Moonchild

debauchery, who staggered, her eyes rolling, her hair dishevelled, her mouth loose and wet, laughing with indecent and profane intoxication. "Good morning, Captain Grey; well met, well met indeed!" began Douglas, urbane in his triumph. "I trust you passed a pleasant time in Naples." "Very pleasant," returned Grey. "Dr. Balloch," continued Douglas, "crossed my path. I am glad you should have seen the end of him." "I am glad," said Cyril. "And what end do you think I have reserved for you?" said the sorcerer, with sudden foam of ferocity. "Something charming, I am sure," said Cyril, silkily. "I always admired your work, you know. That translation of 'The Book of the Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage,' in particular. You remember the passage about the wicked Antony of Prague," he went on, with sudden force and solemnity, "the marvellous things he did, and how he prospered — and how he was found by the roadside, his tongue torn out, and the dogs at feast upon his bowels! Do you know what has saved you so far? Only one [312] bar between you and destruction — the love of your wife, whom you have murdered!" With that Cyril cried aloud three words in a strange tongue, and giving the other no chance to reply, marched rapidly away with his friend. Douglas could not have recovered, in any case. He was as one stunned. How did this boy know of the death of his wife? Well, that might be understood; but how did he know his most secret fear, the fact that since the crime his demons had lost their courage? He shook the feeling off, and turned again to gloat over the death of Balloch. "Who was that?" asked Bowling. "The Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button on top! That's Douglas!" "The Black Lodge man?" "Ex-man." "I see daylight. Balloch was condemned, you know, for a crime done twenty years ago. Douglas must have known about it and betrayed him." "That's the regular thing." "How does he come to be a colonel in the French Army?" "Don't know. He was close in with one or two ministers; Becasseux, I think, in particular. There's a lot of politics in Occultism, as you know."