just beginning to think he would have to give up
+all hope of seeing her that day, when she came in sight.
+
+"Really!" she exclaimed, after Shiel had explained the situation. "Do
+you mean to say you have stayed here all day?"
+
+"Of course I have," Shiel answered. "I told your father I would see
+you, and I meant to stay here till I did."
+
+"And what good has it done you?"
+
+"All the good in the world. I shall sleep twice as well for it. I'm
+more in love with you than you think, and I mean to marry you one day.
+My prospects at present are absolutely Thames Embankmentish, but no
+matter, I've hit upon a capital way of ferreting out the secrets of
+the Modern Sorcery Company. I shall get employed by them"--and he told
+Gladys of the advertisement he had seen in the paper.
+
+"Well! I wish you all success," she said, "but I'm afraid you've upset
+my father dreadfully, and the doctor says excitement is the very worst
+thing for him and may lead to another stroke. You must on no account
+come here again, until I give you leave."
+
+"But I may see you elsewhere?"
+
+"If you're a wise man, you'll do one thing at a time. You'll discover
+the secret of the Sorcery Company first, and then--"
+
+"When I have discovered it?"
+
+"My father may forgive you. Have I told you I'm going on the stage? I
+know Bromley Burnham, and he's offered me a part at the Imperial. It
+is imperative now, that I should do something to help my father."
+
+"If you become an actress," Shiel said bitterly, "my chances of
+marrying you will indeed be small."
+
+"Not smaller than they are now," Gladys observed. "_Au revoir._" And
+with one of those tantalising and perplexing smiles, with which some
+women, consciously or unconsciously, counteract--and sometimes,
+perhaps, for reasons best known to themselves--completely nullify the
+needless severity of their speech, shook hands with Shiel, and left
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+STAGE THREE
+
+
+The weeks sped by. Gladys Martin went on the Stage, and thanks to
+beauty and influence, rather than to talent--though in the latter
+respect she was certainly not wanting--she became an immediate
+success. Her photos, some taken alone, and some with Bromley Burnham,
+occupied a conspicuous place in all the weekly illustrateds, and in
+innumerable shop windows. People talked of her as they do of all
+actresses. Some said her father was a broken-down peer; some, a needy
+parson, and some, a policeman! Some said the Duke of Warminster was
+madly in love with her; others that Seaton Smyth, the notorious
+Cabinet Minister, was pining for a divorce on her behalf, and others,
+that she was seldom seen off the stage--she was entertaining the King
+of the Belgians.
+
+"I've met her," Lilian Rosenberg said to Shiel, as they stopped one
+evening to gaze at Gladys's portraits outside the Imperial Theatre.
+"She came to our place to have a dream interpreted, and I thought
+nothing of her. I don't admire her the least bit in the world, do
+you?"
+
+"I do," Shiel replied, rather sharply.
+
+"Why, you sound quite angry," Lilian Rosenberg laughed. "One would
+think you knew her. I wonder if Bromley Burnham is very much in love
+with her! He looks as if he were in these photographs! Do you think it
+possible for a man and woman to make love to each other every night on
+the stage, like they do, without one or other of them being affected?"
+
+"I really couldn't say," Shiel replied. "I'm no authority on such
+matters--they don't interest me in the least."
+
+But this was an untruth--they did interest him--and very much, too. He
+seldom, indeed, thought of anything else. Had Gladys fallen in love
+with Bromley Burnham? Could she resist the fascinations of so handsome
+a man? He did not, of course, pay any heed to the gossip that coupled
+her name with dukes and other notorieties. He knew Gladys too well for
+that, but when he saw her thus photographed, clasped in the arms of
+Bromley Burnham, he had grave apprehensions. He longed to see her--to
+ask her if she were still free; but his every attempt failed. She
+always avoided him, and there was no other alternative save to further
+his scheme--his scheme for crushing the Sorcery Company--and to hope
+for the best.
+
+And in these dark days of his life, when he was tormented by the
+yellow demon of jealousy, and at the same time endured hunger, Lilian
+Rosenberg was his solacing angel. Utterly regardless of
+appearances--she did not exaggerate when she said, "I am not
+conventional; I don't care twopence for Mrs. Grundy." She visited him
+in his garret, and she seldom went empty-handed.
+
+"I don't want your things," he rudely expostulated, when she loaded
+his table with cold chicken, jellies and potted meats. "I'm not
+starving."
+
+"Yes, you are," she said, "and you've got to eat all I bring you." And
+she made him eat. She made him, too, go for walks with her, and she
+insisted that he should go with her on Saturday afternoons for long
+rambles in the country, knowing all the time that Kelson was eating
+his heart out for love of her, and prophesying all kinds of terrible
+happenings to himself, unless she returned his affections.
+
+Up to this point, at all events, Shiel did not allow his friendship
+with Lilian to blind him to the fact that he was cultivating her
+acquaintance with a set object. He frequently sounded her to see how
+much she knew of the inner workings of the Firm, and he satisfied
+himself that she knew very little.
+
+"They never discuss their powers in my presence," she told him, "but I
+see them do very queer things, Mr. Kelson seldom walks to his room, he
+flies. He takes a little jump into the air, moves his arms and legs as
+if he were swimming, and flies upstairs and along the corridor. And
+what do you think happened the other day? Some men were carrying into
+the building a huge, oak chest and several large pictures that Mr.
+Hamar had bought at a sale, when Mr. Kelson arrived on the scene.
+
+"'There is no need to lift these things,' he said to the men, 'put
+them down.' He then made some rapid signs in the air and muttered
+something; whereupon the chest and pictures rose in the air, and
+followed him into the building, and up the stairs to their respective
+quarters."
+
+"The men must have been surprised," Shiel said.
+
+"Surprised!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "They were simply bowled
+over, and looked at one another with such idiotic expressions in their
+bulging eyes and gaping mouths, that I nearly died with laughter."
+
+"And you've no idea how Kelson did that trick?"
+
+"None, excepting, of course, that the signs he made, and what he said,
+must have had something to do with it."
+
+It was on the tip of Shiel's tongue to ask her, if she would try and
+find out for him, but he checked himself. Even at this juncture of
+their friendship he dare not appear too curious. He must wait.
+
+To go back to Hamar. He had seen Gladys act; he had become more
+infatuated with her than ever; and his passion was stimulated by the
+knowledge that she was universally admired, and that half the men in
+London were dying to be introduced to her.
+
+"Money will do anything," one of Hamar's friends--they were all
+Jews--remarked to him. "Offer the manager of the Imperial a hundred
+pounds and he'll do anything you like with regard to the girl. Every
+manager can be bought and every actress, too."
+
+The suggestion was a welcome one, and Hamar acted on it. But whether
+or not the exception proves the rule, he was immeasurably disconcerted
+to find that with regard to money and managers, his friend had
+deceived him. Far from being pleased at the offer of a bribe, the
+manager of the Imperial, an old Harrovian, raised his foot, and Hamar,
+who invariably paled at the prospect of violence, hurriedly withdrew.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into Stage Three, the trio were very much
+perturbed.
+
+"I hope to goodness nothing will appear to me," Kelson said. "My heart
+isn't strong enough to stand the shock of seeing striped figures. They
+should come to you, Curtis--a few jumps wouldn't do you any
+harm--you're fat enough."
+
+Agreeing each to sleep with a light in his room, they separated, and
+at about two o'clock Curtis, who had been suffering of late from his
+liver--the effect, so the doctor told him, of living a little too
+well--and could not sleep, heard a knock at his door. To his
+astonishment it was Kelson--Kelson, in his pyjamas.
+
+"Hulloa!" Curtis exclaimed. "What on earth brings you here, and
+however did you come?"
+
+"The usual way!" Kelson said, in what struck Curtis as rather unusual
+tones. "I flew here to tell you that we are now in stage three. Give
+me paper and ink. I want to write down the instructions I have
+received."
+
+Curtis conducted him into his sitting-room, switched on the lights
+and, giving him what he wanted, poured out a couple of tumblers of
+soda-and-milk.
+
+"This will lower my temperature," he said to himself. "I shall know if
+I'm dreaming."
+
+He then sat by Kelson's side and observed what he wrote.
+
+"The properties of walking on the water, and of breathing under the
+water are conferred on you during the forthcoming stage. You must
+refrain from red flesh and alcohol, but may eat poultry, fish, fruit,
+and vegetables in abundance."
+
+"The devil I may!" Curtis said, in a fury. "How very kind! I would
+rather have roast beef than all the poulets and kippers in
+Christendom."
+
+Without noticing this interruption, Kelson went on writing.
+
+"You must also concentrate for one hour every morning. Grade two in
+the scale of concentration, though sufficient for projection through
+ether, will not enable you to offer sufficient resistance to the
+pressure of water. You must reach grade three in the scale of
+concentration, before you can either walk on, or breathe under, the
+water. From six to seven a.m. you must fix your eyes on a glass of
+fresh spring water, and concentrate your very hardest on amalgamating
+with it, on passing your immaterial ego into it. At night, before
+going to bed, you must drink a mixture composed of two drachms of
+Vindroo Sookum, one drachm of Harnoon Oobey, and one ounce of
+distilled water. Vindroo Sookum and Harnoon Oobey are a species of
+seaweed; the former of a pale salmon colour, the latter of a deep
+blue. They were formerly shrubs growing in the wood of Endlemoker in
+Atlantis, and are now to be found at a depth of two hundred fathoms,
+twenty miles to the north-east of Achill Island. These weeds must be
+well rinsed first; and when the prescribed amount of each has been
+carefully cut off and weighed, it must be boiled in the distilled
+water, and the compound, thus formed, allowed to cool before being
+drunk. This mixture renders the lungs immune to the action of fluid,
+and will enable you to breathe as easily in water as in air. There is
+still, however, the action of gravity to be considered, and this must
+be counteracted by sound. Before experimenting, these Atlantean words
+must be repeated aloud in the following order: Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte.'"
+
+"It's all very well to write all these directions," Curtis said, "but
+how am I to obtain the weeds? I can't go and fish for them."
+
+"You must engage the services of Mr. John Waley, formerly employed by
+the Brazilian Government in repairing marine cables. He will do all
+you want for the sum of L200."
+
+Kelson left off writing, and, wishing Curtis good-night, walked out of
+the room.
+
+"You'll be deuced cold without an overcoat," Curtis called out after
+him. "Won't you have mine?"
+
+But there was no reply, and though Curtis strained his ears to listen,
+he could catch no sound of a vehicle.
+
+Kelson left Curtis at twenty minutes past two. At half-past two,
+Hamar, who had been sound asleep, was awakened by a loud rap.
+
+"Kelson!" he gasped. "How on earth did you get here? Are you a
+projection?"
+
+"Don't worry me with questions," Kelson replied. "I have come to give
+you instructions. A paper and ink, quick."
+
+Hamar obeyed with alacrity.
+
+"On you," Kelson wrote, "is conferred the property of invisibility--a
+property common in Atlantis, and still possessed by the Fakirs of
+Hindoostan, the natives of Easter Island and certain tribes in New
+Guinea. You must reach grade three in the scale of concentration, by
+concentrating, from five to six o'clock, every morning, on
+amalgamating yourself with the ether. You must sit, with your head
+thrown back, gazing up into space--allowing nothing to distract your
+mind. Wholly and solely, your thoughts must be fixed on the ether.
+This property of invisibility can only be successfully practised, when
+the third grade in the scale of concentration has been reached. Carry
+out these instructions, and, in a week's time, you will then be able
+to experiment--to become invisible at will. But before experimenting it
+will always be necessary to repeat the words 'Bakra--naka--taksomana,'
+and to swallow a pill, composed of two drachms of Derhens Voskry, one
+drachm of Karka Voli and one drachm of saffron. Derhens Voskry and
+Karka Voli are a crimson and white species of seaweed, that grows on
+the hundred-fathom level, thirty miles west-southwest of the Aran
+Islands, Galway Bay. Mr. John Waley, employed by the Brazilian
+Government for repairing cables, will procure these ingredients for
+you. To become visible, you've only to repeat the words,
+'Bakra--naka--taksomana,' backwards."
+
+"But how about my clothes?" Hamar asked. "Will they disappear too?"
+
+"Everything!" Kelson answered. "Hat, boots, tie and breeches. All you
+have on! Good-night!" And walking out of the room, he leaped into the
+air, and flew downstairs. But though Hamar listened attentively, he
+could not hear him leave the building--there was no sound of any door.
+
+When they met the following mid-day in Cockspur Street, Kelson
+remembered nothing of his visits.
+
+"All I know is," he said, "that the moment I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and suddenly found myself standing in a kind of brown desert,
+talking to a tall man with most peculiar features and eyes, and a
+dazzling, white skin. He informed me he had been an animal-trainer in
+the State of Ballyynkan, Atlantis, and was ordered to give me
+instructions as to the taming of the present day wild beast.
+
+"'You must obtain a stone called the Red Laryx,' he said. 'It is to be
+found in great quantities on the three-hundred fathom level, forty
+miles to the west-south-west of North Aran Island, and can be procured
+for you by the same man that gets the weeds for Hamar and Curtis. It
+is a blood-red pebble, covered with peculiarly vivid green spots, and
+cannot be mistaken. Sit with it pressed against your forehead for an
+hour every morning, and concentrate hard on amalgamating yourself with
+it--_i.e._ passing into it, and its properties will gradually be
+imparted to you. Do this regularly, for a week, and by the end of that
+time, you will be able to experiment with animals. All you will have
+to do, will be to hold the stone slightly clenched in your left hand,
+whilst, with your right, you make these signs in the air,' and he
+showed me certain passes. 'Stare fixedly into the animal's eyes all
+the while, and, by the time you have finished making the passes, you
+will find the animals are subdued. Pronounce these words
+"Meta--ra--ka--va--Avakana," holding up, as you do so, your right hand
+with the thumb turned down and held right across the palm, and the
+little finger stretched out as wide as it will go, and you will
+understand what any animal wishes to say.'
+
+"He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
+whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
+myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold."
+
+"You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
+two o'clock in the morning?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Don't talk rot," Kelson said. "I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
+chill on my liver."
+
+"What was it, Leon?" Curtis inquired.
+
+"A case of unconscious projection," Hamar said. "Clearly the work of
+the Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once."
+
+At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in
+practice their newly acquired properties.
+
+Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
+Brighton & South Coast Railway.
+
+"I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton," he said, "and cheat the
+Company. They deserve it."
+
+He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
+himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
+sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
+dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical _nouveau riche_
+nose!
+
+When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
+waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
+tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
+one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
+which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
+words, "Bakra--naka--taksomana!" The next moment he had disappeared.
+
+"Strike me red!" the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
+and grasping the door with the other. "What's become of him? Was
+he--a--a--gho--st?"
+
+"I don't--er--know--er what to--to make of it," the parson said,
+heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
+teeth. "I don't--er, of course--er, believe in gho--sts! He must--er
+have been--a--a--an evil spirit. Dear me--aw!"
+
+"Help me out of the carriage at once," the lady with the stare panted.
+"I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
+Company."
+
+"What's the matter, Joe?" an inspector called out, threading his way
+through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
+of the compartment.
+
+"I'm blessed if I know!" the collector said. "The honly explanation I
+can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved--the hot
+weather has melted him like butter!"
+
+At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
+the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off.
+
+As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
+words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible.
+
+The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking
+than that of his previous disappearance.
+
+"Take it away--take it away!" the lady opposite him shouted, throwing
+up her hands to ward him off. "It's there again! Take it away! I shall
+die--I shall go mad!"
+
+"How hideous! How diabolical!" a stout, elderly man said in slow,
+measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. "It
+must be the devil! The devil! Ha!" and burying his face in his hands,
+he indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter.
+
+"Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it," a
+remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
+highly indignant tones to the clergyman. "As usual, whenever there is
+something to be done, it is woman who must do it!"
+
+She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the
+clergyman--whose condition of terror prevented him uttering even the
+one telling, biting word--Suffragette--that had risen and stuck in his
+throat--raised her umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck
+it vigorously at him.
+
+"Ghost, demon, devil!" she cried. "I know no fear! Begone!" And the
+point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's
+waistcoat, all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and
+with a ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he
+writhed and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant
+continued to stab and jab at him.
+
+In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
+some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
+pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES
+
+
+With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him,
+and he was locked up in a separate compartment, "to be given in
+charge," so the indignant official announced, directly they got to
+Brighton. But Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had
+sufficiently recovered from the effects of the severe castigation the
+female furioso had inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the
+train drew up at the Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen
+arrived to march him on, he was nowhere to be found! This was his
+first experiment with the newly acquired property. "In future," he
+said to himself, "before I try any tricks, I'll take very good care
+there are no Suffragettes about."
+
+In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
+he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
+calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was
+able to enjoy many--gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on
+the very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat
+the trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at
+last caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated
+among the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch
+for him in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently,
+directly he entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was
+arrested and handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill.
+
+He was now in a most unpleasant predicament--the tightest corner he
+had ever been in. Supposing he could not escape--his sentence would be
+at the least two years' penal servitude--what would happen? Curtis and
+Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give
+himself entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian
+Rosenberg; the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after
+that--he dare not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The
+police took him away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them,
+he struggled desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel
+circle that held them. "It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!" he said
+to himself, "all right at least--now! They know nothing! They have
+never tried to think what the breaking of the compact means! Their
+weak, silly minds are entirely centred on the present! The present!
+Damn the present! They are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of
+the present--it's the future--the future that matters!" He scraped the
+skin off his wrists, he sweated, he swore! And it was not until one of
+the detectives threatened to rap him over the head, that he sullenly
+gave in and sat still.
+
+The taxi drew up in front of the Gerald Road Police Station, and Hamar
+was conducted to an ante-room, prior to being taken before the
+inspector. Just as a policeman was about to search him, he made one
+last desperate effort.
+
+"Look here," he said, "if I pledge you my word I'll not attempt to do
+anything, will you let me have my hands--or at least one of my
+hands--free a moment. Some grit has got in my eye and I cannot stand
+the irritation."
+
+"That game won't work here," one of the detectives said, "you should
+keep your eyes shut when there's dust about, or else not have such
+protruding ones."
+
+Hamar threatened to report him to the Home Secretary for brutal
+conduct, but the detective only laughed, and Hamar had to submit to
+the mortification of being searched.
+
+"What are these?" a detective said, fingering the seaweed pills
+gingerly.
+
+"Stomachic pills!" Hamar said bitterly, "they are taken as a digestive
+after meals. You look dyspeptic--have one."
+
+"Now, none of your sauce!" the detective said, "you come along with
+me,"--and Hamar was hauled before the inspector.
+
+"Can I go out on bail?" Hamar asked.
+
+"Certainly not," the inspector replied.
+
+"Then I shan't give you my name and address," Hamar said. "I shan't
+tell you anything."
+
+The inspector merely shrugged his shoulders, and after the charge
+sheet was read over, Hamar was conducted to a cell.
+
+"This is awful," he said, "what the deuce am I to do! To send for
+Curtis and Kelson will be fatal, and it will be equally fatal to leave
+them in ignorance of what has happened to me. I am, indeed, in the
+horns of a dilemma. I must get at those pills."
+
+Up and down the floor of the tiny cell he paced, his mind tortured
+with a thousand conflicting emotions. And then, an idea struck him. He
+would ask to be allowed to see his lawyer.
+
+"Cotton's the man," he said to himself, "he will get the pills for
+me!"
+
+The inspector, after satisfying himself that Cotton was on the
+register, rang him up, and after an hour of terrible suspense to
+Hamar, the lawyer briskly entered his cell.
+
+They conferred together for some minutes, and having arranged the
+method of defence, Cotton was preparing to depart, when Hamar
+whispered to him--
+
+"I want you to do me a particular favour. In the top right hand drawer
+of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, in Cockspur Street, I have left
+a red pill-box. These pills are for indigestion. I simply can't do
+without them. Will you get them for me?"
+
+"What, to-night?" the lawyer asked dubiously.
+
+"Yes, to-night," Hamar pleaded. "I'll make it a matter of business
+between us--get me the pills before eight o'clock, and you have L1000
+down. My cheque book is in the same drawer."
