Diary of a Drug Fiend

Over the Top ! 31 Who had given the address to the man, and where were we ? I can only suppose that, consciously or subconsciously, Lou had done it, for she showed no embarrassment in pressing the electric bell. The door opened immediately. I was snowed under by an avalanche of crimson light that poured from a vast studio. Lou’s voice soared high and clear :— ‘“‘O Thou scarlet dragon of flame, enmeshed in the web of a spider! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” A revulsion of feeling rushed over me like a storm ; for in the doorway, with Lou’s arms round his neck, was the tall, black, sinister figure of King Lamus. “I knew you wouldn't mind our dropping in, al- though it is so late,” she was saying. It would have been perfectly simple for him to acquiesce with a few conventional words. Instead, he was pontifical. “There are four gates to one palace; the floor of that palace is of silver and gold ; lapis-lazuli and jasper are there; and all rare scents; jasmine and rose, and the emblems of death. Let him enter in tum or at once the four gates; let him stand on the floor of the palace.” I was unfathomably angry. Why must the man always act like a cad or a clown? But there was nothing to do but to accept the situation and walk in politely. He shook hands with me formally, yet with greater intensity than is customary between well-bred strangers in England. And as he did so, he looked me straight in the face. His deadly inscrutable eyes burned their way clean through to the back of my brain and beyond. Yet his words were entirely out of keeping with his actions. ‘‘ What does the poet say ? ”’ he said loftily—'' Rather