+
+The lawyer said nothing, but gave Hamar a look that meant much!
+
+Again there was a dreadful wait, and Hamar had abandoned himself to
+the deepest despair when Cotton reappeared. He shook hands with his
+client, slipping the pills into the latter's palm. Whilst the lawyer
+was pocketing his cheque, Hamar gleefully swallowed a pill, and crying
+out "Bakra--naka--takso--mana,"--vanished!
+
+"Heaven preserve us! What's become of you?" Cotton exclaimed, putting
+his hand to his forehead and leaning against the wall for support. "Am
+I ill or dreaming?"
+
+"Anything wrong, sir?" a policeman inquired, opening the cell door and
+looking in. "Why, what have you done with the prisoner--where is he?"
+
+"I have no more idea than you," the lawyer gasped. "He was talking to
+me quite naturally, when he suddenly left off--said something
+idiotic--and disappeared."
+
+Hamar did not dally. He quietly slipped through the open door, and
+darting swiftly along a stone passage, found his way to the entrance,
+which was blocked by two constables with their backs to him.
+
+"I'll give the brutes something to remember me by," Hamar chuckled,
+and, taking a run, he kicked first one, and then the other with all
+his might, precipitating them both into the street. He then sped past
+them--home.
+
+Hamar, by astute inquiries, learned that the police had decided to
+hush up the affair, not being quite sure how they had figured, or,
+indeed, what had actually occurred. As to Cotton, the shock he had
+undergone, at seeing Hamar suddenly melt away before his eyes, was so
+great that he went off his head, and had to be confined in an asylum.
+
+After this adventure Hamar shunned restaurants, and manipulating his
+new property sparingly, and with the utmost caution, warned Kelson and
+Curtis to do the same.
+
+"I'll bet anything," he said to them, "it was a put-up job on the part
+of the Unknown--a cunning device to make us break the compact."
+
+"Oh, we'll be careful enough as far as that goes," Curtis growled.
+"It's this vegetarian diet that I can't stick. Fancy living on beans
+and potatoes, and only milk and aerated water to wash them down. It
+was bad enough in San Francisco, when we hadn't the means even to
+smell meat cooking--but with the money literally burning a hole in
+one's pocket, it's ten times worse! Whatever the Unknown has in store
+for us it can't be a worse Hell than what I've got now. What say you,
+Matt?"
+
+"The same! Precisely the same!" Kelson said. "Only it's love--not
+potatoes and beans that worries me. In the old days when I was
+penniless, I did get some consolation from knowing it was all
+hopeless--but now--now, when, as Ed says, 'the money's literally
+burning a hole in one's pocket,' and everything might go
+swimmingly--not to be allowed even to buy a bracelet--is more than
+human nature can endure. I certainly can't conceive a Hell to beat
+it."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Hamar said, "and for goodness' sake don't let the
+Unknown give you an opportunity of comparing."
+
+The night succeeding this conversation, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson
+introduced their new properties into the programme of their
+entertainment in Cockspur Street, and London got another big thrill.
+Hamar exhibited such startling proofs of his power of invisibility,
+that not only was the whole audience convinced, but from amongst
+certain prominent members of the Council of the Psychical Research
+Society, who were attending with the express purpose of unmasking
+Hamar, two had epileptic fits on the spot, and several, before they
+could get home, became raving lunatics.
+
+At the commencement of the second part of the programme--the audience
+was still too flabbergasted to fully grasp what was happening. They
+saw on the stage a huge tank of water--with which they were told Mr.
+Curtis would experiment.
+
+"What I am about to do," Mr. Curtis--who now walked on to the
+stage--informed his audience, "is quite simple. All you want is faith.
+Those of you who are Christian Scientists should be able to do it as
+easily as I. Say 'I will! I will walk on the water!' and your
+faith--your colossal faith--faith in your ability to do it will
+actually enable you to do it."
+
+Curtis then repeated--in tones that could not be heard by the
+audience--the Atlantean cabalistic words--"Karma--nardka--rapto--
+nooman--K--arma--oola--piskooskte," and glided gracefully on to the
+surface of the water. Every now and then he sank slowly down to the
+bottom, where he strolled about, or sat, or lay down.
+
+The audience was simply fascinated. Nothing they had hitherto seen
+tickled their fancy half as much. As an American, who was present, put
+it--"To live under the water like a fish is immense--so hygienic and
+economical."
+
+Though the time apportioned to this part of the entertainment was
+half an hour, it was extended to over an hour, and even then the
+audience was not satisfied. They would have gone on watching
+Curtis--eating--drinking--jumping--skipping--singing and chasing gold
+fish--under the water all night, and when he was at length permitted to
+come out of the tank--exhausted and sulky--they gave him even heartier
+applause than they had given Hamar.
+
+But the cup of their enjoyment was not yet full. The greatest treat of
+all was in store for them.
+
+For the third and last part of the entertainment, a cage, containing a
+large Bengal tiger, was wheeled on to the stage.
+
+"You look precious white," Curtis remarked, just as Kelson was about
+to go on.
+
+"I guess you'd look the same," Kelson retorted, "if you had to hobnob
+with a tiger. The Unknown always gives me the nasty jobs."
+
+"And in this case," Curtis said with a low, mocking laugh, "it also
+loads you with consolations. The house is full of ladies who adore
+you, and if you are eaten, just think of the sympathy welling up in
+their beautiful eyes! If that isn't sufficient compensation for you,
+I--" But the remainder of this encouraging speech was lost in a loud
+roar. The Bengal tiger shook its bars--the audience screamed, and
+Curtis flew.
+
+With a desperate attempt to look calm, Kelson, clutching the red laryx
+stone in his left hand, walked on to the stage, whilst the tiger,
+rearing on its hind legs tried to reach him with its paws.
+
+There were loud cries of "Oh! Oh!" from the audience, and Kelson's
+heart beat quicker, when a girl with wavy, fair hair and big, starry
+eyes, screamed out "Don't go near it! Don't go near it!"
+
+As soon as there was comparative quiet Kelson spoke.
+
+"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this animal is
+genuinely savage! It is not like the tigers one sees in menageries,
+drugged and deprived of their natural weapons--teeth and claws. It
+comes direct from India, where its reputation as a man-eater is
+widespread. I am not, however, intimidated--its growls merely amuse
+me."
+
+Quaking all over, he approached the cage, and staring fixedly into the
+tiger's face, made the prescribed passes. In an instant, the whole
+attitude of the great cat changed. Dropping on to its fore-legs, it
+rubbed its head against the bars and purred. A low buzz of
+astonishment burst from the audience, and Kelson, now assured that the
+spell had worked, waved his disengaged hand, in the most gallant
+fashion, at the audience, and strutted into the cage. He shook paws
+with the tiger, patted it on the back, sat down by its side, and,
+whilst pretending to be on the most familiar terms with it, took every
+precaution to avoid coming in too close contact with its teeth and
+claws.
+
+The audience was charmed--the men cheered, the ladies waved
+handkerchiefs, and the only disappointed persons present were a few
+belligerent and bloodthirsty boys, and a Suffragette, who severally,
+and for diverse reasons, would have relished the performances of a
+savage tiger, but had little sympathy with the performance of a tame
+one.
+
+The next surprise that Mr. Kelson had for his audience, was the
+announcement that he could interpret the language of animals. At his
+invitation, a dozen members of the audience came on to the platform
+and stood near the cage. Looking steadily at the tiger he then
+pronounced the mystic words "Meta--ra--ka--va--avakana," holding up
+his right hand, with the thumb turned down and stretched right across
+the palm, and the little finger extended to the utmost. In an instant
+the great secret--the secret that Darwin had studied so strenuously
+for years--was revealed to him. The language of animals was olfactory.
+The tiger spoke to him through the sense of smell--through his nose
+instead of his ears. It regulated and modified the odour it gave off
+from its body, and which worked its way out through the pores of its
+skin, just as human beings regulate and modify the intonations of
+their voices. Indeed, so delicate are the olfactory organs of animals
+that the faintest of these language smells makes an impression on
+them, which impression is at once interpreted by the brain. If an
+animal wishes to leave a message behind it, it merely impregnates some
+article--a leaf or a root, or a clump of grass--or merely the ether
+with a brain smell, and any other animal, happening to pass by the
+spot, within a certain time (in favourable weather), will at once be
+attracted by the smell, and be able to interpret it. That is the
+reason one so often sees an animal suddenly stop at a spot and sniff
+it--it is reading some message left there by some other animal. All
+this, and more, Kelson explained to his audience, who were exceedingly
+interested, many of them getting up to ask him questions. He also
+reported to them the tiger's conversation, which consisted chiefly of
+complaints against the management with regard to its food.
+
+"To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh," it said, "when
+there were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under
+its very nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly
+speak to whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?"
+
+A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
+remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.
+
+The next day the papers were full of it.
+
+The _Planet_, under the startling announcements--
+
+    "RECOVERY OF THE LOST SENSES.
+    MORE EXTRAORDINARY FEATS IN COCKSPUR STREET.
+    LEON HAMAR BECOMES INVISIBLE AT WILL,"
+
+--narrated all that had occurred.
+
+The _Monitor_--if anything more sensational--declared--
+
+    "THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS DISCOVERED AT LAST!
+    THE PROBLEM OF BREATHING UNDER WATER--SOLVED!
+    DEMATERIALIZATION AT WILL ESTABLISHED!"
+
+And even the _Courier_--the steady, ever cautious old _Courier_,
+England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
+conspicuously large type; vide the following--
+
+    "THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!
+    ACTUAL CASE OF SUBDUING AND CONVERSING WITH WILD ANIMALS.
+    RECOVERY OF THE PROPERTIES OF INVISIBILITY; OF WALKING ON WATER,
+    AND OF BREATHING UNDER WATER."
+
+As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
+unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
+instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
+requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
+walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
+to see him, but despite the fact that he said "I will! I will!" with
+the greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed,
+since they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S----
+supported the waves.
+
+For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to
+Hyde Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
+resounded with the words, "I will walk! I will walk!" succeeded by
+splashes and cries for help.
+
+Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
+flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were
+literally packed with people trying to get into conversation with the
+animals; these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of
+fatal results. One old gentleman--a Fellow of the Royal
+Society--carried away in his enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after
+making what he thought to be the correct signs, slipped his nose
+through the bars of the tiger's cage, and had it promptly bitten
+off--whilst a girl, in her endeavours to sniff the crocodiles, and so
+get in conversation with them, fell in their midst, and was torn to
+pieces before help arrived.
+
+However, these fatalities only served as an advertisement to the firm,
+and hundreds of people, for whom there was not even standing room,
+were turned away from the house nightly.
+
+But later on there were hitches. Curtis, whose dislike to vegetarian
+diet steadily increased, when dining one evening at his club, could no
+longer withstand the sight of roast beef. The smell of it tickled his
+palate unmercifully.
+
+"Take this infernal mess away!" he said, pushing a plate of nut steak
+from him in disgust, "and let me have a full course--entree, soup,
+fish, meat, everything you've got--chartreuse and a liqueur, and bring
+it quick--I'm famished."
+
+He ate and ate, and drank and drank, until it was as much as he could
+do to rise from the table. And then, in excellent spirits, he repaired
+to Cockspur Street.
+
+How he got on to the stage he could never tell. Everything was in a
+haze around him, until there was a dull crash in his ears, and he
+suddenly found himself drowning. No one, at first, noticed his
+helpless condition, but attributed his antics to part of the
+programme; and he most certainly would have been drowned, had it not
+been for Lilian Rosenberg, who, being quite by chance, in front of the
+house, perceived he was drunk, the moment he came on the stage. She
+flew to the wings, and, just in the nick of time, got two of the
+supers to haul him out of the tank. Of course, it was announced--with
+a pretty apology--by Mr. Hamar, that Mr. Curtis had been taken ill.
+Kelson immediately came on with his animals, and the audience departed
+without the slightest suspicion as to the truth.
+
+Hamar was furious.
+
+"You idiot!" he said to Curtis, "that all comes of your making a beast
+of yourself--you would sacrifice Matt and me, for your insatiable
+craving for meat and alcohol. Can't you see it was a trick of the
+Unknown to make us break the compact? Had you been drowned, the
+partnership, would, of course, have been dissolved--and it would have
+been your fault! You must obey your injunctions! Damn it, you must!"
+And Hamar spoke so fiercely that Curtis was for once in a way cowed,
+and solemnly promised that he would not repeat the offence.
+
+Kelson was the next culprit; and his misdoings were indirectly
+associated with the foregoing incident. Lilian Rosenberg's action in
+saving Curtis's life, thrilled him to the core, and called into play
+all his ardent passion. He had seen her sitting in the front of the
+house, and had come upon the scene just as she was urging the supers
+to go to Curtis's assistance; and he then thought she had never looked
+so lovely.
+
+"Come out with me to-morrow afternoon," he whispered. "Hamar's going
+out of town!" And before she could stop him he had kissed her.
+
+Kelson hardly expected Lilian Rosenberg would accept his invitation,
+but on arriving at the place he had named, he was delighted beyond
+measure to find her there.
+
+Nor could anyone have been nicer to him. No girl, he told himself, who
+did not in some degree at least, reciprocate his sentiments, could
+have allowed him to stare into her eyes as she did, or squeeze her
+hands, as he did. He took her to the ladies' drawing-room of his club,
+where there were plenty of quiet, secluded nooks, and there, whilst
+she poured out tea for him, he once more related to her all his early
+deeds and ailments--real and imaginary--and all his ideals and
+aspirations.
+
+Lilian Rosenberg was most sympathetic.
+
+"You should have been a poet," she said. "There is something about you
+that is quite Byronic."
+
+And Kelson, who had never even heard of Byron, was immensely
+flattered.
+
+"Will you come to the jeweller's with me," he said, "and choose
+whatever you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for
+rings--rings of all sorts!" and he gave them a gentle pressure.
+
+She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
+Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she
+laughingly refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond
+bracelets and pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore--the
+rest--unknown to him of course--she sold; sending the proceeds,
+anonymously, to Shiel Davenport--who was starving.
+
+When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
+away--planning for his honeymoon--that he entered the cage of a newly
+imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
+certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
+supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
+the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It
+had been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing
+his performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
+anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.
+
+But Hamar would not hear of it.
+
+"This is the second bungle we have had," he said, "and the reputation
+of the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve
+it."
+
+And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.
+
+After it was all over, and he had bowed himself out into the wings,
+Hamar led him aside.
+
+"Don't look so damned pleased with yourself," he said, "I don't half
+like the look of things. This is the third time the Unknown has tried
+to trap us--the fourth time it may be successful! Take care!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE STAGE OF HAUNTINGS
+
+
+Much to the relief of the trio, the end of stage three was at length
+reached--and, thanks to Hamar, reached without further mishap. To keep
+Curtis and Kelson up to the mark, Hamar had worked indefatigably. He
+had never relaxed his efforts in the strict watch he kept over them,
+and he had unceasingly impressed upon them, the vital importance of
+obeying, to the very letter, the instructions they had received from
+the Unknown.
+
+The part he had thus taken upon himself, the difficulties he had to
+encounter in this unceasing vigilance, had produced a new Hamar--a
+Hamar that was a personality; a personality so utterly unlike the
+old Hamar--the meek and servile clerk--as to make one wonder if
+there could possibly be two Hamars--outwardly and physically the
+same--inwardly and psychologically diametrically opposed. A year ago,
+Curtis and Kelson would have ridiculed the idea of being afraid of
+Hamar--such an idea would have struck them as simply absurd; but they
+were afraid of him now, they dreaded his anger more than anything,
+more even than the prospect of infringing their compact with the
+Unknown.
+
+"We have made pots of money," Curtis remarked one day. "Why can't we
+give up work and enjoy it?"
+
+"Because I say no!" Hamar hissed. "No! We can't give up--not, at
+least, until the last stage has been safely gone through. To give up
+now would be to break the compact!"
+
+"Well, why not?" Curtis mumbled.
+
+"Why not!" Hamar cried. "Heavens, man, can't you understand! Can you
+form no conception of what failure to keep the compact means? Has the
+memory of that night--of that tree and all the foul things it
+suggested, passed completely out of your mind? It hasn't out of
+mine--it is as clear now as it was then. And often--mark this, both of
+you--often when I am alone in the night, I see queer luminous
+shapes--shapes of repulsive vegetable growths--of polyps--and of
+disgusting tongues that come towards me through the gloom and circle
+slowly round the bed, whilst the whole room vibrates with soft,
+mocking laughter! You know how mirrors shine in the moonlight. Well,
+the other night, when I looked at mine, I saw in it the reflection,
+not of a face, but of two light evil eyes that looked at me
+and--smiled! Smiled with a smile that said more plainly than words, 'I
+am waiting!' and that is what the shapes, and the very atmosphere of
+the place at night always seem to say--'We are waiting! You are
+enjoying the joke now--we shall enjoy it later on!' If we knew exactly
+what was in store for us it wouldn't be so bad, but it is the
+vagueness of it, the vagueness of the horrors that the Unknown has
+hinted at, that makes it so appalling! We may die awful deaths--or we
+may not die AT ALL--the shapes, indefinite and misty no longer, but
+materialized--wholly and entirely materialized--may come for us and
+take us away with them! And it is to prevent this, that I am urging
+you, compelling you, to stick to the compact, and give the Unknown no
+loophole! Think of the tremendous rewards, if we succeed in passing
+through the last stage! As I have said before, Curtis need do nothing
+else but eat, whilst you, Matt, can become a Mormon and marry all the
+pretty girls in London!"
+
+This speech had the desired effect, and nothing more--for the time at
+least--was said about retiring.
+
+"Do you think Leon is quite--er--like--er--like us?" Kelson said, when
+Hamar left them, after administering his admonition. "At times he
+hardly looks human. His face is such a funny colour, such a lurid
+yellow, and his eyes, so piercing! He gives me the jumps! I can't bear
+to think of him at night!"
+
+"Rubbish," Curtis growled. "You imagine it. There's nothing of the
+spook about Leon! He's of this world and nothing but this world."
+
+It was odd, however, that from that time he, too, began to have the
+same feeling--the feeling that Hamar was perpetually watching
+them--watching them awake and watching them asleep! Curtis awoke one
+night to see, standing on his hearth, a shadowy figure with a lurid
+yellow face and two gleaming dark eyes, which were fixed on him. He
+called out, and it vanished!
+
+"Of course it's the nut steak!" And thus he tried to assure himself.
+But he was badly scared all the same.
+
+Another night, he saw some one, he took to be Hamar, peeping at him
+from behind the window curtains. He threw a slipper at the figure, and
+the slipper went right through it. If Hamar's phantom had been the
+only thing he saw, he would not have minded much; but both he and
+Kelson soon began to see and hear other things. Curtis frequently saw
+half-materialized forms, forms of men with cone-shaped heads and
+peculiarly formed limbs, stealing up the staircase in front of him,
+and, turning into his bedroom, vanish there. He heard them moving
+about, long after he had got into bed. Sometimes they would glide up
+to the bed and bend over him, and though he could never see their
+eyes, he could feel they were fixed mockingly on him. Once he saw the
+door of his wardrobe slowly open, and a white something with a
+dreadful face--half human and half animal--steal slyly out and
+disappear in the wall opposite. And once when he put out his hand to
+feel for the matches, they were gently thrust into his palm, whilst
+the walls of the room shook with laughter.
+
+Kelson was equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a
+different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room
+would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede,
+and recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber,
+full of gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly,
+close in upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to
+death. A feeling of suffocation would come over him, and he would
+gasp, choke, beat the air with his arms, be at the verge of losing
+consciousness, when there would be a loud, mocking laugh--and the
+walls and ceiling would be in their proper places again. At other
+times he would see strange figures on the wall--numbers of circles,
+that would keep on revolving in the most bewildering fashion. Then,
+suddenly, they would leave the wall and slowly approach him,
+increasing in circumference; and the same thing would happen, as
+happened with the wall and ceiling; he would undergo the whole
+sensation of asphyxiation, and be on the brink of swooning, when there
+would be a loud peal of evil, satirical laughter, and the circles
+would instantly disappear.
+
+Sometimes the bedclothes would assume extraordinary shapes; sometimes
+the articles on his dressing-table; sometimes his clothes; and once,
+when he was about to put on his bedroom slippers, he found them
+already occupied--occupied by icy cold feet. Another time, when he put
+out his hand to take hold of a tumbler, he put it on the back of
+another hand--smooth, cold and pulpy!
+
+Hardly a night passed without some sort of manifestation happening to
+one or other of the trio, and even Curtis--fat and stolid
+Curtis--began to lose flesh and look harassed.
+
+On the eve of the initiation into stage four, the three, separating
+for the night, retired to their respective quarters in a far from
+pleasant state of expectation.
+
+Hamar was undressing, when there came a loud ring at the telephone,
+outside his door.
+
+"Holloa!" he called out, "who are you?"
+
+"Are you Mr. Hamar?" a voice asked, breathlessly.
+
+Hamar replied in the affirmative, and the voice continued--
+
+"I'm Mrs. Anderson-Waite, of 30 Queen's Mansions, Queen's Gate. I have
+been holding a seance here, with some of my friends, and most
+extraordinary things have happened, and are still happening. There are
+violent knockings on the wall and ceiling, and the table has become
+positively dangerous. It has repeatedly sprung into the air, and
+savagely assaulted several of the sitters. It has thrown one lady on
+to the floor, and despite our efforts to prevent it, has rampled on
+her so viciously that she is badly hurt, and the doctor who has just
+arrived thinks very seriously of it. We wanted to stop, but some
+strange power seems to be forcing us to go on. The table has rapped
+out your name and address, and says it has something important to
+communicate with you, and that unless you come here at once, it won't
+answer for the consequences."
+
+"All right!" Hamar said. "I'll come. I'll be with you in less than
+half an hour."
+
+When Hamar arrived at Queen's Mansions, he found a terrified party of
+ladies awaiting him in the entrance to the flat.
+
+"Thank goodness, you've come!" they exclaimed, all together. "We've
+been having an awful time. The table has driven us out of the
+drawing-room--it is obsessed by a devil."
+
+"Let me have a look at it," Hamar said, "and I'll soon tell you."
+
+The leader of the party, Mrs. Anderson-Waite, very cautiously opened
+the drawing-room door, and Hamar peered in. In the centre of the room
+was a large, round, ebony table, that commenced to rock, in the most
+sinister fashion, the moment Hamar looked at it.
+
+"It evidently wants to speak with me," Hamar said; "you had better
+leave me here with it for a few minutes."
+
+"Do take care," Mrs. Anderson-Waite said, as she shut the door. "It
+may want to murder you. If it does, ring this bell, and we will all
+come to your assistance."
+
+Hamar gave her an assuring smile, but he was by no means as much at
+ease as he pretended to be. He stood staring at the table, too
+fascinated to take his eyes off it, and too afraid to move.
+
+At length, however, pulling himself together, and convinced the table
+was the medium, through which the Unknown wished to give him fresh
+instructions, he stealthily approached it. He addressed it, and it
+rapped out to him that he must at once obtain pen and ink and take
+down what it wished to say.
+
+Obtaining the requisite materials from Mrs. Anderson-Waite, he sat
+down and was preparing to write on his knee, when the table told him
+to rub its surface briskly with his left hand, to trace on it the
+three Atlantean symbols, _i.e._ a club foot, a hand with the fingers
+clenched and the long pointed thumb standing upright, and a bat--and
+then--to place his paper on it, and transcribe what it had to say.
+
+Hamar obeyed, and after sitting for exactly three minutes with his
+pencil between his fingers, he felt a cold, pulpy hand laid over his,
+impelling him to write with lightning-like rapidity. The script read
+as follows:--
+
+"To Hamar, Curtis and Kelson--to the three of you in common--is given
+the knowledge of inflicting all manner of torments and diseases, of
+imparting all kinds of injurious properties, and of causing plagues.
+
+"In the first place, you must understand that the essence of life,
+comprising the psychical, psychological and physical, permeates every
+part of the living corporeal body--and that any limb, or fragment of
+skin or flesh, cut off from the living corporeal body, retains the
+essence of life, comprising the psychical and physical in its full
+vigour and entirety. Consequently, if a person have grafted on to them
+a piece of skin or flesh, or be inoculated with the blood or veins of
+a tiger--then that person not merely becomes liable to all the
+physical infirmities of the tiger, but may--if the counteracting
+influences are not sufficiently strong--partake of all the tiger's
+psychological characteristics.
+
+"Thus, if you give a person, in whom there is a latent tendency to
+drink, a drop of a drunkard's blood--in a glass of wine, or sweet, or
+pill, no matter what--that person will at once take to drink.
+Thus--mark you--people can be metamorphosed into libertines, suicides,
+idiots and murderers. This metamorphosis can also be produced by means
+of a magnet called the 'magnes microcosmi,' which is prepared from
+substances that have had a long association with the human body, and
+are penetrated by its vitality. Such substances are the hair and
+blood. Take either one of them, and dry it in a shady and moderately
+warm place, until it has lost its humidity and odour. By this process
+it will have lost, too, all its mumia--that is to say, its essence of
+life--and is hungry to regain it. It is now a magnes microcosmi, or a
+magnet for attracting diseases and properties, and if it be placed in
+close contact with a criminal or lunatic, it will be filled with his
+essence of life, and may then be used as a means of infecting other
+people with his pernicious qualities. Bury it under the doorstep of
+the person you wish infected, or hide it in his house, or mix it well
+with earth, and plant a shrub in the earth, and the vitality the
+magnet took from the criminal or lunatic will pass into the plant; and
+if the plant, or even flower of the plant, be given to any one, that
+person--unless she or he be a person absolutely free from the germs of
+vice--will be attracted to it, and greatly affected by it.
+
+"Or again, the earth over the grave of a lunatic or criminal will
+contain his essence of life, _i.e._ his vitality, which impregnates
+everything around it, and if that earth be placed somewhere in the
+immediate presence of a person, in whom there are latent tendencies to
+vice--then that person will be affected by it.
+
+"And through these methods of using the essence of life, that is
+impregnated with the disease you wish to inflict--you may infect
+people with all kinds of incurable ailments.
+
+"But a quicker, and equally sure method of smiting people with
+disease, such as cancer, fever, epilepsy, apoplexy, etc.; of smiting
+them blind, deaf, dumb, lame, etc.; or bringing upon them all kinds of
+accidents, is to make an image of the person you wish to torment, and,
+setting it in front of you, preferably, at times when the moon is new,
+or in conjunction with Venus, Mars or Saturn, concentrate with all
+your will on whatever injury you wish to inflict. If, for example, you
+desire the person to become blind, stick a pin, or thorn, or nail in
+the eyes of the image; if deaf, in its ears; if maimed, cut a limb off
+the image; if to have a certain disease, will very earnestly that he
+or she shall have that disease. You may thus, too, torment the object
+of your aversion with plagues of insects and vermin.
+
+"If you desire to bewitch your neighbour's milk, wine, or any food he
+or she has, you may do it by placing the mumia, _i.e._ the vehicle
+containing the essence of life of some criminal or lunatic, in the
+immediate vicinity of the food, etc.; or in the case of milk, by
+giving it to the cow to eat; or you may accomplish your design simply
+by means of concentration and an image.
+
+"Always, however, whatever methods you employ, prelude them with this
+prayer: 'I conjure thee, Great Unknown Power that is Antagonistic to
+man, that was at the Beginning, that is now, that always will be; by
+the winds and rain, and thunder and lightning; by the swirling rivers;
+by the Moon; by the sinister influence of the Moon with Venus, Mars
+and Saturn; help me obtain the perfect issue of all my desires, which
+I seek to perform solely for the furtherment of what is detrimental to
+humanity. Amen.' And conclude them with the signs of the foot, the
+hand and the bat. If you desire to know anything further it will be
+unfolded to you in your dreams."
+
+The hand that had been laid on Hamar's was now removed. The writing
+ceased. The table rose several inches from the floor, and struck the
+latter three times in quick, violent succession. Then it remained
+quiet, and Hamar knew, by a subtle change in the atmosphere, that all
+occult manifestations--for that night at least--were at an end. The
+ladies were, of course, dying to know what had happened; and like most
+ladies, who dabble in spiritualism, were ready to believe anything
+they were told. Hamar, who had no intention whatever of telling them
+what had actually occurred, satisfied them admirably.
+
+He went home delighted--far too delighted to sleep--for he had in his
+possession now the greatest of all weapons--the weapon to torment. And
+with it what could he not do! What could he not get! He could
+get--Gladys!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SELLING OF SPELLS
+
+
+The period of stage four promised to be one of such a lucrative
+nature, that the trio set to work to profit by it at once. They bribed
+medical men to procure for them the mumia of people suffering from
+every kind of disease; of criminal lunatics; of idiots and epileptics;
+they obtained, by bribery also, the blood and hair of the most
+abandoned men and women--rakes, thieves, murderers. They bottled and
+labelled, and arranged and catalogued, the mumia, in a laboratory
+designed for the purpose; and, when all their preparations were
+complete, advertised--
+
+    SPELLS FOR SALE
+
+    THE MODERN SORCERY COMPANY LTD.
+    offer for sale every variety of spells--love
+    charms, sleep charms, etc.
+
+In order to carry out the principal conditions of the compact, namely,
+to do harm, they made pseudo-love charms as follows:--
+
+They procured the hair of a girl whom they knew to be an incorrigible,
+and, at the same time, heartless flirt; and, in the manner described
+(and related in the last chapter) made a magnes microcosmi of it. When
+ready for use, _i.e._ after it had been in immediate contact with the
+girl's flesh, so as to get it fully charged, they had portions of it
+set in rings, lockets and pendants. And the purchaser of any one of
+these trinkets had only to persuade the object of his (or her)
+affection to wear it, and his (or her) love would at once be
+reciprocated.
+
+Had the magnes microcosmi been charged with real, deep-rooted love,
+the effect on the wearer would have been highly satisfactory, but
+charged as it was with the effervescent and fleeting fancy of a flirt,
+the effect on whoever wore it could not be more disastrous. The
+sentiments of the hopeful purchaser would be reciprocated for a time,
+which would probably lead to marriage--after which the affection his
+adored had professed would suddenly decrease, and before the honeymoon
+was over, would have vanished altogether.
+
+During the week following the announcement of the sale of these
+spells, over a thousand were sold, the applicants being mostly shop
+girls, typists, clerks and servants; in the second week the sales rose
+to three thousand, and every succeeding week showed a still greater
+increase.
+
+In charging the magnes microcosmi, the motive of the purchaser had
+always to be taken into account. If the love charm were wanted by a
+woman--a housekeeper may be, who desired some rich old man to fall in
+love with her, in order that she might come into his property; or by a
+woman--a companion probably--who, having wormed herself into the
+confidence of some eccentric old lady, was anxious that that lady
+should leave her all her money--Hamar took care that the magnes
+microcosmi should be charged with a lasting infatuation; and the sale
+of this love spell--the spell that was sought solely that the
+purchaser might inherit property to which he (or she) had no
+claim--far exceeded the sale of any other spell. Indeed, it was
+extraordinary how many people--people one would never have
+suspected--desired spells that would do other people harm.
+
+Lady De Greene, the well-known humanitarian, who was most
+indefatigable in getting up petitions to the Home Secretary, whenever
+the perpetrator of any particularly heinous and inexcusable murder was
+about to be hanged, and who was universally acknowledged "incapable of
+harming a fly," called, surreptitiously, on Hamar.
+
+"I understand," she said, "everything you do here is in strict
+confidence!"
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly!" Hamar said. "We make it a point of
+honour to divulge--nothing!"
+
+"That being so," Lady De Greene observed, "I want you to tell me of a
+spell that will hasten some very obnoxious person's death."
+
+"If you will give me a rough idea of their personal appearance," Hamar
+said, "I will make a wax image of them, and undertake they will
+trouble you no longer."
+
+But Lady De Greene shook her head. She had no desire to commit
+herself.
+
+"Can't you do it in any other way," she said, "can't you let me give
+them an unlucky charm--the sort of thing that might bring about a taxi
+disaster?"
+
+Hamar thought for a moment and then--smiled.
+
+"Yes!" he said, "I think I can accommodate you."
+
+Leaving her for a few minutes, he went to the laboratory, and from a
+tin box marked homicidal lunatic, he took a plain, gold ring. With
+this he returned to Lady De Greene, murmuring on the way the prayer he
+had learned from the table.
+
+"Here you are," he said handing the ring to Lady De Greene, "give it
+to the person you have mentioned to me--and the result you desire will
+speedily come to pass."
+
+Three days later, London was immeasurably shocked. It read in the
+papers that the highly accomplished Lady De Greene, beloved and
+respected by all, for the strenuous exertions on behalf of
+humanitarianism, had been barbarously murdered by her husband (from
+whom--unknown to the public--she had been living apart for years), who
+had suddenly, and, for no apparent reason, become insane. Hamar, who
+was immensely tickled, alone knew the reason why.
+
+This was no isolated case. Scores of Society women came to the trio
+with the same request. "A spell, or charm, or something, that will
+bring about a fatal accident--not a lingering illness"--and the person
+for whom the accident was desired, was usually the husband. And the
+trio often indulged in grim jokes.
+
+Without a doubt, Lady Minkhurst got her heart's desire when her
+husband abruptly cut his throat, but alas, amongst those decimated,
+when the charm fell into the hands of one of the footmen, was her
+ladyship's lover.
+
+Again, Mrs. Jacques, the beauty, who, at one time, wrote for half the
+fashion papers in England, certainly secured the demise of Colonel
+Dick Jacques, who tumbled downstairs and broke his neck, but as in his
+fall the Colonel alighted on one of the maids, who was not insured,
+and so seriously injured her that she was pronounced a hopeless
+cripple, Mrs. Jacques--with whom money was an object--had, of course,
+to maintain her for the rest of her life.
+
+Likewise, Sir Charles Brimpton, in jumping out of the top window of
+his house, besides pulverizing himself, pulverized, too, Lady
+Brimpton's pet Pekingese "Waller," without whom, she declared, life
+wasn't worth living; and Lord Snipping, in setting fire to himself,
+set fire to Lady Snipping's boudoir (which he had been secretly
+visiting), and thereby destroyed treasures which she tearfully
+declared were quite priceless, and could never be replaced.
+
+Crowds of young married women were anxious to get rid of their rich
+old relatives, who clung on to life with a tenacity that was "most
+wearying."
+
+"Can you give me a spell that will make my grandmother go off
+suddenly?" a girl with beautiful, sad eyes said plaintively to Kelson.
+"Don't think me very wicked, but we are not at all well off--and she
+has lived such a long time--such a very long time."
+
+"You don't want her to be ill first, I suppose," Kelson inquired.
+
+"Oh, no!" the girl replied, "she lives with us and we could never
+endure the worry and trouble of nursing her. It must be something very
+sudden."
+
+"This will do it," Kelson said, giving her a locket containing the
+mumia or essence of life of a mad dog; "fasten it round the old lady's
+neck, and you will be astonished how soon it acts."
+
+"And what is your fee?" the girl asked, her eyes brimming over with
+joyous anticipation.
+
+"For you--nothing," Kelson said gallantly. "Only tell no one. May I
+kiss your hand."
+
+The firm's sale of spells for getting rid of husbands having risen one
+day to five hundred--and the sale of their spells for putting old
+people out of the way to fifteen hundred--even Hamar, who was no
+believer in the perfection of human nature, was astonished.
+
+"My word!" he remarked. "Isn't this a revelation? Who would have
+thought how many people have murder in their hearts? At least half
+Society would, I believe, become homicides if only there were no
+chance of their being found out and punished. Anyhow, if we go on at
+this rate there will be no old people left."
+
+And it did indeed seem as if such would be the case. For the moment
+the idea got abroad that old people could be thrust out of existence
+with absolute safety and ease, there was a perfect mania amongst men,
+women, and even children, to get rid of them, and the deaths of people
+over sixty recorded in the papers multiplied every day. The following
+is an extract from the _Planet_ of July 28--
+
+    BOLT.--On July 27, at No. ---- Elgin Avenue, S.W., Emily Jane,
+    loved and venerated mother of Mary Bolt, M.D., in her 69th year.
+    Drowned in her bath. And all the Angels wept!
+
+    CUSHMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Sheep Street, Northampton, Sarah
+    Elizabeth, adored mother of Josiah Cushman, Plymouth Brother, in
+    her 88th year. Run over by a taxi. Joy in Heaven!
+
+    STARLING.--On July 27, at No. ---- Snargate Street, Dover, Susan,
+    highly esteemed and greatly beloved mother of Alfred Starling,
+    Wesleyan Minister, in her 71st year. Lost in the harbour. Asleep in
+    Jesus.
+
+    TRETICKLER.--On July 27, at No. ---- The Terrace, St. Ives,
+    Cornwall, Elizabeth, adored grandmother of Tobias Tretickler,
+    Congregationalist, in her 91st year. Fell over the Malatoff. "Oh,
+    Paradise! Oh, Paradise!"
+
+    BROOT.--On July 27, at Charlton House, Queen's Gate, S.W., Jane,
+    greatly beloved mother of John Broot, Labour M.P., in her 83rd
+    year. Fell down the area. Peace, blessed Peace.
+
+    GUM.--On July 27, at No. ---- Church Road, Upper Norwood, Sophia,
+    widow of the late Albert Gum, L.C.C., in her 85th year. Choked
+    whilst eating tripe. Sadly missed!
+
+    PAVEMAN.--On July 27, at No. ---- Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol,
+    Anne Rebecca, dearly beloved mother of Alfred Paveman, grocer, in
+    her 74th year. Accidentally burned to death! At rest at last.
+
+But it must not be supposed from these few notices, selected from at
+least a hundred, that the applicants for spells were by any means
+confined to the upper and middle classes. By far the greater number of
+spells were sold to the working people--to those of them who, prudent
+and respectable, counted amongst their aged relatives, at least, one
+or two who were insured.
+
+Nor was the sale of spells confined to adults; for among the numbers,
+that flocked to consult the trio, were countless County Council
+children.
+
+"Can you give me a spell to make teacher break her neck?" was the most
+common request, though it was frequently varied with demands such as--
+
+"I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more
+than three lumps of sugar in my tea;"--or, "Mother has got very teazy
+lately. I want a spell to make her fall downstairs"--or, "Father only
+gives me twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a
+spell to make him have an accident whilst he's at work." And it was
+not seldom that the trio were petitioned thus: "Please give us a spell
+to make our parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect
+freedom is the birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have
+perfect freedom whilst our parents are alive."[22]
+
+The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the
+week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were--over sixty
+years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and
+sixty, six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were
+responsible.
+
+The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham,
+Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants
+became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with
+them, and were forced to raise their charges.
+
+Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant
+Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson.
+
+"Give me a spell," demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a
+half-up-to-the-knee skirt, "one that will cause the roof of the House
+of Commons to fall in and smash everybody--EVERYBODY. This is no time
+for half-measures."
+
+Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented,
+but he had no sympathy with the ugly--they set his teeth on edge--he
+loathed them.
+
+"Certainly, madam, certainly," he said, "here is a spell that will
+have the effect you desire," and he handed her a ring containing a
+magnes microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot.
+"Wear it," he said, "night and day. Never be without it."
+
+She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home
+for incurables.
+
+Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him
+with a similar request.
+
+"Let me have a spell at once," she said, "that will make every member
+of the Government be run over by taxis--and killed. They are monsters,
+tyrants--I abominate them. Let them be slowly--very slowly--SQUASHED
+to death!"
+
+"Very well, madam," Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, "here
+is what you want--wear it next your heart;" and he gave her a locket,
+containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a
+leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense.
+
+"I consider your fee far too high," the Suffragette said. "You take
+advantage of me because I'm a woman."
+
+"Very well, madam," he said, "I will make an exception in your case,
+and let you have it for half the sum."
+
+With a good deal more grumbling she paid the half fee, and, fastening
+the locket round her neck, flounced out of the building. As Kelson
+gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
+such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
+Suffragette--a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
+animosity.
+
+"Quick! Quick!" she cried, bursting into the room where he was
+sitting. "Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet
+Minister, and their wives and families as well."
+
+"Such an ambitious request as that, madam," Kelson rejoined, "cannot
+be granted in a hurry. I must have time--to--"
+
+"No! No! At once!" the lady cried, stamping her feet with
+ill-suppressed rage.
+
+"--to consider how it can best be done," Kelson went on calmly. "I
+must have time to think."
+
+The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
+gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its
+head off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her
+description had been run over by a train at Chislehurst--and
+decapitated.
+
+Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only
+plain but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.
+
+"Look here," he said, "it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
+decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
+longer." And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic
+to humour him.
+
+"Very well, Matt," he said, forcing a laugh. "I'll try and arrange
+differently in future. After to-day you shall have your share of the
+pretty ones--anything to keep the peace. Only--remember--no falling in
+love."
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 22: Lest the reader should query this, let him consult the
+  police in any of our big centres, and he will learn that crime and
+  prostitution is immensely on the increase among children. In
+  Newcastle it is estimated that there are over two thousand girls, of
+  under fourteen years of age, voluntarily leading immoral lives, and
+  making big incomes.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE PERSECUTION OF THE MARTINS
+
+
+Hamar's one great idea on reaching stage four was to utilize the
+torments as a means of getting Gladys. Though he saw crowds of pretty
+girls every day, none appealed to him as she did--and the very
+difficulty of getting her enhanced her value and stimulated his
+passions.
+
+"I will give her one more chance," he said to himself, "and then if
+she won't have me I'll plague her to death."
+
+He went to the Imperial, and passing himself off as her father to the
+new official at the stage-door entrance, was shown into the ante-room
+(which led to her dressing-room). It took a good deal to scare Hamar,
+but he admitted afterwards that he did feel a trifle apprehensive
+whilst he awaited her advent; and his anticipations were fully
+realized.
+
+"Why, father!" she began, as the door of her dressing-room swung open
+and she appeared on the threshold, clad in a shimmering white dress,
+that intensified her fair style of beauty, "what brings you--" The
+smile on her face suddenly died away.
+
+"You!" she cried, "how dare you! Go! Go at once! And if you dare come
+here again or attempt to molest me in any way, I'll prosecute you!"
+
+Hamar, dumbfounded at such an exhibition of wrath, slunk out of the
+room without uttering a syllable.
+
+"The vixen," he muttered as soon as he found himself in the street. "A
+thousand cats in one! Treated me like mud. Jerusalem! I'll pay her
+out. And I'll lose no time about it either. She'll look differently at
+me next time we meet."
+
+He hurried back to Cockspur Street and going into the laboratory,
+threw himself into a chair and--thought.
+
+That same evening at nine-thirty, in the interval between her first
+and second "going on," Gladys hastened to her dressing-room, and was
+preparing to partake of the light refreshments she had ordered,
+when--to her horror--she perceived crawling towards her, across the
+floor, a huge cockroach--a hideous black thing with spidery legs and
+long antennae that it waved, to and fro, in the air, as it advanced.
+It was at least double the size of any Gladys had hitherto seen, and
+her feelings can best be appreciated by those who fear such
+things--her blood ran cold, her flesh crawled, she sat glued to her
+chair, terrified to move, lest it should run after her. She screamed,
+and her dresser, startled out of her senses, came flying into the
+room.
+
+"What is it, madam? What is it?" she cried.
+
+Gladys pointed at the floor.
+
+"Kill it!" she shrieked. "Stamp on it! Oh, quick, quick, it is coming
+towards me."
+
+But the moment the dresser caught sight of the cockroach, she sprang
+on a chair and wound her skirts round her.
+
+"Oh, madam," she panted, "I daren't! I daren't go near it. I'm
+frightened out of my life, at beetles. And there's another of
+them"--and she pointed to the wainscoting--"and another! Why, the
+room's full of them!"
+
+And so it was. Everywhere Gladys looked she saw beetles crawling
+towards her--dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds--and all of
+the same monstrous size and ultra-horrible appearance.
+
+"Look!" she screamed. "They are climbing on to my clothes. One's got
+into my shoes, and another will be in them, in a second. There's
+another--crawling up my cloak--and another on my skirt. Oh! Oh!" and
+her cries, and those of the dresser, speedily brought a troop of
+actors and actresses to the door. The instant, however, the cause of
+the alarm was ascertained, there were loud yells, and a wild stampede
+down the passages. The Stage Manager was called, but one glance at the
+floor was enough for him--he fled. And in the end three of the supers
+had to be fetched. Hot water, brooms, ashes, and quicklime were used,
+and although thousands of the cockroaches were killed, thousands more
+came, and so hopeless did the task of getting rid of them become, that
+the room eventually had to be vacated, and the cracks under the door
+securely sealed.
+
+Before Gladys left the theatre, she was called on the telephone.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked.
+
+"Hamar," came the reply, in insinuating tones. "How do you like the
+beetles? You'll never see the end of them till--"
+
+But Gladys rang off.
+
+On her return home something scuttled across the hall floor in front
+of her. She sprang back with a scream. It was a gigantic cockroach.
+The hall was full of them. She summoned the servants, and they set to
+work to kill them. But they might as well have tried to stop Niagara,
+for as fast as they squashed one battalion, another took its place.
+They came out of cracks in the floor, from behind the wainscoting,
+from every conceivable place in the kitchens, and in a dense black
+ribbon some six inches broad, ascended the staircase. Gladys tried to
+barricade her room against them, but it was of no avail. They came
+from under the boards of the floor and poured down the chimney. They
+swarmed over the furniture, in the cupboards, chest of drawers, the
+washstand (where they kept continually falling into the water), in her
+clothes (her dressing-gown was covered with them), over the bed, and
+the climax was reached when they approached the chair she stood on.
+Too fascinated with horror to move, she watched them crawling up to
+her. She was thus found by her father. He had come to her assistance
+in the very nick of time, and after lifting her from the chair and
+taking her to a place, as yet safe from molestation, returned to her
+room, where, with savage blows, smashing, equally, beetles and
+furniture, he remained till daybreak.
+
+With the first streak of dawn the beetles decamped, and the fray
+ended. The work of devastation had been colossal. Corpses were strewn
+everywhere--and it took the combined household hours, before all
+evidences of the slaughter were obliterated. As for Gladys, she had
+not slept all night and was a wreck.
+
+"I can never go through another night of it," she said to Miss
+Templeton. "Do you think we shall ever get rid of the horrible
+things?"
+
+"We can but try, dear!" Miss Templeton said consolingly, and she
+accompanied Gladys up to town, where they inquired of doctors, and
+chemists, and all sorts of possible and impossible people; and
+returned to Kew laden with chemicals, and patent beetle destroyers.
+But though they tried remedies by the score, none were of use, and the
+beetles repeated their performance of the preceding night.
+
+Gladys did not go to bed: surrounded with lighted candles, she sat on
+the top of a wardrobe till daybreak. The following morning the house
+was fumigated with sulphur; and people were told off to kill the
+cockroaches, as they made their escape out of doors. By this means an
+enormous number were killed; but at night they were just as bad as
+before.
+
+An engineer friend then suggested a freezing-machine. The temperature
+of the house was reduced to ten degrees below zero; the pipes froze
+(and burst next day), the milk froze, the housemaid's toes and the
+cook's little finger of the left hand froze, everything froze; and
+presumably the beetles froze, for there was not one to be seen.
+
+However, it was quite impossible to resort again to this extreme
+measure. John Martin had the most agonizing attacks of lumbago. Gladys
+had neuralgia, and Miss Templeton--a slight touch of pleurisy.
+
+When Gladys reached the Imperial that evening, she found that the
+staff had been battling with cockroaches all day, and that they had at
+last succeeded in getting rid of them with a fumigation mixture of
+camphor, cocculus, sulphur, bezonia and assafoetida--suggested to them
+by a Hindoo student.
+
+For the next week not a beetle was to be seen at the theatre nor at
+the Cottage; and Gladys was beginning to hope that Hamar had ceased
+plaguing her (in despair of ever winning her), when the persecutions
+suddenly broke out again.
+
+She had been in bed about half an hour, and was falling into a gentle
+and much needed sleep, when a tremendous rap at the wall, close to her
+head, awoke her with a start, and set her heart pulsating violently.
+Thinking it must be some one on the landing, she got up and lit a
+candle. There was no one there. The moment she got into bed again, the
+rapping was repeated, and it continued, at intervals, all night. This
+went on for a week, during which time Gladys was never once able to
+sleep.
+
+A brief respite ensued; but it was abruptly terminated one morning,
+when Gladys awoke feeling as if some big insect were attempting to
+penetrate her body. Uttering a shriek of terror, she whipped the
+clothes from her, and sprang out of bed. Miss Templeton, who slept in
+the next room, came rushing in, and they both saw an enormous insect,
+half beetle and half scorpion, dart under the pillow. John Martin was
+fetched, but although he searched everywhere, not a trace of the
+insect could be found.
+
+That night, directly Gladys got in bed and blew out the light, she
+heard a ticking sound on the sheets, and a huge insect with long hairy
+legs ran up her sleeve. Her shrieks brought the whole household to the
+room, but the insect was nowhere to be seen.
+
+She was thus plagued for nearly a fortnight. One insect only--never a
+number, but only one, of prodigious size and terrifying form--appeared
+to her in the least suspected places, _i.e._, on the dressing-table or
+chimney-piece, in her shoes, or pockets; crawled over her in the dark;
+and could never be caught.
+
+These perpetual frights, and consequent sleeplessness, wore Gladys
+out. She grew so ill that she had to give up acting, and go into a
+home to try the rest cure.
+
+Hamar then communicated with her, through a third person, and offered
+to leave off tormenting her, if she would agree to be engaged to him.
+
+"I never will!" she said.
+
+"Then I will never leave off persecuting you," was his retort.
+
+But he was wary. He had no wish to kill her or to damage her looks--so
+he let her get well and remain thus for a brief space. When she was
+once again in full vigour, acting at the Imperial, he recommenced his
+unwelcome attentions.
+
+At first he confined his new plague to the servants at the Cottage.
+The cook was one day turning out a drawer in the kitchen dresser, when
+she was horrified out of her senses to find squatting there, a large,
+black toad, which stared most malevolently at her, and then sprang in
+her face. She shrieked to the housemaid to help her kill it, but
+before a weapon could be got, the creature had bounced through an open
+window, and disappeared.
+
+After this incident the servants knew no peace. Their bedclothes were
+thrown off them at night, their dresses torn and bespattered with ink,
+their brushes and combs thrown out of the window, and the water they
+poured out to wash in was sometimes quite black, sometimes full of a
+bright green sediment, and sometimes boiling, when it invariably
+cracked both the jug and basin.
+
+Unable to stand these annoyances the servants left in a body. Their
+successors fared the same, and worse. Besides having to endure the
+above-named horrors, pebbles were thrown through the windows, their
+chairs were pulled away as they were about to sit down (the cook, who
+was one of those upon whom this trick was played, thereby seriously
+injuring her spine), and all sorts of obstacles were placed on the
+stairs, so that those who ran down unwarily tripped over them and hurt
+themselves (two successive housemaids broke their legs, whilst another
+sprained her wrist).
+
+The meat, too, was a constant worry--it went so bad that enormous
+maggots crawled out of it by the thousand and covered the table and
+floor; and the milk, of which a large quantity was taken daily,
+"turned" in a very curious manner. After being deposited, in its usual
+place, in the pantry, it began to darken; first of all it became light
+blue, then deepened into an almost inky blackness, exhibiting curious
+zigzag lines; and, lastly, the whole mass began to putrefy and to emit
+a stench so overpowering that every one in the house retched, and the
+whole place had to be disinfected. This occurred day after day.
+Nothing would stop it. The dairyman who supplied the milk did all he
+could to counteract it. He had his dairies constantly cleansed, he saw
+that the cattle had a change of food, he bought an entirely new stock
+of dairy utensils, and no milk was ever sent to the Cottage that he
+had not had carefully analyzed.
+
+The troubles continued for three weeks, at the end of which period
+John Martin received a telephone call from Hamar.
+
+"Hullo!" the latter said, "I guess you've had about enough of it by
+this time. Wouldn't you like some sweet-smelling milk for a change, or
+do you prefer to go on till you all get typhoid? The remedy, you know,
+lies in your own hands. You've only to tell that daughter of yours to
+accept me, and I'll undertake all your troubles shall cease."
+
+"I'll see you hanged first," John Martin answered.
+
+"Very well, then, you old mule," Hamar shouted, "look out for
+yourself--and Miss Gladys."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LOVE
+
+
+To bring about plagues of insects Hamar had resorted to a very simple
+method. He had first of all made a wax image representing a
+cockroach--scorpion--centipede, or whatever other species came into
+his mind. Then, placing the image he had made in front of him, and
+repeating the prayer he had learned from the Unknown, through the
+medium of Mrs. Anderson-Waite's table, he had concentrated body, soul,
+and spirit on plaguing Gladys with the insect, which the image
+represented. When his concentration reached the highest degree,
+insects in their actual physical bodies were transported from the
+tropics;[23] but when he was unable to concentrate to the utmost, only
+the ethereal projections of the insects were obtainable; hence the
+hybrid--partly scorpion and partly beetle, that appeared and
+disappeared in Gladys's bed and bedroom.
+
+To produce the rappings on the walls of Gladys's room, he had made a
+wax representation of a wall, and whilst concentrating to the very
+utmost, had struck it with his knuckles.
+
+The plaguing of the servants Hamar had also accomplished by means of
+images and concentration.
+
+But in order to bewitch milk, he had been obliged to resort to other
+means. He had converted the mumia of an idiot into a magnes
+microcosmi; and bribing the man who delivered the milk, he gave him
+instructions to soak the magnes microcosmi, for a few minutes, in
+every portion that he left at the Cottage.[24]
+
+At length Hamar having failed to gain his object by plaguing Gladys
+and the servants, set about tormenting John Martin. He made a wax
+image of the latter, and after pronouncing the necessary prayer, stuck
+the image full of pins, crying out as he did so "John Martin, I hate
+you. John Martin, I curse you. John Martin, a plague on you." And each
+time Hamar stuck a pin in the image he had made of John Martin, the
+real John Martin felt an acute pain in the region of his body
+corresponding to that in which the pin was stuck.
+
+The doctor, who was called in, could make nothing of the malady, but,
+following the etiquette of the profession, cloaked his ignorance with
+a look of profound wisdom, and the pronouncement that he would tell
+them, in a day or two, what was the matter. In the meanwhile, he found
+it necessary and politic to prescribe a non-committal mixture of chalk
+and rhubarb, which, although disguised under the usual fanciful
+pharmacopoeia appellation, did not, however, allay the pain. Sharp,
+agonizing pricks, now on the neck now in the chest, now in the most
+sensitive part of the knee-cap, now under the toe-nail, now--most
+painful of all--under the finger-nail--continued to torment John
+Martin, who, though as a rule fairly stoical, could not stand these
+attacks with any degree of composure. He screamed, and swore, and
+cursed, until the whole household was terrified--and Gladys, pretty
+nearly out of her mind.
+
+During a lull--an interval, wherein John Martin enjoyed a brief
+respite, the telephone bell rang.
+
+"Hulloa," called a voice, "I'm Hamar. Haven't you had about enough of
+it? Remember, you've only to say the word and I'll stop."
+
+"Tell him I'll do nothing of the sort," John Martin said, "that he'll
+never get the better of me this way."
+
+Miss Templeton gave the message, and Hamar replied "Wait! Wait and
+see!"
+
+He then thrust wool, pins, horsenails, straw, needles and moss into
+the mouth of the image, and John Martin had such frightful pains in
+his stomach that he went into convulsions; and, after an emetic had
+been given him, vomited up all the above-named articles, save the pins
+and needles which worked their way out through his flesh, causing him
+the most exquisite tortures.
+
+Gladys, having given up going to the theatre in order to be with her
+father during these attacks, now declared that she could no longer
+bear to see him in such excruciating pain, whilst it was in her power
+to prevent it.
+
+"Tell him," she said, "tell Hamar you'll accept his conditions. Don't
+think of me! I would rather do anything than see you suffer like
+this."
+
+"I can hold out a bit longer," he groaned, "at any rate I needn't give
+in yet."
+
+Every now and then there came a respite--perhaps for several hours,
+perhaps for several days--then the tortures recommenced. And always
+John Martin steeled himself to bear them. At last came the climax.
+
+Hamar, infuriated that his efforts, so far, had proved fruitless,
+resolved, since time was pressing, to play his trump card and either
+win, or lose all. He rang up Gladys on the telephone.
+
+"My patience is exhausted," he said. "I'll give you one more chance,
+and one--only. Agree to be engaged to me at once--or I'll smite your
+father with the most virulent form of cancer, and leave him to die."
+
+There was no question now in Gladys's mind as to what she should do.
+Of all things in the world, she dreaded cancer most, and after the
+many evidences Hamar had given her of his skill in Black Magic, she
+did not doubt for one instant that he could, immediately he chose,
+carry out his threat.
+
+"I have decided," she said faintly, "to--to--give in."
+
+"You accept me, then?" Hamar said.
+
+"Y-yes!"
+
+"When may I see you?"
+
+"When you like."
+
+"Then I'll come at once," Hamar replied. "_Au revoir._"
+
+But Hamar, when he arrived at the Cottage, did not realize any of the
+gleeful anticipations he had indulged in _en route_. Gladys was
+ill--so Miss Templeton informed him--at the same time begging him, if
+he really had any regard for Miss Martin, not to ask to see her for
+the next few days; and to this request Hamar, seeing no alternative,
+was obliged to assent.
+
+Shortly after he had gone, Shiel Davenport called, and found Gladys
+alone in the garden.
+
+"I've been told that your father is ill," he said, "and should like to
+hear better news of him. How is he?"
+
+"I think he's all right now," Gladys replied, "but he has suffered
+frightfully. Indeed, we've all had a terrible time," And she told him
+what had happened.
+
+"Then you've not been acting at the Imperial lately?" Shiel asked.
+
+"Not for the past week," Gladys replied. "I couldn't leave father."
+
+"How has Mr. Bromley Burnham got on without you?" Shiel asked
+bitterly.
+
+"I don't understand you," Gladys said quietly. "I have an understudy,
+and from what I am told she has given every satisfaction. I have some
+news which I fear won't be altogether welcome to you."
+
+Shiel turned a shade paler. "What is it?" he faltered.
+
+"I'm engaged to be married."
+
+For a few moments there was silence, and then Shiel exclaimed
+mechanically "Engaged to be married! To whom?"
+
+"To Leon Hamar! I couldn't help it." And she explained the position.
+
+"But he'll never keep you to it," Shiel said. "He couldn't be such a
+brute."
+
+"I'm afraid he will," Gladys replied. "He's shown pretty clearly that
+he's capable of anything. I've given him my promise--I must keep it."
+
+"Then it's good-bye to all interest in life--for me," Shiel said, with
+a gulp. "I've thought of no one but you since we first met. For
+you--in the hope of someday winning you, I've struggled on; I've
+reconciled myself to a bare existence. Now I've lost you, I've lost
+everything. I hate life. I shall--"
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort," Gladys interrupted, "unless you want
+me to regret ever having met you. I wonder that you say 'I've nothing
+to live for'--when we can still be friends; and when you can, at
+least, win my respect, by putting your shoulder to the wheel, and
+exerting yourself to the utmost to get on."
+
+"And you--what about you?"
+
+"Never mind me--I can well look after myself."
+
+"You'll live in Hell," Shiel cried, her eyes goading him to madness.
+"Even though you may not care for me, I do not choose to stand quietly
+by, whilst you spend your life in Purgatory. Hamar has won you through
+some diabolical trickery, and if I can't thwart him in any other
+way--I'll kill him. He shan't marry you."
+
+"He will," Gladys sighed. "No one can stop him. He is omnipotent."
+
+Apparently, Gladys's statement was more or less true; and ninety-nine
+men out of a hundred, in the same circumstances as Shiel, would have
+now recognized the hopelessness of the situation. But Shiel was
+abnormal. As he walked home from the Cottage that evening he kept on
+repeating to himself "Gladys is my goal. I want only Gladys. I'll have
+only Gladys." And having once made up his mind to get Gladys, it
+seemed to him, as if out of every obstacle, that lay between him and
+Gladys, he could and would merely make a stepping-stone. "Since," he
+argued to himself, "all's fair in love and war, I'll win Gladys
+through another woman."
+
+And he straightway telephoned to Lilian Rosenberg to have tea with
+him.
+
+The latter had already made an engagement for the afternoon; but, all
+the same, she accepted Shiel's invitation.
+
+"Will you do me a favour?" he asked.
+
+"If it is anything that lies in my power," she said. "What is it?"
+
+"I want you to find out how Hamar works his spells. I asked you
+before?"
+
+"I know you did and I've not forgotten," Lilian said, "but I have to
+be very careful. I've played the part of eavesdropper once or twice,
+and heard enough to confirm me in my suspicions that Hamar is in touch
+with evil, occult powers. I've heard him praying aloud to them on more
+than one occasion, and I've also a shrewd idea he performs, at least,
+some of his spells by means of wax images. But why do you want to
+know?"
+
+"Only curiosity. I am intensely interested in the occult."
+
+"You don't want to start a rival show, do you?" Lilian asked
+jestingly.
+
+"With a maximum capital of two pounds--and a minimum of knowledge!"
+Shiel laughed. "Hardly. I wish I could. I would offer you the post of
+manageress."
+
+"Partner!"
+
+"Well, partner, if you like. Would you take it?"
+
+"Perhaps!" she said, looking at him with a sudden shyness. "What a
+pity you are not rich. Can't you get a post that would bring you in
+about L200 a year for a start? I believe you really want something to
+stimulate you, to make you work in grim earnest--then you would
+succeed. There's grit in you--I love grit--but at present it's latent,
+it wants bringing out."
+
+"You are very kind," Shiel said, "but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case,
+and, being such, have no business to be in your company. Will you come
+to the theatre with me?"
+
+"The theatre! When you've no business to be in my company, and when it
+is as much as you can do to pay the rent of a back attic!"
+
+"Oh, never mind that. I've had tickets given me. I've been doing odd
+bits of journalism lately, and a dramatic critic I know has given me
+two stalls at the Imperial!"
+
+"The Imperial!" Lilian Rosenberg ejaculated. "That's where Gladys
+Martin is acting, surely! I can't bear her!"
+
+"She's not the only person in the cast," Shiel observed drily, "and
+the play's a good one! Do come!"
+
+With a little more persuasion Shiel gained her consent; and both he
+and she enjoyed the play, or more correctly speaking, the occasion,
+immensely. So long as Gladys was on the stage Shiel's eyes never once
+left her; whilst throughout the performance Lilian Rosenberg saw only
+Shiel, thought only of Shiel. The interest she had taken in him, the
+interest she had so confidently asserted was only interest, had grown
+apace--had grown out of all recognition. It needed only a fillip now
+to convert that interest into something warmer; and the fillip was not
+long in coming.
+
+Shiel was seeing Lilian home to her lodgings in Margaret Terrace, a
+turning off Oakley Street, when a man knocked a woman down right in
+front of them. He was just the ordinary type of street ruffian--the
+whitewashed English labourer--and the woman, having without doubt been
+served by him in the same manner fifty times before, was probably well
+used to such treatment. But it was more than Shiel, who had spent so
+much of his life where they treat women differently, could stand, and
+before Lilian Rosenberg had time to remonstrate, he had rushed up to
+the prostrate woman, and was holding the man at bay. A scuffle now
+began, in which the woman, whom Shiel had helped to regain her feet,
+joined. Both man and woman now attacked Shiel, who, placing himself
+with his back against the railings, defended himself as best he could.
+
+The hour was late, there were no police about, and it seemed only too
+probable that the fracas would end in a tragedy. The labourer was a
+burly fellow, shorter than Shiel, but far broader and heavier, and any
+one could see at a glance that Shiel stood no chance against him.
+Lilian Rosenberg, at her wits' end to know what to do, ran into Oakley
+Street, and as there was no one in sight, she made for the nearest
+lighted house and rang the bell furiously. A man came to the door,
+whom, unheeding his expostulations, she caught by the arm and dragged
+into the street.
+
+They arrived on the scene of action, just as the ruffian, breaking
+through Shiel's guard, struck him a terrific blow on the forehead,
+which sent him reeling against the railings. The newcomer (upon whom,
+both man and woman, seeing Shiel incapacitated, instantly turned)
+would probably have shared the same fate, had not the occupants of
+several of the neighbouring houses--amongst whom were some half-dozen
+athletic young men--roused by the noise, come out into the street, and
+the ruffian and his companion, seeing the odds were against them,
+decamped.
+
+Shiel had not fully regained consciousness, when Lilian Rosenberg,
+regardless of propriety, led him into her sitting-room, bathed his
+forehead, dosed him with brandy, and making up a bed for him on the
+sofa, bade him rest there, till the morning.
+
+When he took his departure, he had quite recovered, and Lilian
+Rosenberg had, at last, realized that she loved him.
+
+
+  FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [Footnote 23: There is no doubt that Moses inflicted the plagues,
+  with which he tormented Pharaoh, in this way.]
+
+  [Footnote 24: In stage two this might have been performed by
+  ethereal projection, but Hamar could not resort to this method as
+  the power of projection had now passed from him.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE SUBPOENA
+
+
+A few days after the incident in Margaret Terrace, Shiel had an
+inspiration. He was lunching with an old schoolfellow whom, quite by
+chance, he had met in Lincoln's Inn, having previously lost sight of
+him for many years, and the conversation, which had at first been
+confined to the old days, had gradually drifted to what was ever
+uppermost in Shiel's mind--namely, the Modern Sorcery Company, _i.e._
+Hamar, Kelson and Curtis.
+
+"Did you know," his friend remarked, "that the old statute, introduced
+in Henry the Fifth's reign against sorcery, has never been repealed?"
+
+"You don't mean to say so," Shiel cried excitedly--a vague idea
+dawning on him. "Tell me all about it."
+
+"Well, that's rather a long order. For one thing, it imposes all kinds
+of penalties from capital punishment to fines. For another, it was in
+force up to the beginning of George the Third's reign, when the last
+case of a person being burned for witchery in England occurred, and
+since then it has fallen into disuse."
+
+"Could it be revived?" Shiel asked, a sudden wild hope surging through
+him.
+
+"For all I know to the contrary, it could," his friend--who, by the
+way, was a barrister--replied. "Of course no one could be burned or
+hanged under it, but they might be fined or imprisoned."
+
+"Then I wish to goodness you would file a case against the Modern
+Sorcery Company! I'd move heaven and earth to get the scoundrels sent
+to prison!" And he told his friend how matters stood between Gladys
+and Hamar.
+
+The barrister--whose name was Sevenning--H.V. Sevenning, of T.C.D. and
+Cheltenham College renown--was keenly interested. It was not only that
+his sense of chivalry was stirred, but he saw sport. Consequently, the
+foregoing conversation resulted in a prosecution which, taking place
+some four weeks later, was reported in the London Herald as follows--
+
+    EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE HEARD AT THE OLD BAILEY.
+
+    REVIVAL OF AN ANCIENT STATUTE.
+
+    Yesterday, at the Old Bailey, before His Honour Judge Rosher, Leon
+    Hamar, Edward Curtis and Matthew Kelson, of the Modern Sorcery
+    Company Ltd., were indicted under the 23rd of Henry the Fifth, C.
+    15, which makes it a capital offence to practise and administer
+    spells. The case for the prosecution promises to be a lengthy one.
+    An enormous number of witnesses, who are most anxious to make
+    statements, will be called; and it is anticipated that much of
+    their evidence will be of a most extraordinary nature.
+
+    The accused are cited with having worked spells to the
+    injury--which injury, in many instances, has been fatal--of a vast
+    number of people, representative of every rank in life.
+
+    Hilda, Countess of Ramsgate, who appeared in heavy mourning, was
+    the first witness called. In her evidence she stated, that it was
+    owing to an advertisement she had seen in the _Ladies' Meadow_,
+    that she had consulted the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd., with the
+    object of buying a spell to prevent her Pekingese pet, Brutus,
+    catching colds on his liver. She had hoped to see Mr. Kelson, as
+    she had heard that he was more sympathetic, where ladies were
+    concerned, than either Mr. Hamar or Mr. Curtis, but as Mr. Kelson
+    was engaged, she had consulted Mr. Edward Curtis instead. The
+    latter had given her a spell which he had assured her would have
+    the desired effect, but directly she got home, her adored Brutus
+    developed melancholia, and died raving mad, after having bitten
+    her child, who, by the way, had died, too.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., declared that the spell his
+    client had given the Countess was perfectly harmless; that it
+    could not possibly have produced either melancholia or madness.
+    "Can any dependence," he said, "be placed on a woman, who
+    obviously thinks more of her dog's death than that of her child!"
+
+    The Court was adjourned till to-morrow.
+
+In the following day's paper, the evidence for the prosecution was
+continued. Lady Marjorie Tatler, who, in the weekly and illustrated
+journals, for no other reason than her reputed beauty, was reintroduced
+over and over again to the long-suffering public, was the first to
+step into the witness-box.
+
+    She declared that Edward Curtis, instead of giving her a spell to
+    make Florillda win the Derby, had given her a diabolical something
+    that had brought out spots all over her face, and that she had to
+    undergo a most expensive treatment before they could be got rid
+    of.
+
+    In cross-examination, Lady Marjorie Tatler admitted that she had
+    asked Edward Curtis for a spell that would cause all the horses
+    running in that particular race, save Florillda, to be taken ill.
+
+    For the defence, Gerald Kirby, K.C., explained that his client was
+    so disgusted at the immorality of Lady Marjorie's request, that he
+    had purposely given her a spell that would have no effect upon a
+    horse, and could not possibly bring out spots on her Ladyship's
+    face. "The spell Edward Curtis gave her," Gerald Kirby said, "was
+    a mixture of hempseed and sago, flavoured with violet powder, and
+    my client instructed her Ladyship to wear it next her heart."
+    (Loud laughter.)
+
+    Lady Coralie Mars, the next witness, who declared she had sought a
+    spell to make the man, she was forced into marrying, fall into a
+    trance, just before the marriage ceremony was to take place; and
+    that, instead of bringing this about, the spell Edward Curtis had
+    sold her had caused her to have St. Vitus's Dance,--was adroitly
+    trapped into admitting that she had really wanted her fiance
+    smitten with paralysis. "A wish," Gerald Kirby announced, with a
+    dramatic flourish of his hands, "that so aroused my client's
+    indignation that, instead of giving her the spell she wanted, he
+    gave her one that would make her affianced husband more than ever
+    hungry for the marriage hour to arrive. As for St. Vitus's Dance,
+    would any woman, with an emotional and hysterical-nature, such as
+    obviously was that of Lady Coralie Mars, ever be free from such a
+    complaint?"
+
+    The Hon. Augusta Mapple, who stated that she had visited the
+    Modern Sorcery Company, for the purpose of obtaining a spell to
+    bring about a defeat of the Government, by afflicting the bulk of
+    their supporters with such bilious attacks as would necessitate
+    their absence from the House, and that, instead of giving her such
+    a spell, Edward Curtis had given her one which had caused every
+    member of her household to fall downstairs--admitted, under
+    cross-examination, that she had asked for a spell that would make
+    every supporter of the Government in the House be suddenly seized
+    with tetanus. "A diabolical request, your lordship," Gerald Kirby
+    said, "and one to which my client could not possibly accede.
+    Consequently, as a punishment for such cruelty, he sold her a
+    spell that would result in her having a sharp attack of toothache.
+    It could not possibly have produced any of the mishaps she
+    attributes to it."
+
+It is unnecessary to quote further. By far the greater number of these
+witnesses, on being cross-examined by Mr. Kirby, who defended with an
+ability that has rarely, if ever, been excelled, were made to confess
+that they had wanted the spells for a far more subtle and dangerous
+purpose than they had previously stated; admissions which, of course,
+were highly prejudicial to the case for the prosecution.
+
+Shiel lost hope. He had looked forward to the trial with an excitement
+that almost bordered on frenzy. It was never out of his mind. He
+thought of it at meals, he thought of it at his work, he thought of it
+out of doors, and, when he went to bed, he dreamed of it.
+
+"I'll save you! I'll save you yet!" he wrote to Gladys. "The trial can
+only result in one thing--the breaking up and imprisonment of the
+trio."
+
+But when he read the papers each day, and saw how, in almost every
+instance, evidence which ought to have been damning to the accused,
+had been twisted into their favour, his heart sank.
+
+There was only one chance now--Lilian Rosenberg. She, of all the staff
+employed in the Hall in Cockspur Street, was best acquainted with the
+_modus operandi_ of Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson.
+
+"We must get hold of that girl at all costs," H.V. Sevenning remarked
+to Shiel. "You say you feel sure she likes you. Work upon her feelings
+to show the Firm up."
+
+"I don't much like the idea of it," Shiel said, "but I suppose the end
+justifies the means."
+
+"Of course it does!" Sevenning retorted. "It's your only chance of
+saving Miss Martin."
+
+Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the
+subject.
+
+"What about the spells?" he asked her. "Have you found out yet how
+Hamar works them?"
+
+"I have only heard him muttering in his room again," she said, her
+cheeks paling. "And--you will only laugh at me--I have seen queer
+shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages,
+shadows that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before
+I came to Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been
+almost too afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see
+something standing outside."
+
+"You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio
+practise sorcery?"
+
+"I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits."
+
+"Do you approve of such proceedings?"
+
+"I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into
+the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but
+until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone."
+
+"If you think like that," Shiel said, "how can you reconcile yourself
+to working for these people?"
+
+"How can I help myself?" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "Beggars can't be
+choosers. I am not responsible for what they do."
+
+"But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous
+crime, wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?"
+
+"That depends," Lilian Rosenberg said. "If I could stop them without
+running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop
+them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly
+shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays--especially good
+paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!"
+
+"Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?" Shiel
+said slowly.
+
+"That depends on the degree of friendship," Lilian replied. "If it
+were for some one I liked very much, then--perhaps!"
+
+"Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you
+being very fond of any one."
+
+"Couldn't you?" Lilian said, with a faint laugh. "You don't think me
+capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman
+doesn't always wear her heart on her sleeve."
+
+"I confess I don't understand women," Shiel said, "and I had best come
+to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio--or at least one
+of the trio--is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable--a
+cruel and shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I
+may not be able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?"
+
+"How _can_ I?" Lilian asked.
+
+"Why, by finding out something which might be damning evidence against
+them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of
+staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by
+getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them."
+
+"Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What
+would become of me?"
+
+"Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a
+noble action."
+
+"How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on
+you personally?"
+
+"It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted."
+
+"Some one you like?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"A relation?"
+
+"That I can't say."
+
+"Then I can't help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as
+you know, a woman's privilege. You must tell me all."
+
+"It's for a friend, then!"
+
+"A man?"
+
+"No," Shiel replied, "for a girl!"
+
+There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.
+
+"Have I ever heard you mention her?"
+
+"Occasionally," Shiel replied.
+
+There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly--
+
+"You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else."
+
+"I do mean her!" Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. "She is to be
+coerced into marrying Hamar."
+
+"The silly fool!" Lilian Rosenberg said. "I would like to see any one
+trying to coerce me. And it is to serve _her_ you want me to sacrifice
+myself." And she turned away in disgust.
+
+After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
+at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to
+H.V. Sevenning.
+
+"We must subpoena her," said Sevenning.
+
+"You'll never get her to speak that way," Shiel said. "If once she has
+made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her."
+
+"I have heard that said of people before," H.V. Sevenning replied
+dryly, "but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the
+most mulish tongues in a marvellous manner."
+
+"It wouldn't hers," Shiel maintained.
+
+H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best--what lawyer doesn't?
+Moreover, it was all part of the game--the great game of becoming
+notorious at all costs. He served the subpoena.
+
+Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
+this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up
+with the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly
+what she thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however,
+the unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion,
+and confronted for the first time in her life with the startling
+proposition of "self-sacrifice." She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry
+him for the very simple reason he had no money--but that only added
+poignancy to the situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel
+loved Gladys Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another
+matter--but he loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had
+been so abruptly thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should
+sacrifice herself, not only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar,
+but to pave the way for Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile
+herself to penury, to marry her himself. In other words she had been
+called upon to give up what was, at the moment, dearest to her in the
+world, and to court all the inconveniences and worries of being thrown
+out of employment--for if she gave evidence that would in any way tend
+to damage the firm of Hamar, Curtis & Kelson, she would undoubtedly
+lose her post and, in all probability, never get another--at least not
+another as good--for the sake of a woman whom she did not know, but,
+nevertheless, hated.
+
+Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
+date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she
+would have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
+actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it,
+too, until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up
+her mind to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the
+subpoena was served.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CURTIS IN A NEW ROLE
+
+
+In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would
+adopt.
+
+"What a disgusting thing to do," she indignantly exclaimed. "I
+wouldn't have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give
+evidence--of forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the
+woman he thinks he loves! I shan't do it!"
+
+And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
+witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
+appearance--she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women
+who had hitherto appeared in the witness-box--though many of them were
+so-called Society beauties.
+
+"You were wrong," was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
+eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. "She is on our side."
+
+But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
+lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
+assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
+misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
+favour of the trio.
+
+The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
+Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
+proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
+centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
+counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution.
+
+"Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
+the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
+yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
+and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
+medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
+their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
+Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
+along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
+intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
+efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
+lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
+to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
+this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
+that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
+assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
+trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
+as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them. But, of
+course you did not believe the statements of such witnesses. How could
+you? How could you expect anything but falsehood from women who, upon
+cross-examination, had owned that their object in obtaining the spells
+was a far more dangerous object than they had at first led you to
+suppose. They sought spells that would do evil, and that evil was not
+accomplished. Now, I ask you, if the Firm worked their spells through
+the instrumentality of evil spirits--for it is assuredly only evil
+spirits that are associated with Sorcery--would not the spells they
+sold naturally have brought about the sinister results for which they
+were required? Undoubtedly they would! And they failed to produce the
+desired effect, simply because their efficacy depended, not on spirit
+agency, but on human will power; which power one could only too
+plainly see the society ladies--who had witnessed for the
+prosecution--did not possess.
+
+"It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
+spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'--and
+so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.
+'The Sorcery Company' is an attractive title, a 'catchy' title, and
+for this reason, which is surely a legitimate one, since it is
+strictly in accordance with the prevailing custom of advertisement--the
+firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson adopted it. They did not expect--they
+were not so extraordinarily foolish as to expect--any one would take
+them literally. They thought--as you and I think--that sorcery cannot
+be taken seriously--that it is confined to fairy tales--and that, as a
+fairy tale, it is potent only in the nursery."
+
+This was the gist of counsel's speech for the defence. A number of
+witnesses then gave evidence for the defendants; and when the
+prosecuting counsel rose, it was only too evident that he was pleading
+for a lost cause. The Court with ill-concealed derision barely
+accorded him a hearing.
+
+Two hours later the _Meteor_, always the first in the field when
+sensations crop up, headed the first column of their front page with--
+
+    COLLAPSE OF THE SORCERY CASE
+    CRUSHING SPEECH BY GERALD KIRBY, K.C.
+    ACQUITTAL OF THE DEFENDANTS
+
+"The Judge"--so the _Meteor_ reported--"expressed himself in absolute
+agreement with the defending counsel. 'The action,' he said, 'ought
+never to have been brought--it was sublimely ridiculous to accuse any
+one of being in league with forces in the existence of which no sane
+person could possibly believe.'"
+
+Shiel was in despair. All chance of saving Gladys seemed to be fast
+disappearing. He telephoned to her, and was answered by Miss Templeton.
+
+"Gladys," she said, "had gone out with Hamar, who had motored down to
+the cottage the moment the trial was over and the verdict known."
+
+"I wish to God we had won the case," Shiel observed.
+
+"So do I," Miss Templeton replied, "and so did Gladys--she regards her
+position now as absolutely hopeless!"
+
+"Tell her not to lose heart," Shiel answered hurriedly. "If I can't
+find any other means, I'll--" but Miss Templeton rang off, and he
+spoke to the wind.
+
+Full of wrath against Lilian Rosenberg, he went round to see her, and
+met her, just as she was entering her house.
+
+"I've come to see you for the last time," he announced. "After the way
+you behaved in Court, we can no longer be friends."
+
+"I don't understand," she said in rather a faltering voice. "What have
+I done?"
+
+"Only perjured yourself," Shiel retorted. "The tale you told the judge
+was very different to the tale you told me, therefore it is impossible
+for us to continue our friendship. I could never have anything to do
+with a woman whose word I can't rely upon--whose character I scorn,
+whom I despise--and--" he was going to add, "detest," but checked
+himself, and unable to trust himself in her presence any longer, he
+gave her a glance of the utmost contempt, and wheeling round, walked
+quickly away.
+
+As in a dream, Lilian Rosenberg went upstairs to her room, and
+throwing herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow and
+indulged in a fit of crying. It was not the thought of losing Shiel
+that was so painful to her--she might have grown reconciled to
+that--it was the thought of losing his esteem. Most people would agree
+with her--would assure her she had done the right thing in looking
+after number one. "What, after all, is perjury?" she argued. "Nearly
+every one in this world perjure themselves at one time or
+another--certainly all women."
+
+But it was not the opinion of the majority she cared about--it was the
+respect of the one; the respect she had wilfully and spitefully
+sacrificed.
+
+Was it too late to recover it?
+
+With regard to Gladys she was very sceptical. The reluctance to accept
+Hamar as her future husband she still believed to be all pretence, and
+she felt convinced that Gladys, in her heart of hearts, was only too
+glad to get the chance of marrying any one so rich. This being so, she
+could not bring herself to think she had done Shiel any actual wrong.
+Gladys would never marry him. The only person she had harmed was
+herself. She had lied, and Shiel was not the sort of man to condone an
+offence of that sort easily. Still, weeping would do no good; it would
+only make her ugly. She got up, had tea, and went out. She could think
+better in the open air--it soothed her. For some reason or
+other--custom perhaps--she strolled towards Cockspur Street, and there
+ran into one of the few people she particularly wished to
+avoid--Kelson.
+
+He was delighted to see her.
+
+"It's nectar to me to be out again," he said. "Jerusalem!--it was
+awful in the Courts. Have supper with me."
+
+It was a fine starlight night--the air cool and refreshing, and a wild
+abandonment seized Lilian Rosenberg. She would have supped with the
+devil had he asked her.
+
+"I've nothing to lose now," she said to herself. "Nothing! I'll have
+my fling."
+
+"Where shall we go?" she asked. "It must be somewhere entertaining."
+
+"Why not to my rooms?" he said. "We can talk better there--we shall be
+all alone!"
+
+She raised no objection, and they were about to step into a taxi, when
+Hamar and Curtis suddenly put in appearance.
+
+"Matt!" Hamar cried, seizing his elbow. "I want a word with you."
+
+"Not now," Kelson protested, looking hungrily at Lilian.
+
+"Yes, now!" Hamar said. "At once! I shan't keep you more than five
+minutes"--and he dragged Kelson away with him.
+
+The moment they had gone, Curtis, who was obviously the worse for
+drink, addressed Lilian.
+
+"Kelson won't come back," he said. "Hamar is mad with him. He says if
+he ever sees you two together again he'll sack you. Let me take his
+place!"
+
+A sudden inspiration came to her. There were one or two things she
+badly wanted to know--and with a bit of coaxing, Curtis, in his
+present state, might tell her anything. She would try.
+
+"All right," she said. "I'll come."
+
+They got into the taxi and Curtis, as far as his fuddled senses would
+allow, made violent love to her.
+
+After supper--they had supper in his rooms--he grew a great deal more
+amorous. She let him sit close beside her, she let him put his arm
+round her waist; but before she let him kiss her, she struck her
+bargain.
+
+"No!" she said, thrusting him away. "Not just yet. That can come
+later--if you are good. I want you to tell me something first. About
+this marriage of Mr. Hamar and Miss Martin--is it likely to come off?"
+
+"Ish it likely!" Curtis said with a stupid leer. "Ish it likely! Not
+much. Leon means nothing! He only wants the fun of being engaged to a
+pretty girl--like I wantsh fun with you. Nothing more."
+
+"Then he'll throw her over after a while."
+
+"After he gets what he wantsh to get."
+
+"And suppose she prove different to what he expects?"
+
+"After he pashes stage seven--that will be all right!" Curtis said
+giving her waist an emphatic squeeze. "Everybody will be all right
+then. You and Matt--for exshample--and I and--and--whishky!"
+
+"Stage seven! What do you mean?"
+
+"Why don't--you know!" Curtis gurgled--and then a sudden gleam of
+intelligence coming into his watery eyes, he added. "Then I shan't
+tell you--nothing shall make me. It's a shecret!"
+
+"I won't kiss you till you do!" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll make you."
+
+"Oh, no, you won't," Lilian Rosenberg cried, disengaging herself from
+his grasp, and rising. "Don't you dare touch me. I'm going."
+
+Curtis watched her with a helpless grin. Then he suddenly cried out,
+"Come back! Come back, I shay!"
+
+"Well, will you do as I want?" Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"I'll do anything--anything to please you--if only you shtay with me."
+
+She sat down, and his arm once again encircled her.
+
+"Now," she said, pushing his face away. "Tell me!"
+
+Bit by bit she drew out of him the whole history of the compact with
+the Unknown, how in stage five, the stage they were about to enter,
+they would have fresh powers conferred upon them--their present power,
+_i.e._ of working spells and causing diseases, being then cancelled;
+how they would obtain supreme power over women when they reached the
+final stage--stage seven; and how the compact would be broken and
+their ruin brought about, should either of them marry, or should
+anything happen before this final stage was reached, to disunite them.
+
+Lilian could account for a great deal now. The uncanny feeling she had
+always experienced in the building; the curious enigmatical shadows
+she had seen hovering about the doorways and flitting down the
+passages; the extraordinary nature of the feats and spells; Hamar's
+mutterings and his fury, whenever Kelson spoke to her--were no longer
+wholly unintelligible. But she must know all. She must be most
+exacting.
+
+Finally, she got from Curtis everything there was to be got from him,
+and she laughed immoderately, when he excused himself on the grounds
+that it was all Leon's doings--Leon had told him to offer her a little
+compensation for the loss of her escort.
+
+"And you have compensated me more than enough," Lilian Rosenberg said.
+"Now you shall have your reward," and she kissed him--kissed him three
+times for luck.
+
+"But you're not going?" he said, staggering to his feet and attempting
+to hold her. "You're not going till the roshy morning sun shines
+shaucily in on us."
+
+"Oh, yes, I am," she said. "I've had quite enough of you! Good-bye!"
+
+And before he could prevent her, she had run to the front door and let
+herself out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+IN HYDE PARK AT NIGHT
+
+
+But now that Lilian Rosenberg was possessed of all this information
+respecting the trio, she was once again in doubt how to act, or
+whether to act at all. Supposing she were to attempt to warn Gladys
+Martin against Hamar, how would Gladys take the warning? Would she pay
+any attention to it? The odds were she would not; that having set her
+heart on marrying Hamar for his money, she would blind herself to his
+faults and resolutely shut her ears to anything said against him. Also
+there was the very great possibility of Gladys being rude to her--and
+even the thought of this was more than she could bear to contemplate.
+If only Shiel were reasonable! If only he could be made to see how
+utterly ridiculous it was for him to think of winning such a girl as
+Gladys--Gladys the pretty, dolly-faced, pampered actress, who had
+never known a single hardship, had always had a well-lined purse, and
+would never, never marry poverty! Then back to Lilian Rosenberg's mind
+came her parting with Shiel--she recalled his intense scorn and
+indignation. A liar! He did not wish to have anything to do with a
+liar! It's a good thing every man is not so fastidious, she said to
+herself bitterly, or the population of the world would soon fizz out.
+She laughed. He had never questioned her morals in any other
+sense--perhaps, in his innocence or assumed innocence, he had thought
+them spotless--at all events he had most graciously ignored them. But
+a liar! A liar--he could not put up with. And why! Because the lie had
+touched him on a sore point. When lies do not touch a sore point,
+they, too, are ignored.
+
+She walked to the Imperial and looked again at Gladys's photographs.
+How any man could fall madly in love with such a face, was more than
+she could conceive. It was a mincing, maudlin, finicking face--it
+irritated her intensely. She turned away from it in disgust, yet came
+back to have another look--and yet another. God knows why! It
+fascinated her. Finally she left it, fully resolved to let its odious
+original go to her fate--without a warning. Soon after her return to
+the Hall in Cockspur Street, she was sent for by Hamar.
+
+"Didn't I tell you," he said, "that you were on no account to
+encourage Mr. Kelson?"
+
+"You did!" Lilian Rosenberg replied.
+
+"Will you kindly explain, then," Hamar said, "why you have disobeyed
+my orders?"
+
+"How have I disobeyed them?" Lilian Rosenberg asked.
+
+"How!" Hamar retorted, his cheeks white with passion. "You dare to
+inquire how! Why, you were on the point of accompanying him to his
+rooms last night to supper, when I stopped you! I have overlooked your
+disobedience so many times that I can do so no longer. Your services
+will not be required by the Firm after to-day fortnight."
+
+"Won't they?" Lilian Rosenberg replied, her anger rising. "I think you
+are mistaken. I know a great deal too much to make it safe for you to
+part with me. I know--for instance--all about your Compact with the
+Unknown!"
+
+"You know nothing," Hamar said, his voice faltering.
+
+"Oh, yes, I do!" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "I know everything. I know
+how you first got in communication with the Unknown in San Francisco;
+I know how you receive fresh powers from the Unknown every three
+months (the old powers being cancelled). I know the penalty you will
+undergo should the Compact be broken--and--what is more--I know how
+the Compact can be broken."
+
+"How the deuce have you learned all this?" Hamar stammered.
+
+"Never you mind. Am I to remain in your service or leave?"
+
+"I think," Hamar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "it is better
+that you should remain--better for all parties. I owe you some little
+recompense for your loyalty to the Firm, and for the admirable way you
+spoke up for the Firm in Court. I will make you out a cheque for a
+hundred pounds now--and your salary shall be doubled at the end of
+this week. Promise to keep out of Mr. Kelson's way in future--for the
+next six months at any rate--after that time you may see him as often
+as you like--and I will give you as a wedding present a cheque for
+twenty thousand pounds!"
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds! You are joking!"
+
+"I'm not. I vow and declare I mean it. Is that a bargain?"
+
+"I will certainly think it well over," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let
+you know my decision later on."
+
+From what Curtis had told her she knew it was the last day of stage
+four, that the trio that evening would be initiated into stage
+five--the Stage of Cures, and a mad desire seized her to witness the
+initiation. But how would the Unknown manifest itself on this
+occasion--and to which of the trio? She could not keep a close watch
+on the three of them. If only she had been friends with Shiel, they
+might, in some way, have worked it together. Curtis had carefully
+avoided her since the supper; but she had seen Kelson, and he had
+looked at her each time he met her as if he yearned to fall down at
+her feet and worship her. Should she attach herself to him for the
+evening--and run the risk of another quarrel with Hamar? She dearly
+loved risks and dangers--and the danger she would encounter in defying
+Hamar appealed to her sporting nature. It was easy to secure
+Kelson--one glance from her eyes--and he would have followed her to
+Timbuctoo.
+
+"Charing Cross--under clock--after show to-night," she whispered as
+she flew hurriedly past him. "I want to speak to you."
+
+Now it so happened that Hamar had given Kelson orders to return to his
+rooms, directly the performance was over, and to remain in them till
+morning, in case he was wanted in connection with the initiation. But
+he might have spared himself the trouble. It was Lilian, and Lilian
+only, that Kelson now thought of--it was Lilian, and Lilian only, that
+he would obey. The idea of meeting her--of having her all to
+himself--of being able to do her a service--filled him with such
+uncontrollable delight, that he hardly knew how to comport himself so
+as not to arouse Hamar's suspicions. Directly the performance was over
+he sneaked out of the Hall, and pretending not to hear Hamar, who
+called after him, he jumped into a taxi, and was whirled away to the
+trysting-place. Lilian Rosenberg, who arrived a moment later, was
+dressed in a new costume, and Kelson thought her looking smarter and
+daintier than ever.
+
+"You shall kiss me at once," she said, "if you promise me one thing."
+
+"And what is that?" he asked, looking hungrily at her lips.
+
+"I want you to let me see the Unknown when it comes to you to-night,"
+she said.
+
+"Good God! What do you know about the Unknown!" he exclaimed, his jaws
+falling, and a look of terror creeping into his eyes.
+
+"A great deal," she laughed, "so much that I want to learn more"--and
+of what she knew she told him, just as much as she had told Hamar.
+"And now," she said, "I repeat my promise--you shall have a
+kiss--think of that--if only you will hide me somewhere so that I can
+see the Unknown or its emissary."
+
+"I would do anything for a kiss," Kelson said, "but I fear it is
+impossible to fulfil the condition, because I haven't the remotest
+idea where or when the Unknown will appear. Besides, it is just as
+likely to go to Hamar or Curtis as to come to me; and up to the
+present I haven't felt the remotest suggestion of its favouring me. Is
+this the only condition I can fulfil, so that you will let me kiss
+you?"
+
+"Certainly," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I am not in the habit of being
+kissed. Such an event can only happen in the most exceptional and
+privileged circumstances--such, for example, as exist at the present
+moment, when I ask you to put yourself to some considerable
+trouble--if not actually to incur danger--in order to accomplish what
+I wish."
+
+"And yet I remember kissing you unconditionally," Kelson commented.
+
+"Memory is a fickle thing," Lilian Rosenberg replied, "and so is
+woman. Times have changed. I'll leave you at once, unless you promise
+to do your very utmost to grant my request."
+
+Kelson promised, and--after they had had supper at the Trocadero,
+suggested that they should take a stroll in Hyde Park.
+
+"I hope you are not awfully shocked?" he inquired rather anxiously,
+"but a sudden impulse has come over me to go there. I believe it is
+the will of the Unknown. Will you come with me?"
+
+"We shan't be able to get in, shall we, it's so late?" Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "Otherwise I should like to--I'm rather in a mood for
+adventure."
+
+"They don't shut the gates till twelve," Kelson said, "and it's not
+that yet."
+
+"Very well, let's go, then. I'm game to go anywhere to see the
+Unknown," and so saying Lilian rose from the table, and Kelson
+followed her into the street.
+
+They took a taxi, and alighting at Hyde Park Corner entered the Park.
+It was very dark and deserted.
+
+"It's nearly closing time," a policeman called out to them rather
+curtly.
+
+"We are only taking a constitutional," Kelson explained. "We shall be
+back in five minutes."
+
+They crossed the road to the statue, and were deliberating which
+direction to take, when they heard a groan.
+
+"It's only some poor devil of a tramp," Kelson said. "The benches are
+full of them--they stay here all night. We had better, perhaps, turn
+back."
+
+"Nonsense!" Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I'm not a bit afraid. There's
+another groan. I'm going to see what's up," and before he could stop
+her she had disappeared in the darkness. "Here I am," she called;
+"come, it's some one ill."
+
+Plunging on, in the darkness, Kelson at last found Lilian. She was
+sitting on a chair under a tree, by the side of a man, who was lying,
+curled up, on the ground.
+
+"He's had nothing to eat for two days, and has Bright's Disease,"
+Lilian Rosenberg announced. "Can't we do something for him?"
+
+"Two gentlemen told me just now," the man on the ground groaned, "that
+if I stayed here for a couple of hours--they would pass by again and
+guarantee to cure me. I reckoned there was no cure for Bright's
+Disease, when it is chronic, like it is in my case; but they laughed,
+and said, 'We can--or at least--shall be able to cure anything.'"
+
+"What were the two gentlemen like?" Kelson asked.
+
+"How could I tell?" the man moaned. "I couldn't see their faces any
+more than I can see yours--but they talked like you. Twang--twang--
+twang--all through their noses."
+
+"Sounds as if it might be Hamar and Curtis," Kelson remarked.
+
+"That's it!" the man ejaculated. "'Amar. I heard the other fellow call
+him by that name."
+
+"How long ago is it since they were here?" Kelson asked.
+
+"I can't say, perhaps ten minutes. I've lost count of time and
+everything else, since I've slept out here. They talked of going to
+the Serpentine."
+
+"We had better try and find them," Kelson said.
+
+"If you had the money couldn't you get shelter for the night," Lilian
+Rosenberg said. "It must be awful to lie out here in the cold, feeling
+ill and hungry."
+
+"I dare say some place would take me in," the man muttered, "only I
+couldn't walk--at least no distance."
+
+"Well! here's five shillings," Lilian Rosenberg said, "put it
+somewhere safe--and try and hobble to the gates. If they haven't
+closed them, you will be all right."
+
+"Five shillings!" the man gasped; "that's--it's no good--I can't
+count. I've no head now. Thank you, missy! God bless you. I'll get
+something hot--something to stifle the pain." He struggled on to his
+knees, and Lilian Rosenberg helped him to rise.
+
+"How could you be so foolish as to touch him," Kelson said, as they
+started off down a path, they hoped would take them to the Serpentine.
+"You may depend upon it, he was swarming with vermin--tramps always
+are."
+
+"Very probably, but I run just as much risk in a 'bus, the twopenny
+tube, or a cinematograph show. Besides, I can't see a human being
+helpless without offering help. Listen! there's some one else
+groaning! The Park is full of groans."
+
+What she said was true--the Park was full of groans. From every
+direction, borne to them by the gently rustling wind, came the groans
+of countless suffering outcasts--legions of homeless, starving men
+and women. Some lay right out in the open on their backs, others
+under cover of the trees, others again on the seats. They lay
+everywhere--these shattered, tattered, battered wrecks of
+humanity--these gangrened exiles from society, to whom no one ever
+spoke; whom no one ever looked at; whom no one would even own that
+they had seen; whose lot in life not even a stray cat envied. Here
+were two of them--a man and a woman tightly hugged in each other's
+embrace--not for love--but for warmth. Lilian Rosenberg almost fell
+over them, but they took no notice of her. Every now and then, one of
+them would emerge from the shelter of the trees, and cross the grass
+in the direction of the distant, gleaming water, with silent, stealthy
+tread. Once a tall, gaunt figure, suddenly sprang up and confronted
+the two adventurers; but the moment Kelson raised his stick, it
+jabbered something wholly unintelligible, and sped away into the
+darkness.
+
+"A scene like this makes one doubt the existence of a good God,"
+Lilian Rosenberg said.
+
+"It makes one doubt the existence of anything but Hell," Kelson said.
+"Compared with all this suffering--the suffering of these thousands of
+hungry, hopeless wretches--the bulk of whom are doubtless tortured
+incessantly, with the pains of cancer and tuberculosis, to say nothing
+of neuralgia and rheumatism--Dante's Inferno and Virgil's Hades pale
+into insignificance. The devil is kind compared with God."
+
+"I believe you are right," Lilian Rosenberg said, "I never thought the
+devil was half as bad as he was painted. The Park to-night gives the
+lie direct to the ethics of all religions, and to the boasted efforts
+of all governments, churches, chapels, hospitals, police, progress and
+civilization. There is no misery, I am sure, to vie with it in any
+pagan land, either now or at any other period in the world's history."
+
+"True," Kelson replied, "and why is it? It is because civilization has
+killed charity. Giving--in its true sense--if it exists at all--is
+rarely to be met with--giving in exchange--that is, in order to
+gain--flourishes everywhere. People will subscribe for the erection of
+monuments to kings and statesmen, or to well-known and, often,
+richly-endowed charitable institutes, in exchange for the pleasure of
+seeing, in the newspapers, a list of the subscribers' names, and
+themselves included amongst those whom they consider a peg above them
+socially; or in exchange for votes, or notoriety, they will give
+liberally to the brutal strikers, or outings for poor."
+
+"I suppose, by the poor, you mean the pampered, ill-mannered and
+detestably conceited County Council children," Lilian Rosenberg chimed
+in. "I wouldn't give a farthing to such a miscalled charity, no--not
+if I were rolling in riches."
+
+"And I think you would be right," Kelson replied. "But for these
+really poor Park refugees it is a different matter. Obviously, no one
+will make the slightest effort to work up the public interest on their
+behalf, simply because they are labelled 'useless.' They belong
+nowhere--they have no votes--they are too feeble to combine--they are
+even too feeble to commit an atrocious murder; consequently, for the
+help they would receive, they could give nothing in return. By the
+bye, I doubt if they could muster between them a pair of suspenders--a
+bootlace--a shirt-button, or even a--"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg caught him by the arm. "Stop," she said, "that's
+enough. Don't get too graphic. What's the matter with that tree?"
+
+They were now close beside the banks of the Serpentine; the moon had
+broken through its covering of black clouds, and they perceived some
+twenty yards ahead of them, a tall, isolated lime, that was rocking in
+a most peculiar manner.
+
+[Illustration: THEY GAZED FASCINATED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE RIGHT GIRL TO MARRY
+
+
+Though the wind was nothing more than the usual night breeze of early
+autumn, the lime-tree was swaying violently to and fro, as if under
+the influence of a stupendous hurricane. Lilian Rosenberg and Kelson
+were so fascinated that they stood and watched it in silence. At last
+it left off swaying and became absolutely motionless. They then
+noticed, for the first time, that there were three figures standing
+under its branches, and that one of the figures was a policeman.
+
+"Hide quickly," Kelson whispered, "those two are Hamar and Curtis.
+Quick, for God's sake--or they will see you."
+
+Lilian Rosenberg hid behind an elm.
+
+"Hulloa!" Kelson called out, advancing to the group.
+
+"Why it's you, Matt!" Curtis cried. "Hamar said you would come!"
+
+"Said I would come! How the deuce did he know?" Kelson exclaimed. "I
+didn't know myself till the moment before I started."
+
+"I willed you," Hamar explained; "as soon as I got back to my rooms
+after the Show, a voice said in my ears--I heard it distinctly--'Be at
+the Serpentine--the south bank--underneath a lime-tree--you will know
+which--at twelve to-night.' I looked round--there was no one there.
+Naturally, concluding this was a message from the Unknown I hastened
+off to Curtis, who was in his digs--and needless to say--eating, and
+having dragged him away with me in a diabolical temper--I then sought
+you. Where were you?"
+
+"Taking a walk. I felt I needed it."
+
+"Alone! Are you sure you weren't out with some girl."
+
+"I swear it."
+
+"It seems as if I'm not the only liar!" Lilian Rosenberg said to
+herself in her place of concealment. "What would Shiel say to that?"
+
+"Humph! I don't know if I ought to believe you," Hamar remarked. "Did
+you feel me willing you to come here?"
+
+"Rather!" Kelson said. "That is why I came. I seemed to hear your
+voice say 'To Hyde Park--to Hyde Park--the Serpentine--the
+Serpentine.'" Then sinking his voice he whispered, "What's up with the
+policeman, he looks deuced queer?"
+
+"He's in a trance. We found him like this," Hamar said. "He is
+undoubtedly under the control of the Unknown. I expect it to speak
+through him every moment. Get ready to take down all he says. I've
+come prepared," and he handed Kelson and Curtis, each, a pencil and a
+reporter's notebook.
+
+He had hardly done so, when the policeman--a burly man well over six
+feet in height, who was standing bolt upright as if at "attention," his
+limbs absolutely rigid, his eyes wide open and expressionless--began
+to speak in a soft, lisping voice that the trio at once identified
+with the voice of the Unknown--the voice of the tree on that eventful
+night in San Francisco.
+
+"The great secret of medicine--the secret of healing--will now be
+revealed to you," the voice said. "Pay heed. In cases of tumours and
+ulcers take a young seringa, lay it for half an hour over the stomach
+of the afflicted person, then plant it with the mumia, _i.e._ either
+the hair, blood, or spittle of the sick person, at midnight. As soon
+as the seringa begins to rot, the ulcer will heal.
+
+"In phthisis pulmonalis, the mumia of the sick person should be
+planted with a cutting of the catalpa, after the latter has been
+subjected for some minutes to the breath of the diseased person. As
+soon as the cutting shows signs of decay, the sick person will be
+cured.
+
+"In diabetes, plant the mumia of the patient with a bignonia, and as
+soon as the latter begins to rot, the diabetes will go.
+
+"In appendicitis, cover the stomach of the sick person with a piece of
+raw beef, until the sweat enters it. Then give the meat to a cat, and
+as soon as the latter has eaten it, the patient will recover."
+
+"What becomes of the cat?" Kelson asked.
+
+"The appendicitis is transferred to it," the voice explained. "It
+should be killed at once.
+
+"In cancer take the sea wrack Torrek Mendrek--a weed of deep mauve
+colour streaked with white. It must be boiled for three hours in clear
+spring water (3 ozs. of wrack to half a pint of water), and then let
+to cool. When quite cold, a dessert-spoon of it should be taken by the
+sufferer every four hours--and at the end of two days the disease will
+have completely disappeared. The wrack is to be found at the twenty
+fathom level, six miles west-south-west of the Scilly Isles.
+
+"In Bright's disease, the mumia of the afflicted should be planted at
+1 a.m., with a cutting of sassafras, after the latter has been slept
+on, for one whole night, by the sufferer. As soon as the sassafras
+begins to rot, the patient will be cured.
+
+"In dropsy, place a hare, that has been strangled, over the diseased
+portion of the body, and let it remain there for one hour. Then bury
+the hare, together with the mumia of the sick person, and as soon as
+the hare begins to decay, the patient will recover.
+
+"In jaundice and liver diseases (apart from sarcoma), plant the mumia
+of the afflicted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of black walnut, and as
+soon as the latter begins to decay, the sufferer will get well.
+
+"In all skin diseases, the mumia of the patient must be planted, at
+midnight, with a cutting of hickory, and when the latter begins to rot
+the disease disappears.
+
+"In all fevers, the mumia must be planted, at 3 a.m., with laurel
+cuttings, after the latter have been placed under the bed of the
+patient for one night. As soon as the cuttings show signs of rotting,
+the fever abates.
+
+"In acute inflammations, diseases of the heart, rheumatism, and
+lumbago, the mumia must be buried, at midnight, with a raven that has
+been drowned, and placed on a chair by the left side of the patient
+for one night. As soon as the raven begins to rot, the patient will be
+fully restored to health.
+
+"In cases of insanity, hysteria, and nervous diseases the mumia of the
+sufferer must be planted, at 2 a.m., with a cutting of white poplar,
+and as soon as the latter shows evidences of decay, the afflicted will
+get well.
+
+"In cases of hypochondria, and melancholia, the mumia of the sufferer
+must be planted, at 4 a.m., with a crocus, and as soon as the latter
+begins to rot, the disease will depart.
+
+"In every case it will be necessary to prelude the performance with
+the following invocation--
+
+"'Oh most powerful and prescient Unknown, before whom the greatest of
+the Atlanteans prostrate themselves. That was in the Beginning, that
+is now and always will be. I conjure thee by the magic symbols of the
+club-foot, the hand with the fingers clenched, and the bat, in this
+the magical year of Kefana, to extend to me thy wonderful powers of
+healing. Rena Vadoola Hipsano Eik Deoo Barrinaz.'"
+
+The lisping voice ceased, and, with a convulsive start, the policeman
+came to himself.
+
+"Hulloa!" he said, in his natural gruff tones, rubbing his eyes. "I
+must have 'dropped off.' Who are you? What are you doing in the Park
+at this time of night?"
+
+"We've been watching you!" Hamar said. "It is a bit of a phenomenon to
+see a London bobby asleep on his beat."
+
+"And to hear him talking in his sleep too," Curtis added.
+
+"I didn't know I was talking," the policeman muttered. "It all comes
+of being too many hours on duty. What have you got those note-books
+out for? Not been taking down anything about me, have you?"
+
+"Show us out of the Park and you'll hear no more about it," Hamar
+said.
+
+"And we'll give you half a sovereign into the bargain," Kelson chimed
+in.
+
+"Follow me then," the policeman said. "I'll take you to one of the
+side entrances."
+
+"Matt!" Hamar exclaimed as they passed the tree behind which Lilian
+Rosenberg was hiding, "I smell scent--and what is more I recognize it.
+It is Violette de mer--the scent that--Rosenberg uses! You were with
+her this evening!"
+
+"I swear I wasn't!" Kelson replied. "I bought some scent in Regent
+Street this afternoon."
+
+"Humph," Hamar grunted. "I have my doubts."
+
+They walked on in silence till they came to a small iron gate, where
+the policemen left them, whilst he went to the lodge for the keys; and
+all the while Kelson was in terror, lest Hamar should catch sight of
+Lilian Rosenberg, who had kept close behind them, and was now
+standing, but a few yards away, trying to conceal her identity and
+escape notice.
+
+But the policeman on his return with the keys called out to her, and
+Kelson, fearing that she might be either taken in charge for loitering
+there, in apparently suspicious circumstances, or made to remain in
+the Park all night--neither of which contingencies he could possibly
+permit--at once came forward, and explained that she was a friend of
+his.
+
+The policeman was satisfied. The sight of another half-sovereign had
+rendered him more than polite, and, without saying a word, he let them
+all out together.
+
+The moment they were in the street, Hamar turned on Kelson, white with
+passion.
+
+"So," he said, "I was right after all--liar! fool! You would risk all
+our lives for a few hours' flirtation with this silly girl."
+
+"If it's only flirtation, Leon, what does it matter?" Curtis
+interposed. "For goodness' sake shut up wrangling and let's get home.
+I'm starving."
+
+"I shall have something to say to you to-morrow morning," Hamar
+remarked, in an undertone, to Lilian Rosenberg.
+
+"And I to you," was the furious reply. "I shall not forget the
+disrespectful way in which you have just spoken of me, in alluding to
+the scent."
+
+She signalled to a taxi, and giving Kelson a friendly good-night,
+jumped into it and was speedily whirled away.
+
+On the whole, the evening had been a disappointment. She had wanted to
+see the Unknown--the awful thing that had inspired Kelson and his
+colleagues with such unmitigated horror--and instead she had seen only
+an obsessed policeman--a cataleptic "copper"--who, had he not spoken
+in a strangely uncanny voice, would certainly have seemed to her
+absolutely ordinary.
+
+With regard to Hamar's displeasure, she was not in the slightest
+degree disturbed. He would never dare say anything to her. And after
+all that had occurred he would never venture to "sack her." All the
+same she hated him. There was just sufficient in her conduct to make
+the name he had called her by applicable--therefore her bitterest
+wrath and indignation were aroused against him. He had behaved
+unpardonably. She could kill him for it.
+
+"I'll just show him," she said to herself, "what that uncivil tongue
+of his can do. He shall see that it can do him infinitely more harm
+than all Kelson's love-making. For one thing I'll spoil his chances
+with Gladys Martin; and--I wonder if I could make use of what I know
+about him, as a means of getting friendly again with Shiel. At all
+events I'll try."
+
+With this object in view she went round to Shiel's lodgings, and was
+informed by the landlady that Shiel was ill.
+
+"Nothing serious I hope?" she asked.
+
+"It has been," the landlady replied, "but he is better now. It all
+came through his not taking proper care of himself."
+
+"May I see him, do you think?" Lilian Rosenberg inquired.
+
+"I don't know," the landlady grumbled. "He's in a very touchy mood--no
+one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
+your trying," she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in
+Lilian Rosenberg's fingers.
+
+She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered.
+Shiel was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had
+very considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some
+resentment, he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation
+for his health. She put his room straight and dusted the furniture,
+got tea for him, and when she had completely won him over by these
+kindly actions, and made him beg her pardon for ever having spoken
+harshly to her, she broached the subject all the while uppermost in
+her mind--the subject of Hamar and Gladys.
+
+"He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her," she said. "All he
+wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
+the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He
+is tremendously taken with her of course--her physical beauty, which
+he had the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he
+had seen, appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't
+give in to him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time."
+
+"I don't understand you," Shiel said feebly; "why in six months'
+time?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.
+
+"So you see," she added, "that if the final stage is reached no woman
+will be safe--the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
+mercy."
+
+"How inconceivably awful!" Shiel exclaimed. "Surely there is some way
+of stopping them."
+
+"There is only one way," Lilian said slowly, "the union between the
+three must be broken--they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership."
+
+"You may be sure they will take good care not to do that."
+
+"Don't be too sure," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Matthew Kelson is very
+fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked."
+
+"Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
+Hamar!" Shiel asked eagerly.
+
+"I might!"
+
+"And you will--you will save Gladys Martin after all!"
+
+Lilian did not reply at once.
+
+"Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty," she
+said, evasively, "poverty like this!" and she glanced round the room.
+
+"I won't ask her to!" Shiel exclaimed. "Whilst I have been lying in
+bed, ill, I have thought of many things--and have come to the
+conclusion I have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult
+for me to earn enough to keep one person in comfort--and I've lost all
+hope of ever earning enough to keep two."
+
+"Well, if you don't ask her," Lilian Rosenberg said, "there's one
+thing, she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out
+of it. If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit--a girl that
+would be a real 'pal' to you--a girl that would help you to win fame!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+WHOM WILL HE MARRY?
+
+
+Had Lilian Rosenberg been able to see the effect of her conversation
+upon Shiel after she had left him, she would have been disappointed.
+He had, prior to this interview with Lilian Rosenberg, as he told her,
+made up his mind to abandon all idea of marrying Gladys Martin; and
+there is a possibility that had her name not been mentioned, had she
+not been recalled so vividly to his mind, he would have adhered to
+that resolution--at all events so long as he refrained from seeing
+her. But such is human nature--or at least man's nature--that directly
+Lilian Rosenberg had left him, Shiel's love for Gladys burst out with
+such wild, invigorated force that it swept reason and everything else
+before it. Gladys! He could think of nothing else! Every detail in her
+appearance, every word she had spoken, came back to him with
+exaggerated intensity. Her beauty was sublime. There was no one like
+her, no one that could inspire him with such a sense of ideality, no
+one that could lead him on to such dizzy heights of greatness. It was
+all nonsense to say, as Lilian Rosenberg had said, there were just as
+many good fish in the sea as had ever come out of it--there was only
+one Gladys. Hamar should never marry her--he would marry her himself.
+She must be told at once of Hamar's infamous designs. A mad desire to
+see her came over him, and disregardful of the doctor's orders that he
+should remain in bed several more days, he got up, and dressing as
+fast as his weak condition would allow him, took a taxi and drove to
+Waterloo.
+
+On reaching the Cottage, at Kew, he found Gladys at home, and to his
+great joy, alone.
+
+There is nothing that appeals to a woman more than a sick man, and
+Shiel, in coming to Gladys in his present condition, had unwittingly
+played a trump card. Had he appeared well and strong she would
+probably have received him none too cordially--for she was very tired
+of men just then; but the moment her eyes alighted on his thin cheeks
+and she saw the dark rings under his eyes, pity conquered. This man at
+least was not to blame--he was not of the same pattern as other men,
+he was not like so many men whose adulations had grown fulsome to her,
+and--he was totally unlike Hamar.
+
+In very sympathetic tones she inquired how he was, and on learning
+that he had been sufficiently ill to be kept in bed, asked why he had
+not told her.
+
+"Aunty and I would have called to see you," she said, "and brought you
+jelly and other nice things. Who waited on you, had you no nurse?"
+
+Fearful lest he should give her the impression he was speaking for
+effect, or trying to trade on her feelings (Shiel was one of those
+people who are painfully exact), he told her as simply as he could
+just how he had been placed.
+
+"But why come here," Gladys demanded, "when you were told to stay in
+bed till the end of the week. It is frightfully risky."
+
+Shiel then explained to her the purport of his visit.
+
+"Then it was to warn me, to put me on my guard against Hamar, that you
+disobeyed the doctor's orders," she said.
+
+Shiel nodded. "You are not displeased, are you?" he asked nervously.
+
+"I am displeased with you for thinking so little of yourself," Gladys
+said, "and more than obliged to you for thinking so much of me. You
+know I only consented to marry Mr. Hamar to save my father--and you
+say he no longer has the power to work spells?"
+
+"I believe that to be a fact," Shiel replied.
+
+"Then he lied to me!" Gladys observed. "He threatened that unless I
+saw him as often as he wished, and went with him wherever he wanted,
+and a good many more things, he would inflict my father with every
+conceivable disease. You are quite sure your information is correct?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Then, thank God!" Gladys said with a great sigh of relief. "I shall
+know how to act now."
+
+"You will break off your engagement?" Shiel inquired eagerly.
+
+"No! I can't do that!" Gladys said sadly. "I've promised to marry Mr.
+Hamar, and, therefore, marry him I must."
+
+"Promises made under such conditions are mere extortions, they don't
+count."
+
+"I fear they do," Gladys replied. "I've never yet broken my word."
+
+"Then there's no hope for me," Shiel gasped. "I must go--it maddens me
+to see you the affianced bride of that devil."
+
+He rose to go, but had hardly gained his feet, when his strength
+utterly failed and he collapsed. Gladys helped him into a chair, and
+then flew for some brandy. In the hall, she met her aunt, who had just
+returned from an afternoon call. In a few words she explained what had
+happened.
+
+"Poor young man," Miss Templeton said. "I thought he looked very ill
+the last time I saw him. And he came here solely to benefit you! Well,
+you have a good deal to answer for, and your face is not only your own
+misfortune, but other people's too. But it will never do for your
+father to see Mr. Davenport. He went off in a very bad temper this
+morning, and if he comes back and finds him here, there'll be a
+scene."
+
+Miss Templeton and Gladys consulted together for some minutes, and
+then decided to send for a taxi and have Shiel conveyed back to his
+rooms, Miss Templeton accompanying him.
+
+Miss Templeton knew that Shiel was poor, but like most people who have
+lived in comfortable surroundings all their lives, she had no idea of
+what poverty was like--the poverty of a seven-and-sixpenny a week room
+in a back street; and when she saw it she nearly swooned.
+
+"Why this is a slum!" she ejaculated as the taxi stopped next door to
+a fried fish shop in a narrow street swarming with children sucking
+bread and jam, and rolling each other over in the gutters.
+
+"I don't wonder the man is ill here!" she said to herself, as the door
+of the house they stopped at opened and she snuffed the atmosphere.
+"The place reeks--and--oh! gracious! is this the landlady?"
+
+Yet the woman was ordinary enough--the type of landlady one sees in
+all back streets--greasy face, straggling hair, dirty blouse, black
+hands, bitten fingernails, short skirts, prodigious feet, a grubby
+child clinging on to her dress and every indication of the speedy
+arrival of another.
+
+"I suppose you're 'is mother hain't you, mum?" she said, gaping at
+Miss Templeton's rather fashionable clothes in open-mouthed wonder. "I
+told 'im 'ee ought not to go out, but 'ee never 'eeds what I says."
+
+Miss Templeton, though not particularly flattered at being taken for
+Shiel's mother--since, like most ladies of mature age, she wished to
+be regarded as much younger--nevertheless, thought it better not to
+disillusion the woman. The poor, she told herself, often have very
+decided views on propriety. With the woman's aid she got Shiel
+upstairs, and, as he was too feeble to undress himself, despite his
+protestations, helped to disrobe him. She had thought, when she first
+saw the slum, of returning to Kew at once, but she did no such thing.
+She stayed with Shiel; persuaded the landlady to make him some gruel
+(which proved to be a sorry mess, but had at least the advantage of
+being hot), and bribed one of the children to fetch the doctor. Shiel
+nearly died. Had it not been for the careful nursing and good food
+provided by Miss Templeton, who visited him every day, he would never
+have turned the corner.
+
+"The poor boy is terribly fond of you," Miss Templeton said to Gladys.
+"In his delirium he talked of nothing but saving you from Leon
+Hamar--from that devil Leon Hamar--and if one can place any reliance
+at all, on the ravings of a sick man, a devil, Leon Hamar undoubtedly
+is. What a pity it is Shiel hasn't money."
+
+These remarks were naturally not without effect on Gladys, and she
+could not help growing more and more interested in the man, whose love
+for her had proved so deep-rooted and ideal, that he had practically
+sacrificed his life, in an attempt to serve her. Finally, she found
+herself awaiting her aunt's daily report of his illness with an
+anxiety that was almost acute.
+
+In the meanwhile, John Martin came home one evening in a rare state of
+excitement.
+
+"What do you think!" he exclaimed, throwing a bundle of letters on the
+table, "one of Dick's speculations has turned out trumps, after all.
+He had invested several thousands of pounds--in Shiel's name--in
+enamel-ivorine, the new stuff for stopping teeth, which looks exactly
+like part of the teeth. I remember I thought it an absurd venture at
+the time, but for once in a way I was wrong--"
+
+"Ahem!" interrupted Gladys.
+
+"There has been a sudden boom in the patent, every dentist is using
+it, and, as a consequence, the shares have risen enormously. I've
+heard from Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand
+pounds!"
+
+"Good heavens!" Miss Templeton ejaculated, "and Gladys has bound
+herself to Hamar! I suppose," she said afterwards, when John Martin
+and she were alone together, "that you would not have any objection to
+Shiel now, if Gladys were free to marry him."
+
+"Certainly not!" John Martin said, "certainly not, I always liked
+Shiel. A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one
+usually meets nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!"
+
+"You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?"
+
+"None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an
+impossibility. Gladys is stubbornness itself--when once she has made
+up her mind to do a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do
+it."
+
+"Wait," Miss Templeton said, "wait and see. I think I can see a
+possible way out of it."
+
+She had learned much from Shiel in his "wanderings." He had constantly
+alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson--and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
+compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact--namely
+through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
+the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
+greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg--and it was from these
+statements that she finally received an inspiration.
+
+Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel--it had always been her custom to
+read between the lines. "Now," she argued, "if Kelson were so easily
+influenced by Lilian Rosenberg, who was young and attractive, it was
+almost a _sine qua non_ that he was in love with her," and as marriage
+was one of the eventualities strictly forbidden to the trio in the
+compact--"they must neither quarrel nor marry," Shiel had
+exclaimed--here was their chance. Kelson must marry Lilian Rosenberg,
+and by so doing, break the compact and overwhelm the trio in some
+sudden and dire catastrophe. But the marriage must take place within
+six months' time. How could that be arranged? Could Lilian Rosenberg
+be bribed or persuaded into it? for of course Miss Templeton being a
+woman--albeit an old maid--had at once divined that Lilian Rosenberg
+was in love with Shiel--that she did not care a straw for Kelson, and
+that to marry the latter she would need some very strong inducement.
+And the only inducement she could think of was Lilian's genuine love
+for Shiel.
+
+"Yes, it is upon this one weakness of Lilian's that I must work," she
+said to herself. "It is the only way I can see of saving Gladys."
+
+Resolved at any rate to experiment upon these lines, she lost no time
+in seeking out Lilian Rosenberg, who received her very coldly and was
+distinctly rude.
+
+"What have my affairs to do with you? Who sent you here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Humanity!" Miss Templeton replied. "I have come entirely of my own
+accord to plead the cause of one who is seriously ill--possibly
+dying!"
+
+"Seriously ill!--possibly dying!" Lilian Rosenberg said incredulously,
+nevertheless, turning pale. "Mr. Davenport is surely not as bad as all
+that!"
+
+"When did you see him last?" Miss Templeton asked.
+
+"A fortnight ago," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "I have been inundated
+with work the past two weeks."
+
+"Then you've not heard that he's had a relapse," Miss Templeton said,
+"and is now in a most critical condition! He has something on his
+mind, and the doctor assures me that whilst he is still worrying over
+that something, there is no chance of his recovery."
+
+"Do you know what it is--the something?" Lilian Rosenberg asked, the
+white on her cheeks intensifying.
+
+"Yes!" Miss Templeton said slowly, and trying to appear calm. "He is
+very worried about Miss Martin's engagement to Mr. Hamar."
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because he knows all about Mr. Hamar--and the compact."
+
+"He has told you?"
+
+"I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium."
+
+"Has he been as ill as that?"
+
+"Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day
+before yesterday."
+
+For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, "Can
+you believe what a man says in delirium?"
+
+"In this instance I feel sure you can," Miss Templeton replied.
+
+"Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
+Davenport?"
+
+Miss Templeton thought for a moment. "Because," she said at last, "he
+is in love with her."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?" and she
+snapped her fingers.
+
+"I think she may care for him a very great deal some day--she has
+begun to care for him already!"
+
+"But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
+Davenport. He is practically starving."
+
+"He was--but he's not now. He's come into money." And she explained
+about the fifty thousand pounds.
+
+"I see!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, "that accounts
+for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some
+one who had been fond of him all along--in the days when he hadn't a
+halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!"
+
+"I should feel very sorry for that person," Miss Templeton said, "but
+setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness--it would be wrong for
+him to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere."
+
+"Which you say it is."
+
+"Which I am sure it is!"
+
+"Well, supposing it is--what does it concern me? Why tell me all
+this?"
+
+"Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
+about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened."
+
+"I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
+can accomplish all this?"
+
+"But I do," Miss Templeton said, briskly. "I believe I am right in
+saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you--that you can make him do pretty
+well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on
+to propose and insist on his marrying you at once--or at all events
+before the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the
+Compact will be broken!"
+
+"That may be," Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, "but where, pray, should I
+come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?"
+
+"Why!" Miss Templeton replied, slowly, "why, because by marrying a man
+you don't care a snap for, you would save the life of a man--I am
+quite sure, you care a very great deal for."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE END AND "THE BEYOND"
+
+
+It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.
+
+"It's extraordinary," she said to herself, "how fond I am of Shiel. I
+used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of
+anyone.... The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with
+him, to give him up to that soft little cat--Gladys Martin! If it
+weren't for this illness--if I could only persuade myself that he
+isn't as ill as Miss Whatever-her-name-is--said, I shouldn't think
+twice--I should let things be--but as I feel sure he is really
+ill--dangerously ill--and the only chance of his recovery lies in the
+possibility of his marrying Martin--I must deliberate. Shall I or
+shall I not? If it were any other woman I shouldn't so much
+mind--but--Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is one hope,
+however, namely--that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
+her--and--and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would
+be! But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because--because--well there--just
+like my infernal luck--I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even
+if there were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could.
+But what is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
+Martin--and--I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to
+settle is--Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can
+marry Shiel?"
+
+Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
+and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another.
+In the end--very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she
+had ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have
+tea with her.
+
+Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large
+mushroom hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that
+face belonged to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had
+a colossal weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.
+
+"Have tea with you? Of course I will," he said. "But we must be
+careful. Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow
+in a taxi, and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance."
+
+"I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever," Lilian Rosenberg
+laughed. "I'm not! I've found him out--he's all talk. But do as you
+will--get your taxi and I'll walk on--we'll have tea in my new flat."
+
+Kelson was so delighted he hardly knew if he stood on his head or his
+heels. "You are prettier than ever," he said, as the taxi-door shut
+and they sped away. "I declare there seems no limit to your beauty."
+
+"Only because you're partial," she said. "I shall grow ugly one day.
+Perhaps--soon." With a savage energy, she set to work to completely
+overcome him. With a languishing expression in her eyes--eyes, which
+she made use of mercilessly, without giving him a moment's
+respite--she watched his whole being vibrate with love and adoration.
+
+They had hardly entered the drawing-room of her flat when he threw
+himself at her feet, and poured forth his worship of her in the most
+extravagant phrases.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Kelson," she said at length, withdrawing the hand it
+seemed as if he would never leave off kissing, "this is all very well;
+but I daresay you make love to countless other girls in this same
+fashion. How can I tell if you are really serious?"
+
+"Don't I look as if I am?" he cried.
+
+"One can never judge correctly by looks," she replied; "they are
+terribly deceptive. You are very emphatic in your avowals of love, but
+you say nothing about marriage."
+
+"Then you do care for me! Jerusalem! How happy I should be if only I
+thought that!"
+
+"Think it, then," Lilian Rosenberg said, "and let us come to an
+understanding. Can you afford to keep a wife--keep her, as I should
+expect to be kept--plenty of new dresses, jewelry, theatres, balls,
+motors, Ascot, Henley, Cowes?"
+
+"I reckon I could do all that," Kelson replied. "I've just over a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank, and with this 'cure'
+business, I'm taking on an average ten thousand per week. I would
+settle a hundred thousand on you, and make you a handsome allowance--a
+thousand a week--more if you wanted it."
+
+"Well!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a slight pause, during which
+Kelson had again seized her hand and was kissing it convulsively, "to
+quote one of your Americanisms--I reckon I'll fix up with you. On one
+condition, however."
+
+"And that," Kelson murmured, still kissing her feverishly.
+
+"That we marry a week to-day!"
+
+Kelson dropped her hand as if he had been shot. "We can't!" he cried.
+"The Compact!"
+
+"Oh, damn the Compact!" Lilian Rosenberg said coolly. "You marry me
+then--or not at all!"
+
+"You are joking--you know what the Compact means!"
+
+"I know what you think it means. For my own part I don't see that you
+have the slightest reason to fear. The Unknown cannot really harm you.
+All you have to do is to turn religious. Anyhow you must risk it--that
+is to say, if you want me."
+
+"It will lead to a quarrel with Hamar," Kelson said desperately. "The
+Firm will dissolve--and I shan't get a cent more money."
+
+"I'll be content with what you have in the bank now. We can live on
+the interest of fifty thousand. The hundred thousand you will, of
+course, settle on me at once."
+
+He was silent. She taunted him, she ridiculed him; she at last lost
+her temper with him--whereupon he succumbed. The marriage should take
+place at a registry office within the week.
+
+"There'll be no time for a trousseau!" he said.
+
+"Oh, hang the trousseau!" she said. "I shall have the hundred thousand
+pounds. And now for a word of advice. Be sure that you do not let
+Hamar get any inkling of our approaching marriage, and be most careful
+to avoid doing anything that might arouse his suspicions. It isn't
+that I'm afraid of him--but I don't want rows--I'm sick to death of
+them!"
+
+"You can rely on me to be careful, darling!" Kelson said, kissing her
+on the lips. "I'll be discretion itself," and so he meant to be. All
+the same--as is the case with every lover--every lover worthy of the
+name of lover--who loves with all the full, ripe vigour of genuine
+passion, his heart played havoc with his head; and he was blind to
+everything save visions of his beloved. In other circumstances this
+would not have mattered very much, but with Hamar's lynx eyes
+continually watching him, it was certain to lead to disaster.
+
+"Ed!" Hamar said to Curtis one day. "Matt's been getting into
+mischief. I know the symptoms well. He can't look me in the face, and
+every now and then, when he fancies my attention is attracted
+elsewhere, I catch him peeping furtively at me as if he were
+frightened out of his life I should ferret out some secret. It would
+be deplorable if now that we have got so near the end of the Compact,
+we should be held up by some idiotic blunder--some nonsensical love
+affair of his. I wonder whether it's Rosenberg or some other girl.
+Will you find out?"
+
+"How can I?" Curtis growled. "I'm not his keeper."
+
+"I know that!" Hamar said. "Come be reasonable. You want to be a
+Croesus--so that you can eat and drink your head off--don't you!
+Well! You will! You will be one of the three wealthiest men in the
+world--you will have the world at your feet, if only you stick to me
+for the next seven months: till we have passed the seventh stage. If
+you don't--if either you or Matt deliberately quarrel with me, or
+marry--then, as I've dinned into your ears a thousand times, the
+Compact will be broken, and--not only that, but some frightful
+catastrophe will wipe us off. Now will you do what I ask? Come--a
+dinner with me every night this week, at the Piccadilly--champagne--and
+no vegetables!"
+
+"All right," Curtis said sulkily, "for the good of the cause I suppose
+I must, but I hate spying."
+
+Two nights later in a private room at the Piccadilly, after dinner,
+when the champagne and liqueurs had got into Curtis's head and he was
+leaning back in his chair, smiling and silly, Hamar suddenly said,
+"Ed! you remember what I told you--about watching Kelson. Have you
+discovered anything?"
+
+"Shupposing I have," Curtis replied, "shupposing I haven't--whatch
+then?"
+
+"Ah, but I know you have," Hamar said, striving to hide his eagerness.
+"Come, tell me, another liqueur--I'll square it with the Unknown--it
+won't hurt you!"
+
+"Won't it!" Curtis gurgled. "Wont'ch it! I'll tell you everything.
+No--nothingsh, I mean."
+
+But Hamar when once he had smelt a rat, was not easily put off. He
+coaxed, and coaxed, and eventually succeeded.
+
+"Leonsh!" Curtis said, with a sudden burst of drunken confidence.
+"Leonsh! it's worse than either you or I shuspected. I caught them
+alone this morning--in my offish."
+
+"Them! Rosenberg and Matt!"
+
+"Yesh, of course, shilly! I told Matt I was going out. He thought I
+had--so into the room I came--quite unshuspected, unobsherved. She was
+sitting on hish knees, cuddling--and he was putting a ring on her
+finger. 'Four more days, darling,' shays he, 'and we are married!
+Jerushalem! Damn the Compact and damnsh Hamar!' 'Hamar doesn't
+shuspect, does he?' Rosenberg shays. 'Not a bit--not in the
+slightest,' old Matt replieshes, 'why it is I who amsh brave now.'
+Then he kisshes her, and fearing they would detect my presence, I
+slipsh quietly out."
+
+"Will you swear this is true?" Leon said, his voice trembling with
+excitement.
+
+"I'll schwear it!" Curtis answered, "but you look crossh. Whatsh the
+matter, Leon? _God! What's the matter!_"
+
+An hour later, as Kelson was rising from his chair in front of the
+fire to gaze, for the hundredth time that evening, into the eyes of
+Lilian Rosenberg's portrait on the mantelshelf, the door of his room
+flew open and in staggered Curtis--white, wet and bloated.
+
+"Great heavens!" Kelson cried. "What the deuce have you been doing to
+yourself? You look a perfect devil!"
+
+"I am one!" Curtis groaned. "I am one, Matt! I've given your show
+away."
+
+"My show away! Why, what the deuce do you mean?"
+
+In a string of broken sentences Curtis explained what had happened.
+"I'm damned sorry, Matt, old man," he pleaded. "It was the drink that
+did it--I didn't know what I was saying till it was too late--till I
+saw Leon's face--and that cleared my brain--brought me to myself. It
+was hellish. I remember the moment I mentioned the word marriage--he
+sprang up from his chair, and as he hurried out, I heard him mutter,
+'I'll go to her straight--I'll--' Matt, old man, he meant mischief.
+I'm certain of it. Come with me to her flat--for God's sake--COME."
+And catching hold of Kelson, who leaned against the mantelshelf, dazed
+and stupefied, he dragged him into the street.
+
+To revert to Hamar. Curtis's information had transformed him. He was,
+now, another creature. Prior to his conversation with Curtis, he had
+suspected, at the most, that Kelson might be contemplating a secret
+engagement to Lilian Rosenberg--but a hasty marriage--a marriage in a
+few days' time--he had never dreamt that Kelson could be as mad as
+that. It was outrageous! It was abominable! It was sheer wholesale
+homicide! At all costs the marriage must be stopped. And mad with
+rage, Hamar dashed out of the hotel, and calling a taxi, drove direct
+to Lilian Rosenberg's flat.
+
+He found her alone--alone--and with a strange expression in her
+eyes--an expression he had never noticed in them before. She was in
+the act of examining a magnificent diamond ring.
+
+"You're quite out of breath," she said coolly, "didn't you come up by
+the lift?"
+
+"I've come to talk business," Hamar panted. "It's no use looking like
+that. I know your secret."
+
+"My secret!" Lilian Rosenberg replied, opening her eyes and simulating
+the greatest unconcern, "what secret? I don't understand."
+
+"Oh, yes, you do!" Hamar said, "you understand only too well--you
+deceitful minx. Had I only been smart--I should have given you the
+sack months ago. This marriage of yours with Kelson shall not come
+off."
+
+"My marriage with Mr. Kelson!" Lilian Rosenberg said, turning a trifle
+pale. "I really don't know what you are talking about."
+
+"You do!" Hamar shouted, his fury rising. "You do! You know all about
+it. You were seen sitting on his knee this morning, and all your
+conversation was overheard. I have found out everything. And I tell
+you, you shan't marry him."
+
+"I shan't marry him!" Lilian Rosenberg said with provoking coolness.
+"Whoever thinks I want to marry him?"
+
+"He does--I do!" Hamar shouted--his voice rising to a scream. "You've
+hoodwinked me long enough--you hoodwink me no longer. You've
+encouraged him from the first--made eyes at him every time you've seen
+him--taken advantage of my absence to prowl about the passages to
+waylay him--had him round to your rooms and visited him in his. You've
+no sense of shame or honour--you've broken your promises to me--you're
+a liar!"
+
+"Anything else Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, her eyes glittering.
+"When you've quite finished, perhaps--you'll kindly go and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"Go! Leave you in peace!" Hamar shouted. "Damn you, curse your
+impertinence! Go! I'll not budge an inch till I wring from you an
+oath--a solemn binding oath, that you'll break off your engagement
+with Kelson at once."
+
+"Really, Mr. Hamar!" Lilian Rosenberg said, "I cannot put up with
+quite so much noise. Will you go, or shall I ring for the porter to
+turn you out?"
+
+She moved in the direction of the bell as she spoke, but before she
+could touch it Hamar had intercepted her.
+
+"Stop this foolery!" he said catching hold of her wrist, "I'm in grim
+earnest--the lives of all three of us are at stake--jeopardized
+through you--through your infernal greed and selfishness. Do you
+hear!"
+
+"Please let go my wrist," she said quietly.
+
+"I won't!" he shouted. "I'll squeeze, crush it, break it! Break you,
+too, unless you swear to break off your marriage!"
+
+"I'll swear nothing," Lilian Rosenberg said faintly. "You're a brute.
+Let me go or I'll cry for help."
+
+She screamed, but before she could repeat the scream, Hamar had her by
+the throat--and then blind with passion and before he fully realized
+what he was about, he had shaken her to and fro--like a terrier shakes
+a rat--and had dashed her on the floor.
+
+For some minutes he stood rocking with passion, and then, his eyes
+falling on the inanimate form at his feet, he gave a great gasping cry
+and bent over it.
+
+"God in Heaven!" he ejaculated, "she's dead! I've killed her!"
+
+He was still bending over her--still feeling her lifeless pulse, still
+trying to resuscitate her--feebly wondering how he had killed her,
+feverishly debating the best course to pursue--when Curtis and Kelson
+burst in on him.
+
+At the sight of Lilian Rosenberg's lifeless body both men started
+back. "Great God! Hamar!" Curtis gasped. "What have you done to her?"
+
+"Nothing!" Hamar said, turning a ghastly face to them. "I--I found her
+like this!"
+
+"Liar!" Kelson shouted beside himself with fury. "Liar! We heard her
+scream. Look at your hands--there's blood on them! You've killed her!"
+
+Before Curtis could stop him he sprang at Hamar, and the next moment
+both men were rolling on the floor.
+
+"Call for the police, Ed!" Kelson gasped, "the police--or--" But
+before he could utter another syllable, walls, floor and ceiling shook
+with loud, devilish laughter. There was then silence--enthralling,
+impressive, omnipotent silence--the electric light went out--and the
+room filled with luminous, striped figures.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROOM FILLED WITH LUMINOUS, STRIPED FIGURES]
+
+
+
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